Application Period
All About Applications
There are no real right and wrong ways to go about application -- you can do what you like and pick whomever you like as far as I'm concerned, because the zine is your project and, ultimately, your vision for what you want to bring to life. No matter what applicants (or you!) may think, you are not an objective arbiter of skill/talent in people's creations, and the people you choose to bring on board are simply a reflection of your tastes and preferences. So in that way, I don't see a point in doing things like blind apps or asking mods to go through the application process for the desire to come across as fair and unbiased. No one is unbiased when it comes to making decisions about who to accept in a zine -- to me these efforts that go the extra mile are more performative than anything else.
Should mods be allowed to contribute?
You can decide. Do the mods have time to, on top of running the zine, create fully finished pieces to display alongside the other contributors'? Do the mods' quality of work meet the standards they are placing on applicants? Only mods can answer this question.
How long should the application period take?
How long anything takes in zine time assumes that people will do things evenly throughout a timeframe, and that the longer the time you have the more you will get of something -- applications, sales, etc.
The reality is closer to this: you will have people who will apply right away, and people who will wait until the last minute to apply. No amount of extending application periods will get you more applications in the middle. Unless you are actively promoting and providing general incentives for people to submit during the middle period, anyway.
Applications are usually done within a month, which is a fair amount of time to also spread the word about the zine.
How should you decide on applicants?
You can choose a grading system based on a rubric you determine, but the simplest method I've found (do note I've worked primarily in teams of 3-5, so nothing too big) has been a simple Yes/No/Maybe vote among all of the mods. We took all the full Yeses and, depending on however many else that left us with, deliberated on the Maybes.
At the end of the day I trusted my co-mods' judgment calls as well as they trusted mine. But we were also never under any illusions that our tastes are universal -- they were just ours.
Should you have guests? How do you pick and invite them?
Whether or not you should have guests is completely up to you, but guests are a good way to have creators who fit your vision of the zine included (not all artists/writers will apply to zines), and if they are introduced during the application period, they also help with marketing the zine.
Pick creators you already admire, and with whose work you are familiar. Presumably the zine theme you have chosen is one near and dear to your heart, so you should know who in the fandom to talk to. As for how to ask, sending them DMs or asks from your zine account is a good way to start. A good set of things to cover in a guest invitation:
- The zine theme and other zine specifics like creation schedule and specs (if this can be linked to a page with full details, all the better)
- Who is running the zine and your experience
- Why you selected them as a guest
- When they need to reply by and how they can confirm their involvement