Hello all!

We hope you all stayed safe, warm and cozy throughout the winter holiday months. We're here with a bit of a longer-form update to talk about the current zine status and the future, as well as reflecting on the work we did throughout 2023.

ZINE SHIPMENT STATUS

As of now (with a small handful of exceptions and some community fund members) if you provided us with your shipping information/payment between September - December 2023, you should have received your zines. Meaning we are all caught up with the orders we HAVE received, both US and Intl. However, we still have a significant stock of zines that have not gone out, mainly because the emails we sent out were not responded to, OR we have not received shipping payment. We are sending another reminder email blast with ALL of the information needed to do this. 

Thanks to our generous donators, we were able to provide over $150 in financial aid for international shipping help and Community Fund recipients - thank you so much! Going forward, our first-come-first-serve method of providing financial aid for shipping is going to move into a case-by-case basis, and we are limiting how much can be allocated for this purpose. This is for two reasons: 1) we are approaching tax season and we still need to allocate some of our leftover finances into taxes for the project (estimated around $200), and 2) we have yet to make our donation to the Crisis Text Line, which we are planning to allocate at least $100. As it stands, we have just under $500 in the zine finances account.

So, when you receive the reminder email about how to claim your zine/pay for shipping, PLEASE send us a note right away if you think you will still need financial aid, so we can work with you directly on allocating our remaining funds for this. If you don't end up needing it, that money will go right to the Crisis Text Line in our final donation. We will also be making a Financial Wrap-Up when the donation is completed, with a full breakdown of all things money.

REFLECTION

All that being said, as we shift into the final phase of this project, the Worship zine team would like to take the time to reflect on our year and discuss what we think went well and what we wish to change for future projects!

What went well:

- Community outreach/social media: you all really showed love for this project, which skyrocketed us into uncharted territory! Hitting our funding goal in 24 hours and then hitting three more stretch goals right after that seemed impossible, but you made it happen. AND we managed to catch the attention of Metal Hammer to feature our story, and get a copy into the hands of III! Truly, we never thought this small passion project would reach the heights that it did, and we are so grateful to you all for this.

- Printing process: it was super easy to work with Mixam to print these zines, and they turned out beautiful, so shouts to them! Having our in-house designer format the zines for print helped the colors remain just as vibrant as the digital edition, too. 

- Discord organization: huge thanks to the Sleep Token discord for letting us promote and organize in there, and thank you to everyone who joined our zine-specific server to ask questions and chat. Having a direct line to our contributors was very helpful in making sure errors got resolved, and garnering feedback throughout the design and curation process.

- Our talent: This zine would not have been possible without YOU! The incredible writers and artists who brought this zine to life. So many people commented about how beautiful and touching the pieces were, even those who weren't involved in the zine directly, and we are so lucky to have cultivated such a creative, passionate group. 

- Itch.io: wow you guys are rockstars. Compared to other services, you made the process of fundraising. hosting and data collection smooth and easy. Definitely will be sticking with this platform going forward.

What could have gone better/things to change for the future:

- More streamlined communication: The things that worked well for zines with 10-20 orders do not translate to projects of this scale. Instead of several different emails and forms to fill out, we now know exactly what information we need to make things run smoothly, and we are already formulating new methods to make sure we can reach you and collect the info we need in the smoothest ways possible.

- Better data organization: this comes with the territory of better communication, because there will be less Excel sheets to merge, less changes to be made after email correspondence, etc.

- More hands on deck: we are not taking applications for more team members, but we have already discussed internally adding more people to our team. Having designated people for logistics, etc. will make for quicker responses, more transparency, and an overall smoother experience on the curation and production side of things. We like to think we made things work damn well for a team of 4, but there is always room to improve!

- Allocation of funds for supplies: all of our supplies were donated by our team, including the envelopes used for postage and the subscription to our mailing service. While this was intentional and our way we chose to give back to the project, we plan to raise more money in the future to ensure this project is truly net-zero.

- Stricter deadlines for changes: we were able to squeeze in a lot of last-minute changes for the digital and print versions of the zine before they went out or went to production. In the future, we will be more stringent about how far in advance things can be changed, so that there is less stress around production/release dates and less room for error with multiple saved versions of files.

THE FUTURE

It's no secret that we are working on another zine. We have been in the lab for months crafting our concept, formulating goals, and figuring out organization structure. We will continue to be sending out our first zine alongside our preparations for the second. When we are ready to announce it, we will let you know. We also will make our big announcement when our Crisis Text Line donation is officially submitted.

Once again, THANK YOU to everyone and please reach out at worshipfanzine@gmail.com or in our Discord if you have any questions. If you're expecting zine orders still, the small batch of you, you'll be hearing from us shortly. Otherwise, those who have not received their zines or provided us with information, PLEASE CHECK YOUR INBOX IN THE NEXT WEEK!

- The Worship mod team <3