Hello, thank you for your question and interest in ECLIPSE!

As per our Contributor Guidelines, we looking to accept around 25 Page Artists, 7 Writers, and 7 Merchandise Artists. Guests and mod participation does not impact the number of accepted contributors. The number of accepted contributors may change; we are currently calculating finances behind the scenes to see if we can possibly pull off having more contributors join!

Luckily, because we are pursuing flat merchandise that is cheaper to produce (with charms/raised acrylic merchandise being a stretch goal instead), there is a possibility to have a higher budget for page count or other flat merchandise, and thus, more acceptances. But on the other hand, we want to be able to reimburse all contributors with a full bundle, so we need to project the additional shipping costs that comes with having more acceptances.

As such, we really want to urge again that being waitlisted or rejected from this zine, or any zine for that matter, is not always reflected based on skill or style. The number of contributor acceptances are often restricted due to numbers or physical limitation— because if we could accept a larger number of people, we would love to! Zines can be large-scale community projects, but they can also just be a small passion project you do privately with friends (either digital or physical). We encourage everyone, regardless of acceptance to this particular zine or not, to either learn how to start their own project or simply continue to create and do what they love. And naturally, you or anyone else could start up another Akitoya/VBS/Project SEKAI zine as well!

We're working very hard behind the scenes to make sure everything works out, so we thank you for your patience and understanding! 🙏