Hi all~ I'm a zine queen and really wanted to organize my first collaborative zine, and obviously wanted it to be for Army.

I thought it would be nice to have a space to sort of yap about our bigger thoughts and emotions re: the guys and their work. If that sounds nice to you, too, please consider submitting your essays, song analyses, poetry, art, etc to The Whaliens fanzine!

For those not familiar, a fanzine is a DIY publication by fans for other fans. It's not meant to be professional or sleek, just a way for fans to connect with each other on a deeper level. They're usually printed/copied at home on regular copy paper.

A TL;DR of the guidelines and info is here~ For the longer version, here's a link to the carrd for the zine. You can just scroll down for the guidelines. 🙂

Submission Guidelines

  • The first issue theme is "How'd you get lost?" How has BTS been with you during periods of uncertainty or loneliness? Maybe a special song helped you through, or you realized watching a livestream that you share a particular feeling or experience with a member. How does having them by your side make you feel? The intersection of contemplation and BTS's place in the complicated parts of your life is the main idea this issue.
  • Submissions can be pretty broad, but we ask that there's no AI and no fiction. I love fic, this just isn't the spot for it. Instead, I'm encouraging personal essays/reflections, song analyses, poems, and more on topic with the theme–you can be creative with it!
  • On the topic of no AI use…this is a zine, not a professional publication. Other Army want to hear what you have to say! It doesn't have to be perfect. That said, I'm more than happy to do some editing with you.
  • Submissions should be less than 500 words for prose or one page for poetry. That said, I have a secret exclusively for Reddit: if I really love it, I'm more flexible than I'm trying to come across lol
  • Please don't make me read solo rants. ㅠㅠ Your work can be about any member or combination of members, but OT7 Armies only pretty please.
  • Not a lot of art will be added, but please feel free to submit. I'd love to add some! The zine will be printed in half-page US letter (vertical) size, so do keep that in mind.
  • Not every submission will be accepted, but I do want it to be pretty inclusive of lots of ideas and emotions. Space will be the bigger limiting factor. Page count will be in multiples of 8, so anywhere from 8 pages until my stapler can't handle any more.
  • Submissions can be sent to whalienszine(at)gmail.com.
  • I prefer PDF format for poetry because I want to make sure I make your work look right. For everything else, any file type that makes sense for the medium is fine.
  • Submissions are open until 2025 December 1.

Distribution

  • I aim to have the zine out and being read by early 2026 January! I thought it would be a nice way to bring in the new year.
  • The zine will be available for free digitally. Platform is TBD as I research options that will be good for both people reading online and people who want to print their own copies. If they end up on a platform that allows payments, they will still be free.
  • I will also print some copies to sell at-cost, probably on a personal Etsy. (And to bring to local zine trades!) These will probably come with some freebie stickers/photocards made specifically for this.
  • Contributors are welcome to print zines and to sell them at local events, too! But I do ask nicely that if you do, they're at-cost or near. We're rolling nineties zine queen style here, so ideally no one should make money from a fun fandom project.
  • If all goes well, I'd like to continue this with multiple issues, published irregularly a few times a year maybe.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or hit me up on chat, or shoot an email. I'm sure I forgot something lol. I can't wait to see what folks come up with~