Welcome to the Web site for the SoulxMaka 2018 zine! It contains all the same information as the Tumblr pages, but hopefully in a more mobile-friendly manner!

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GOAL

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The goal of this zine is to commemorate five years of post-canon SoulxMaka fandom! For that reason, the theme is "Five Years Later."

The zine will be comprised of many different pieces from many different artists and authors.

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WHAT WILL THE FINISHED ZINE LOOK LIKE?

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The cover design is in progress. However, the size (dimensions) will definitely be A5. For more info on the size, you can check out the requirements tab.

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As for the interior, it will be an eclectic, full-color mish-mash of home-brewed shipping content, like a Reader's Digest for an extremely niche interest!

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WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

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Anyone who is, at minimum, turning 16 in 2018.

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The zine will not be explicit, but much like the manga, it may have content that most people would consider inappropriate for younger teens.

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WHAT'S THE SCHEDULE?

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Submissions open June 24, 2018 (this is the 15th anniversary of the day Soul and Maka's prologue chapter was published!).

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Submissions close September 17, 2018, meaning that no one new can join the zine after that point (but participants who are already working have another week to finish up).

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ALL final work is due by September 24, 2018.

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For more information, click over to the HOW TO JOIN page.

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HOW WILL THE ZINE BE FUNDED?

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Preorders will fund most of the zine (and your editor can absorb a small cost, if necessary). Preorders will begin around August, when I will hopefully have a better idea of how many pages the zine will be (as this affects the cost of printing).

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I am hoping to keep the individual purchase price of the zine alone to somewhere between $10-$15, but that is not something I can commit to for sure right now.

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WHAT'S REQUIRED FOR EACH PIECE?

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Written content can be a minimum of 1,000 words.

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An art piece must be set at 300 DPI. It can be formatted as either a portrait or a landscape, but keep in mind that the rest of the book will be in portrait orientation, so readers may have to rotate the book to get a good look at your work.

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Remember, the dimension size is A5 (with extra room for full bleed). For full sizing info, check out REQUIREMENTS.

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Writing must be edited and formatted legibly. Drawings must include finishing details like shading (as appropriate for your style). There’s a separate page for REQUIREMENTS.

Writing must be edited and formatted legibly. Drawings must include finishing details like shading (as appropriate for your style). Because the ins-and-outs of "requirements" are pretty complicated, there's a separate page for REQUIREMENTS.

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IS THERE AN AUTHOR/ARTIST SELECTION PROCESS? IS IT BASED ON SKILL?

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It is my belief that all artwork has value, and fanwork in particular is a fascinating study of what matters to people, whether it’s created by a practiced hand or a beginner. And it is my personal hope that I will just be able to include everyone who applies. That will depend on how many people apply in the first place and how much each person wants to contribute.

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If we did get too many participants, then I would have to simply close the application early.

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If it came down to having to make a choice between authors/artists, I would have to choose partly based on how polished their works tend to be, but also on the ideas behind the entries and how unique they are compared to other entries. Assuming everyone submits an application before going too far on their art, I don't see anyone getting locked out with work completed.

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WHAT DO I GET FOR PARTICIPATING?

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The satisfaction of a job well done and the distribution of your handcrafted work to a small number of dedicated fans who choose to buy the zine?

Ahah, partly kidding. You will of course get a free copy of the zine itself, too. If you're one of the first 50 contributors, you will also get the "bonus" items that come with the collector's bundle.

 

IS THIS ZINE MAKING ANY MONEY?

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No. If anything beyond the cost of production and shipping is raised, it will go to charity. A specific charity has not been chosen or announced, but the most likely causes at the moment are LGBTQIA+ organizations and organizations related to disaster relief.

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CAN I DO MULTIPLE PIECES?

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Sure!

Just be really clear about it, when you first sign up, if you think it's likely you'll be creating over 5,000 words or 5+ pieces of art. I might have to set a limit - it depends what others are submitting.

The main purpose of limiting contributions is to keep any one participant from taking the entire spotlight of the zine. However, if there are several people who want to make large contributions, that becomes less of a problem.

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CAN I MIX AND MATCH (FOR EXAMPLE, BY ILLUSTRATING MY OWN STORY)?

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Yes! That sounds super cool. We'll have to talk on a case-by-case basis about how to format it, but the answer is yes.

 

CAN I DO A COLLABORATION?

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Yes! Just be very clear about who is involved so everyone gets due credit (and gets their copy of the zine when it's done). Again, we will have to talk about formatting, too.

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CAN I WRITE OR DRAW AN AU?

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Yes! It should fit the theme, but if you can finagle that, you're not stuck in canonverse.

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CAN I DO TRADITIONAL ART?

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If you can get a scan or even photo of the artwork that's high-quality enough to reprint at 300 DPI, then yes!

 

WHAT KIND OF CONTENT IS ALLOWED?

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Ultimate Rule: It's a SoulxMaka zine. They should be the focus of the story or art (although by no means does this imply that the entries can't heavily feature other characters - we all know how important the ensemble is to each other's characterization, and of course, Soul and Maka's relationship is strongly influenced by the other important people in their lives).

Hard and fast rule: Nothing more "adult" than what you'd find in the Soul Eater manga canon. Soul Eater contains gorey and suggestive content as well as a pretty good assortment of swear words, so you have relative freedom, but explicit NSFW content and extreme, excessively-detailed and lingered-upon gore are no-nos for this zine.

Consider that the manga is considered to be for "older teens", if you read the guidelines on the back covers. There may be fans who are still underage or are otherwise just not comfortable with explicit NSFW content who want to participate in the zine. And because this is a celebration of 5 post-canon fandom years...they should be included.

About sexual content: The main manga has a LOT of lewd and bawdy humor, so you don't have to keep it entirely clean. Just avoid explicit descriptions/images of private parts and vivid portrayals of sex acts.

...A hard and fast rule...hahaha.

See? That's fine, because it's just innuendo.

Blood/gore/body horror: The manga has significant violence. I've almost never seen the fandom produce anything that outdoes the manga for gore, certainly not in romance-centered stories/art. I suppose extreme "torture porn" and the like wouldn't be allowable, but that's really not something I'm expecting to get submitted anyway.

Relatively hard and fairly fast rule: All the stories should somehow relate to the idea of "five years later". You could take that very literally or you could, for example, use it to write an AU. Time traveler/slider AUs, AUs about unrelated things that involve time passing, even reincarnation AUs if done right - they work, too.

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There should be implications about time in the artwork as well - aging up the characters is probably the simplest way to do it, but there's having comic dialogue that discusses the passage of time, portraying important moments to Soul and Maka's lives, and other things like that.

This is not like Resbang, where the theme's primary function is inspiration. The theme here is really supposed to tie the zine together. If a modestly astute stranger who knew nothing about the fandom picked up our zine and compared it to the first volume of canon, they should at least be able to tell that each entry involves something about time's passage.

However, rules can't be set for how to accomplish this, because there are so many ways to do it.

Soft and vague rule: Listen, let's be honest...it's a celebratory shipping zine. By the end, the reader - who is most likely a SoulxMaka fan - should feel uplifted.

Bring your angst and insecurity, tearful misunderstandings resolved in an avalanche of feels, somber mornings after difficult missions, creepy battles and close calls! Heck, bring AUs about the afterlife, or death of old age. Everything doesn't have to be saccharine fluff; in fact, depth of emotion is what always creates the sweetest payoff in the end.

But really harsh tragedies - ending with Soul and Maka's actual untimely deaths and nothing else, or about them like, falling out of love somehow, will not be included. It's nothing personal; there are certainly many places in fandom where these stories play a vital role. Although your editor wants this zine to be fun and free, it just won't be a good fit for every story or artwork.

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CAN I SUBMIT CONTENT I'VE ALREADY POSTED ELSEWHERE?

 

Nope. Everything has to be created new. If anything complete is found posted before the zine is done and shipped, it will be removed from the zine. (Previews - pictures of progress sketches and partial chunks of pictures, or small writing excerpts that won't spoil the content - are A-OK and will be encouraged as we get closer to completion.)

 

CAN I SUBMIT NEW CONTENT TO THE ZINE AND THEN POST IT ELSEWHERE AFTERWARD?

 

Yes, of course! One favor I'd ask? Hold off on posting publicly for a month or two after the book ships, perhaps?

Why? Well, hopefully people are going to be ordering this. Even though no one's profiting from it, they are taking time out of their days and money out of their wallets for it. It would be nice for the content to feel extra special for those who got a copy.

However, the work is yours, it's your right to do with it as you please, and free content drives fandom. I can't possibly blame anyone for being eager to share their work online.

 

THERE ARE TOO MANY RULES!

 

It is absolutely worth asking about your idea in detail if you have a desire to participate but don't know if your content will get in. The absolute worst-case scenario is that you get a message back saying "No, I'm sorry, I don't think this content will fit the zine. Thank you anyway." No one's going to bite you for asking a question.

 

COULD I FOLLOW ALL OF THIS AND STILL GET REJECTED?

 

Your editor (that's me) reserves the right to simply choose not to feature your content for any reason at all. However, if you're writing or drawing about Soul and Maka in a scenario related to "Five Years Later", it's incredibly unlikely your work wouldn't be included. If there's some problem, you'll be informed immediately to avoid putting you through time and effort on content that won't be featured.

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WILL THERE BE BONUS MERCH (LIKE KEYCHAINS, STICKERS, ETC?)

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Yes! So far we have stickers, charms, and bookmarks. Watch this space for photographs!