WOW Fanzine Project - Issue 2 Goals And More
What I intend to do in the future.
The last three months have certainly been something! Thankfully, it's a very good 'something' as well. Many things changed since I last wrote about my goals for this World of Warcraft Fanzine (which you can read Issue #0's goals HERE ), and I've learned a lot in the process.
There is a lot of good, and some of it is not as bad as it could have been. Numerous amazing people signed up for Issue #1 with different skills I didn't have. Some even helped impart their wisdom to me and taught me a few things! All in all, I feel that Issue #1 has been a successful launch, and no matter how many people download, read, or share it, the people who signed onto the project - and are currently planning the following issue with me - are happy to be a part of something.
Let's talk about the goals I want to set for Issue #2 and what I currently have planned for improvement. That way, all readers interested in the background information can keep in the loop of what I'm currently planning. First, let's talk about the goals I achieved and want to achieve.
Goals Met
Thankfully, there are several goals that I had set out to do at the end of Issue #0. I went into the Proof of Concept practically blind, never having done this type of project before. I've worked plenty in roleplay communities and organized events and storytelling opportunities, but we never published anything.
The publishing part was unexpectedly more difficult than I planned, even though I've published short stories and small ebooks under other pseudonyms and know how to publish a book. I've never done it with multiple people working on a team.
Someone on the team said I was "effectively the Editor-In-Chief," and I didn't realize that till they openly said it. Taking that to heart, I spent a weekend learning what an Editor-in-Chief did and realized that if I was going to be the heart of this project, I'd have to be willing to do the work and not expect others to do it for me.
So, it was a trial-by-fire ordeal, but one I learned a lot from. Here are some goals and lessons I outlined in my initial Outline for Issue #0 that I met.
MET: 3-4 Month Cycle
This one will still be up in the air until I can say we've done it for 5 Issues in a row. However, these last 3 months have shown me that it CAN be done quickly, too. Many people who wrote for this spent a weekend writing their stories (the maximum word count of 3,500 helped) and let me proofread and edit while giving feedback. Many artists also spent several days on their pieces, with some of them initially opting to turn in just sketches but made the push to polish their work.
Even a few artists and writers with older works that only got a few eyes on them decided to donate to a fresh audience. Those who donated commissioned work asked those they commissioned from if it would be okay, and almost all of them were happy to have the opportunity to have their work shared with another audience.
All of this was done roughly in the first month. While there were some latecomers to the project, those on board at the start were done well before the deadline.
So I'm happy about that.
MET: Showcase Many Different Artists/Writers
This one I'm pleased about. When I did Issue #0 - Proof of Concept, I was the only one who wrote stories for it, and the art in that issue was all donated by my artist friends. Almost all (aside from maybe 2) of the screenshots also came from me. So, everything in that issue was entirely done by me aside from the art.
At the end of Issue #1? Nine writers for a combined thirteen stories, Nine artists for a combined total of twenty-four pieces of art, four people who mostly did screenshots and 3D model renders, and twenty-five well-placed screenshots.
And those numbers are just for people who donated to Issue #1! In my Discord Server, five more artists/writers want to join on Issue #2, and several others have also expressed an interest in joining. Not to mention, almost everyone who worked on Issue #1 wants to return, so we can expect more to come.
MET: Help Artists/Writers Improve
This one is half met/half not met. Unfortunately, some artists and writers struggled to find the time to write or draw (which is not their fault) or felt they weren't good enough to contribute and let their fear paralyze them into not committing something.
Fortunately, others were reluctant at first, but they took the plunge and now feel more confident in themselves and want to learn, grow, and improve.
What this means is I need to keep the door open for those who want to join but don't feel they're good enough yet. While I personally think they are - since we all have to start somewhere - I want them to come at their own pace and not feel obligated. This is meant to be a fun project and a chance to learn new things, after all.
Overall, I feel good that those who did contribute feel more confident in themselves. As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats, and the bigger the boat, the higher the tide.
MET: Network with other artists/writers
A personal favorite goal that I met. Several artists that I knew of but didn't personally know joined up for Issue #1, joined the Discord server, and fitted right into the community. While fewer creatives than I expected were coming in, those that did proved that quality is better than quantity.
Not only did people get along and build off of one another, but they even inspired one another as well. Those who had an audience on Social Media inspired those who didn't, while those who wanted to improve and build up an audience reminded those that did that they, too, were small-time once. The last three months had been one of budding excitement that everyone felt.
I think this is a goal that will improve over time as more people sign up. The way things are going, people seem hungry to share their content, and people are already getting along and wanting to collaborate outside the Fanzine project.
Overall, I didn't meet some goals, which didn't create any problems. Many of those unmet goals are ongoing, so time will tell whether I meet those goals or have to change my objectives.
New Goals
With that said, are there any new goals I want to set for Issue #2? Yes and no. I don't feel anything is critical to work on other than the basic "improve the development pipeline and expand when necessary" parts.
As I mentioned to several others these last few weeks, the first three issues will be primarily exploratory. We're going to find out what works and what doesn't and refine several things till we start to develop a feel and system.
That doesn't mean there aren't SOME goals to work on though. In fact, there are several new goals that I want to work on during the next 3-4 months.
1) Maintain The Foundation
All those met goals I previously mentioned? I want to keep those going, obviously. Many of my first goals serve as the bedrock of what I want to achieve with this project. At its core, this Fanzine project is meant to showcase people's creativity, help artists/writers gain confidence, network with other creative-minded people, and inspire people to create things as well.
While it would be nice to have professional grade quality in each issue, the reality is that not everyone is as good as Chris Metzen, Christie Golden, Richard Knaak, or the other best-selling authors that Blizzard has hired to write their books. Every single one of us are struggling authors, artists, writers, and more trying to improve our craft and tell stories in a setting we love and there is nothing wrong with that.
The foundation of this project is to be a springboard to improving oneself. Whether that leads to learning to monetize your artistic skills, getting a bigger audience, or just hanging out and having a creative outlet.
2) Steadily Grow
Unfortunately, I have been a part of several other projects that have had explosive growth but quickly fizzled out. The problem with growing too quickly is that many people jump on the bandwagon to be a part of it, and growth becomes an expectation rather than a sustainable decision. When it becomes the expectation, any slowdown kills the project's momentum, and people leave it, thinking it has run its course.
So I want to avoid that.
That doesn't mean I don't want it to grow. In fact, I have ideas on what we can do in the future. For now, the first four issues (Planned to be around ~ 1 year) will mostly be refining what works, discarding what doesn't, and trying some small things.
For example, I included a "Further Reading" section in Issue #0 to showcase some of the other Fanzines that inspired me. In Issue #1, I included a "Further Listening" section because one of the contributors had a Podcast they were recently getting off the ground, and several Musicians had asked if they could be included.
It's just small things for now, as I said. I plan on making this sustainable in the long term.
3) Develop My Editor-in-Chief skills.
This is more personal for me. Sadly, I still don't know what goes into being an editor-in-chief. So, for the next three months, instead of spending a weekend looking at every tutorial on YouTube and skimming articles, I'll look for any classes on SkillShare, Coursera, or other places for classes. I'm unsure what I'll find, but I intend to refine my skills as much as possible.
That's about it as far as new goals are concerned. I have already achieved much of what I wanted, and it worked well so far. Let's see where it goes from here as we prepare to work on Issue #2.
To-Do List
There's still an unfortunate amount of stuff to do, though. As I said, I can't rest on my laurels since doing so will cause stagnation and complacency. Luckily, unlike Issue #0, there is less to do than before. Most of the previous stuff I needed was learning how to do things, reading similar projects to see how they worked, and gathering assets.
But there's always room for improvement. This is what I intend to work on at the moment.
1) Get New Assets
The assets for Issue #0 and #1 were decided to be Night Elven themed. Sadly, we do not have an asset creator on the long-term team, and I intend to do this without spending too much money. So that means I cannot pay for well-made assets or have someone create graphics to use. For now, I'm back on the hunt for new assets for the next issue to give the issue a distinct look.
The next theme we're going for? Dwarven. So, we will go with a lot of Celtic knotwork, square designs, gemstones, stone-like textures, and brass/gray/brown coloring. Thankfully, people pointed me to several repositories for free assets, and I intend to use them.
2) Learn to use Affinity Publisher better.
This one is also personal to me. During Issue #0, I made the Full version using Libre Office, and I was very proud of my ability to do so. Since then, several people in my Discord Server introduced me to Affinity Publisher.
At first, I had NO idea what I was doing and felt utterly lost. So I took an afternoon and fiddled with it on and off again to see what I could do, and I started to understand it better. I got curious, looked at several other PDFs, and had to see how they structured their pages. I also looked up a few basic tutorials that detailed what each tool did and how to use it and experimented.
Then, in the last several weeks, I helped finish Issue #1, and I spent an entire weekend copying another book style to learn how they did things and apply what I learned.
Needless to say, I'm pretty proud of what I accomplished, but I feel I can do a lot more with the tool. Plus, I like how it makes creating graphics and assets much more effortless than just using Paint 3D and trying to eye everything. I intend to use Libre Office to write and create documents, Affinity for anything graphics-related, and Photopea to create and edit assets.
3) Improve the Work Pipeline
I'm satisfied with how things went with Issue #1. When people submitted artwork or stories, I created credit assets and put the art/story/screenshot in an outline on Google Docs to track where I intended everything to go. Plus, I used a combination of Trello and a spreadsheet to keep track of proper credit attributions, website links, and blurbs and cross-referenced them whenever I could to make sure no one got left out.
It wasn't until the last few weeks that things became hectic. Everything before that? I spent 3-4 hours on the weekend updating everything, checking in with people who wanted to submit, and then moving on. The last few weeks felt rushed and to the last minute, and it's that bit there that needs refining. Everything else leading up to that point was smooth sailing.
So, my goal is to make sure that I spread out the work a bit better so that way when the submissions close, it's as easy as smoothing out the rough edges, spending a weekend putting out the four versions I want, and then scheduling that issues release and all the marketing for it I can.
That's about it, really! Everything else is pretty much done. I've decided to have a space in my Writing Discord purely for the Fanzine collaboration using ranks and tags so that only those who are part of it can see it. I made an Imgur account purely to host the screenshots and art for interested people, and we've all decided that four versions are plenty (Epub, Lite, Full, and Print-Ready).
Final Words
Things will be easier the further we go and the more issues we finish up. Before I even started on Issue #0, I had around a thousand different things to think about and plan for. When working on Issue #1, I had around a hundred different things to think about and plan for. With Issue #2, I have maybe a dozen different things to think about and plan for.
Ultimately, I think if this keeps up, and the more we start to realize what we want this project to be and shape it around what works, the more we'll have a small bullet list between each issue and maybe some ideas to try. The further we go, the easier it'll be, and that's what I'm looking for.
Ultimately, I want this to be considered a "big" project, but not so big that it consumes every waking, working moment to complete and becomes too complex to maintain. For me, I want it to be something that everyone contributes towards; we work on it a few hours a week, close commissions, finalize the page layout, schedule it in advance, and vote on a theme for next time. I want this to be "big" in the sense that people look forward to each future release, spend an afternoon or two reading, and have fun.
And I think we're heading in that direction.
For now, see you all in Azeroth, and see you at Issue #2!
~ Rease Stoneheart