Following the recent release of Volume 1 Issue 2, T! will return for a third issue! Want to submit? Guidelines are below! Please read these carefully if you can.

[There's a lot of text covering guidelines coming up. If you have any trouble with that, shoot me a DM on socials or send an email and I'll walk through whatever's relevant to you.]

WHAT IS T!?

T! is a zine about testosterone—exogenous, endogenous, loved, hated, complicated. I'm looking for submissions for Volume 1 Issue 3!

Deadline for draft submissions is Sunday 4th February. I will select approximately 6-8 submissions shortly after this date, and will give at least two weeks after selection for final versions to be produced. To be clear: you do not need to send in a finished, polished piece, just a solid outline of what you're going to create.

This is not a transmasculine zine; it's a zine about testosterone (though of course submissions from transmasculine people are welcome!). If your submission is about transmasculine experience as a whole rather than on testosterone, I will reject it, no matter how good it is.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT? WHO CAN CONTRIBUTE?

T! is about testosterone. It's not a transmasc zine—submissions should focus primarily on testosterone, not transmasculine experience, or other aspects of that experience (although they can certainly appear if they're relevant, as they may well be!). This may overlap with speaking about oestrogen—that's totally cool. Submissions from non-transmasculine people are encouraged—whether you're trans, intersex, genderqueer, a former testosterone taker, cis, any combination of those... The only requirement is that your submission focuses on testosterone and rejects normative and bioessentialist ideas about testosterone. I also encourage submissions to be radical, anti-assimilationist and, above all, weird. NSFW submissions are allowed, but probably not overt pornography.

When you're creating your submission, please take care not to conflate testosterone with masculinity, or taking testosterone with transmasculinity. Hormonal profile doesn't dictate gender when it's entirely endogenous; why should it when we take endogenous hormones? Please don't categorise trans people into transmasculine and transfeminine (that's a binary!), and please don't use "AFAB" or "AMAB" as a noun—think about what you're really trying to say, and say that instead. Those are some of my peeves that'll fast-track your submission to rejection! If you're confused by any of these, get in touch; I'd be happy to discuss my concerns.

I would ask that you take a look at the previous two issues to see what kind of thing has already been published, to avoid repetitive contributions.

WHAT CAN I SUBMIT?

T! will be a digital-only zine; this opens up the potential to include pieces that couldn't go in a paper zine, such as audio and video art, which could be downloaded alongside the zine proper from itch.io.

Submissions can be fiction or non-fiction writing, poetry or prose, traditional or digital art, monologue, song, short play... basically anything you can dream up—Issue 1 included a mock board game and a recipe!

You can send multiple submissions if you want to; I may choose all, some, one or none of them. To avoid debate over what constitutes a single submission though, payment will be per contributor and not per contribution.

The zine will be of A5 portrait proportions (148x210mm) and submissions to go in the zine proper (text and image pieces) should be suitable for placement on a single A5 page, as viewed on a phone or computer screen (no double-page spreads). Requirements for different formats are as follows:

SUBMISSION FORMATS AND REQUIREMENTS

Images should be PNGs, at a minimum of 300dpi. Please submit a description with your image if possible (I reserve the right to change it for clarity).

Text should be submitted as a text file or directly in the body of an email. If you desperately want your formatting preserved, submit as an A5 PDF, but I am likely to want to change the formatting to fit in with the zine. Typeface should be legible at A5. Please attach a plaintext version if you submit a PDF.

Mixed-media submissions (text and image) may be submitted using the above guidelines. If image placement in the text is important, please include instructions.

Audio submissions should sound crisp and be submitted as MP3 or FLAC.

Video submissions should sound crisp and look clear, and be submitted as MP4.

Submitting something else? Get in touch!

I will also request a short bio and an author image of some sort (not required to be a photo of you!) if I accept your submission. I will also request some previous work of yours for me to use as promotion for the zine, for social links so I can tag you in posts, and for a few words about something you're currently enjoying that readers of the zine might like too, but these latter three are totally optional.

DOES MY WORK REMAIN MY OWN? WHAT ABOUT PAYMENT?

You'll retain full ownership of your submission, although I would encourage you to pick a Creative Commons license for your work.

The zine will be offered for pay-what-you-want, from free, here on our Itch page. Any revenue, after taxes and processor fees, will be split evenly between contributors (regardless of type or size of submission) and myself (Bryn, the editor), and paid out via PayPal, or another channel by arrangement with me. However, to avoid disappointment, please note that realistically this is unlikely to be a lot more than about $15 per contributor - it's not going to be a financially effective use of your time! I wish it could be but I want to be honest about the likely payout.

OK COOL, WHERE SHOULD I SEND MY SUBMISSION?

Please send it to t.the.zine@protonmail.com!

WHEN WILL IT BE PUBLISHED?

The time between final submissions and zine publication will probably be on the scale of several months as I'll be putting the zine together in my spare time. I'll try to keep you posted, and you will always be welcome to get in touch to check how things are coming along.

ACCEPTANCE AND REJECTION

It is possible I'll reject your submission. This doesn't mean it's bad! I only pick a limited number of submissions to put in the zine to maximise the payout that contributors will receive. I may reject submissions that are too similar to previous or concurrent contributions. I may reject some submissions if I receive too many in the same medium. I will reject contributions that are not primarily concerned with testosterone. Etc., etc.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Anything here not clear? Want to know more? Send me a DM or an email! No stupid questions (within reason)!