Submission Guidelines
See also: Templates for art and photography.
What about...? (things that are mostly okay) - Things that aren't okay (this is short)More specific guidelines by media type: Writing - Art and photography - Video and other
What about...
Sending multiple works?
Yes. I won't set any hard limits so much as I may ask you to pick what you want included if you send a ton of things.
Teamwork/compilations with other people?
Yes. Just make sure they're okay with being in the anthology too and have them send me their info if they want to be on the contributors page rather than just credited by name.
If you don't know Zoids very well but like making fanworks anyway?
Yes. You don't have to be a hardcore fan to appreciate the awesomeness of robot animals!
Original characters/Zoids? Custom Zoids?
Definitely yes. Original characters, Zoids, organoids, customs, if it's Zoidy and you made it, go for it.
Parts of a longer series you're writing/a longer comic you're drawing/a cleaned up RP adventure/etc?
Yes, so long as it also works as a standalone piece and doesn't just read like an incomplete ad or teaser. That is, people should be able to read and enjoy it even if they don't know your characters or the rest of the story.
Crossovers?
Yes, though they need to be a good amount Zoidy (not just, say, a fic mostly with universe Y where Zoids character X makes an appearance), and they should be done so they're enjoyable even if Zoids is the only part people know.
Meta/nonfiction like reviews?
Maybe. I'd rather not include regular model reviews (there's plenty of places to share those, and they're more timely) or things like "why Fuzors is the best/worst Zoids continuity ever" or other fannish argument bait, but model reviews that are more than "here are pics and a description of the build" (I'm thinking like...stuff that'd somehow blur the fiction/not line?), or info pieces unique to Zoids (rather than general model building) or something like that might be cool. Ask me!
In-universe fictional nonfiction (like pages drawn to look like a field guide to the metallic flora of Nyx) is definitely welcome. In fact, if anyone does a field guide I will love them forever.
Animation, flash, vids, and other things you can't put in an ebook?
Yes! They'll go in a separate download, and if it's possible/looks cool, get a preview page in the ebook. Please keep project files/source clips in case you need to send me different formats.
Romance/shipping?
Yes. OTP, OT3, OTwhatever, go for it. Pairings will be labeled so people can find/avoid what they like, but your editor makes no distinction between [fem]slash/het/other. Don't ask them to ;p.
Smut/gore/other adult things?
Sorry, this is meant to be an all-ages project. I'm not going to judge, I just won't take R-18 material. When I say all-ages, I mean more teen and under than squeaky clean, with the most leeway being for mecha-based violence as such is often part of Zoids. I also don't care about swearing unless you're trying to out F-bomb the English dub of Black Lagoon or something. Some sexuality and other things more implied/fade to black are fine, as is a degree of artistic/nonsexual nudity. No visible junk. If in doubt, ask me!
Other languages?
This is an English-language project, but I also want people to feel welcome to send in customs and such regardless. E-mail me and we'll figure something out! (Questions written in Japanese are OK. I'll do my best to answer. Other languages I will use Google Translate. Sorry!)
Things that are definitely not okay:
Sending me other peoples' work as your own (obviously!). In addition, no art that was made by heavily tracing/eyeballing/vectoring others' art, including official work or screenshots; legalities aside it's rude to do without asking. Doing that with your own photos is fine, so is referencing things. Just make your work your own and it's cool.
As was mentioned above, adult/R-18 work (graphic sex, extreme gore, etc). Not sure if something's adult? Ask, I won't judge~
Rape, noncon, dubcon, rape jokes. I will not debate this point (though I may make allowances for coping/recovery type things if you talk to me first).
I also reserve the right to put my foot down if something's making me uncomfortable for...well, any reason, but in particular if I feel it's meanspirited (character/continuity bashing, etc) or is otherwise being crappy to groups of people who don't need more crap. This doesn't mean your characters have to be paragons of virtue, it just means I should not be feeling the narrative is endorsing their nasty views or setting out to make people feel bad in ways other than NO, MY FEELS, THIS STORY WAS SO SAD ;p.
Back to main guidelinesMore specific guidelines by media type
Writing:
- Send me plain text (in Unicode if possible), RTF, or DOC. Do not send docx files saved by newer versions of Word, as those don't work right in anything else. Check to make sure you're saving in a format compatible with older Word.
- HTML is okay too if you did it yourself (Word/OpenOffice exports are a mess). So are AO3 or fanfiction.net links.
- If you have any special formatting that's important to the story, let me know ahead of time, as otherwise things will be formatted to match the other text work.
- Please edit and proofread your work and run some kind of spellcheck (ignore grammar check, it tells lies). Occasional typos happen to us all, but I can't be a beta reader for a whole anthology of stuff either. If you need one and can't find one, contact me and I'll try to help!
Art and photography:
- For art, send PNGs if possible, as they're lossless. For photographs, high quality JPGs are also acceptible—please don't send me unprocessed RAW files. Also okay so long as you flatten the layers some to avoid huge files: PSD, XCF, ORA (OpenRaster), SVG.
- Please, please, please follow the templates. If you don't, your work may not fit well or at all. I'm not trying to be mean, I just want to make an ebook that's good quality (and printable, if there's enough interest/funds to do so).
- If you have smaller inline illustrations for a story, let me know where/how/at what size you want them to appear, and work large to start. After all, you can always scale an image down, but scaling it up doesn't look as nice.
- Pixel art does not scale or print well. It's better off being in the downloadable/web bits along with video and Flash animation, but it's quite welcome.
- No obtrusive watermarks (covering large or important parts of the art, lots of "copyright 2013 me" scattered various places, etc). A signature/tagline is okay, of course, as is text that's actually part of the art.
- Please don't use any of the official Zoids logos. Tomy/Shogakukan seem to be tolerant of fanzines, but trademark law is picky territory and I don't want to chance them having to be cross.
Video and other:
- We'll work this one out if anyone does video, but for now, please keep project files/source files if you can, so you'd be able to resave your vid in multiple formats without losing quality. I'll help!
- Audio-only things (podcasts, music, etc) are fine too. Keep an uncompressed format rather than lower-bitrate MP3s if you can, so we can figure out the best format. For podcasts and other radio show-style things, please make/include a transcription (same format guidelines as with writing) if you can. Your editor has audio processing issues, and wishes to include transcripts on principle anyway ;p.
- I have no experience with Flash (I'll figure it out), but I assume SWF files are the best thing to send here?