What to Contribute
Stray drawings, poems, recipes you've made-up, photo outtakes, doodles you made while stuck on the phone, short stories, crazy dreams you've written down; all things that YOU have created yourself. You can scan things, use a camera (cellphones usually work), or send us your stuff (email us and we can send you our address).
What NOT to Contribute
Work that's not yours, things you don't want open to interpretation and adaption, masterpieces or uppercase Art with a capital 'A' (this is more of a Gumbo soup kitchen of art, and not for displaying your portfolio), anything you have to go way out of your way to find or make for the zine.
Submission Quality and Sizing
The printed zine follows a pretty traditional format: spreads are 11" x 8.5" (landscape orientation of 'Letter' sized paper), and individual pages are 5.5" x 8.5". We print in black and white, although you are welcome to submit color works as well (we can publish on the website in color). Since we aim for the cheapest printing options that we can find, top resolution (over 300dpi) and professional printing standards don't need to apply. Keeping this in mind, please don't send unmanageable massive TIF or PSD files. I've had much better luck with JPEGs and PNGs. Be prepared for your submissions to degrade a bit through the production process (yes, we still make most of the zine the old-fashioned cut-and-paste way).
Picture Signatures
Leave your written signature for your paychecks, insurance release forms, and job applications - we use images to identify the contributors of the zine.
Everyone who contributes to the zine needs to also send a picture signature in order to be added to the zine and website. You'll see them lining both sides of the website: little portraits and doodles, each one representing a different SCHMUTZine contributor. You will use your picture signature to author your work in the zine - it will appear on every spread that your work appears on.
Picture signatures need to be submissions made by the contributor to represent themselves and/or their art. You can use any medium - as long as the submission is some kind of creative expression of yourself. Please leave profile mugshots and generic 'selfies' on Facebook and out of the zine. A quick sketch is probably going to be the fastest thing to make - and perhaps the most legible in print - but again you choose the medium you use. Anonymity is up to each contributor, and you are welcome make something more abstract if you'd like. Keep that in mind that they all end up in black and white and in a square format, so sending them that way helps ensure they look they way you want them. We use one per issue - you can make a new one for each issue you're in or reuse them again and again.
Other Things You'll Want to Send
Let us know one public website/blog/profile/album that you have online with some of your creative work (could even be an Instagram or Twitter feed). We also have a regional contributor map, so please let us know the city or general area you live in and we can add you. Make sure to include your primary email address so we can let you know when the zine is in production, and your Facebook address if you want to be added to the private Contributor Group.
Want to get Involved?
Email Schmutzine@gmail.com and send us your Schmutz!