AO3 portfolios are often commonplace in the zine community! But while writers are free to submit links to individual works on AO3 as samples, we ask that they not use their AO3 account as a portfolio for the same reason we ask an artist not to use, for example, their Instagram: the amount of content. While definitely not applicable to everyone, we must assume that a writer's account likely includes a significant amount of works, not all of which will put your best foot forward to demonstrate the skills and meet the requirements we're looking for in the zine. We must also add that these evaluations, especially writer evaluations, simply take time. Our mod team is only human, and only has a limited time within their own and the project's schedules to review everyone's work and publish results in a timely manner.

We want to offer everyone a fair look at their work, and our mod team a fair opportunity to do so. Therefore, for the benefit of everyone involved, we ask that all our writer applicants curate portfolios of five or more personally selected works— which may be as simple as a shared folder of documents. As long as they fulfill what we're looking for, and succinctly show off all the skills you desire!

As for our writer spots— While this number may seem small in comparison to the available page artist spots, we must reiterate that ten is a significant amount of people! And of course, being writers, it's only natural for these contributors to take up a higher amount of pages per work than an illustration. We may be a digital zine with no page count to budget for, but we must still consider the balance of illustrated work to written work when formatting, particularly with our word count permitting slightly longer than potentially standard works. Four to five artists per one writer is often the ratio one will see in zines, and one we feel most comfortable in.

And while we do intend to welcome in a large amount of contributors, scope is still a concern we must prepare for. We would love to accept every writer, as we would love to accept every applicant, but this is simply not feasible for our mod team. And for our writing mod working with all of our writers to produce the best work they can, simply not feasible for them especially. Again, we're only human! So we hope you can understand these decisions, and to all our writers, we wish you the best of luck!

What the team is looking for in these applications will vary depending on their role. However, we expect all applicants to appear cooperative and reliable to work with. This is where prior experience in any kind of project would be helpful, but for our interns, not required. We also expect an air of professionalism; this may not be a suit and tie event, but general correct spelling and grammar, clear answers with detailed and relevant information, and enthusiasm about the project shows that you're presenting yourself at your best.

For our formatting applicants, we specifically look for previous experience in formatting zines, as these can have different demands than other works. Do your samples demonstrate a knowledge of graphic design, and employ visual aesthetics adapted to suit the project? Perhaps you have experience in visual arts to supplement your graphic design style? It's certainly not required, but tell us anything that can strengthen your skills!

Intern applicants on the other hand, we expect to show a widespread and general set of skills, dependent on the areas you're interested in working under. For social media: do you have knowledge of the social media platforms we use for the zine? If you intend to work in art or writing, we review your work for the foundational knowledge of said areas to offer appropriate and constructive feedback. And again, while we require no prior mod or zine experience of our applicants, anything that might lend to project management, critique, or any other areas that suit your fancy, we're more than happy to hear about!