Contributing to Accessible Gaming Quarterly

Front cover of AGQ Issue 1Accessible Gaming Quarterly is the first RPG-centric zine dedicated to accessibility and inclusion. It wouldn’t be much of a production if it was all written by one person though, and that’s where you come in.

We are continuously looking for writers, artists, and other designers to help make this zine great. Past contributors have come from all walks of life, from players who are relatively new to the hobby and have no writing experience to game designers who have been in RPGs for over 40 years.

To contribute to AGQ, you don’t need to have any credentials, you just need to have an idea that you would like to share with the rest of the community.

Interested in joining our growing cast of contributors? Keep reading.

Authors

Articles are at the heart of Accessible Gaming Quarterly. Each issue of the zine is approximately 44 pages, and about 36 of those pages are filled with text. To keep our zine fresh, we are always on the look-out for people who want to write about their ideas and experiences.

What We’re Looking For

We’d like writers to contribute articles related to accessibility, disabilities, and inclusion as these subjects relate to RPGs. We look for essays about your past experiences, pitches for new ideas, tutorials for gamers and designers, creative writing, and more. Here are a few examples, but we’re open to other ideas.

  • Reviews of RPGs, with an emphasis on accessibility. See the Game Reviews | Accessible Gamessection of this website for examples.
  • Autobiographies about yourself and your experiences as a disabled gamer.
  • Essays about diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
  • Interviews with disabled game designers.
  • Tutorials for how to create accessible role-playing games and accessories.
  • Creative writing that details disabled adventurers, heroes, or players.
  • New game mechanics that promote accessible designs or tools.
  • Anything else you can put into words, as long as it fits the theme of the zine.

What and How We Pay

Whether this is your first writing gig or your fiftieth, you’re providing a product and you deserve to be paid for it.

We pay a minimum of $0.05 USD (5 cents) per word. Sometimes we pay more for repeat contributors and people who have shown they can deliver clear, concise writing in a timely fashion.

Most articles are 1,500 words long, so that works out to $75 USD for a single article. In some cases we may approve longer articles or a multi-part series, so don’t be afraid to ask if your idea needs some extra room to flourish.

Payment is upon acceptance of your final draft. That means you don’t have to wait for us to publish the zine to get paid.  We try to pay within seven (7) business days of receipt and acceptance of your draft.

We make payments via PayPal and, because we’re paying for Goods or Services, you may be charged a slight fee from PayPal to accept your funds. As a business, we cannot make exceptions and send money to you as if you’re a friend or family.

Finally, we require the right to first publication. You may not re-use your article until after the zine is published. After that, let us know if you would like to use your article on your website, blog, or portfolio. You wrote it, you’re  proud of it, and you’re probably excited to show it off. All we ask is that you don’t re-sell it it to another party.

Send Us Your Pitch

If you read the above and are interested in contributing an article to AGQ, please contact us with your pitch. Here’s what you need to include:

  • Your first and last name, or how you identify online.
  • Your e-mail address.
  • A short, less than 200 word, pitch about your article. Unlike other publications, we’re not going to nitpick about spelling and grammar here, but make sure your intent comes across.

Use the contact form on the bottom of this page to get in touch with us about your article.

Artists

Every zine needs some art to fill out its pages and make things look great. Great art can also help tell a story, convey emotions, and offer recognition to the people it represents.

Accessible Gaming Quarterly is always looking for art to help represent people with disabilities and other underrepresented groups. Our zine showcases art by people with disabilities and their allies, and we need a minimum of two illustrations per zine to keep things interesting.

Are you an artist who would like to contribute? Keep reading.

What We’re Looking For

We seek to represent the underrepresented. We want to challenge norms and show that the traditional way isn’t the only way. We look for art that evokes excellence and shatters assumptions.

We like to showcase illustrations of…

  • Adventurers with disabilities doing heroic things.
  • Ordinary disabled people playing games or having a good time.
  • Fantasy characters with diverse body types and abilities. Think elves with prosthetics, dwarven wheelchair users, orcs with blind canes, etc.
  • Awesome new takes on mobility devices, like rocket-powered wheelchairs, pogo canes, Braille spellbooks, etc.

Some examples of past illustrations include:

  • A blind orc sorceress and her bat familiar.
  • A one-eyed orc who is the Game Master for a game of fantasy characters who are playing an RPG.
  • A modern wheelchair user with a head-mounted BB cannon.
  • A group of diverse gamers sitting around a table, playing an RPG.
  • A low-vision computer programmer.

We want to showcase artists for their own unique style, so we don’t limit ourselves to a particular aesthetic. We are equally interested in line art, anime, cartoon, and realistic illustrations. Our only limitation is that illustrations must be in black-and-white.

If you are an artist with an established portfolio but aren’t sure what to illustrate for the zine, that’s okay. Send us a link to your portfolio and we’ll try to pair you up with a commission based on something we’d like to see.

However, if you have an idea for a unique illustration or if you already have one you’d like to share, let us know.

What and How We Pay

We commission new illustrations and are also interested in purchasing existing art, as long as you have the license to re-sell and re-print it. If you are proud of a piece you have drawn in the past and would like to sell us non-exclusive rights for us to use it in our publication, we’re happy to talk to you to negotiate a fee.

For original art, we’ll work with you to settle on a price. If what we want isn’t in our budget, we’ll work with you to commission something else that is. We require right to first publication for these pieces, but after your piece is published in our zine then you’re free to show it off in your own portfolio.

Payment is upon acceptance of your final draft. That means you don’t have to wait for us to publish the zine to get paid.  We try to pay within seven (7) business days of receipt and acceptance of your draft. If you’re selling us the right to use an existing piece, we’ll pay you up front.

We make payments via PayPal and, because we’re paying for Goods or Services, you may be charged a slight fee from PayPal to accept your funds. As a business, we cannot make exceptions and send money to you as if you’re a friend or family.

Contacting Us About Your Art

If you read the above and would like to contribute art to Accessible Gaming Quarterly, please use the form below. Here’s what you need to include:

  • Your first and last name, or how you identify online.
  • Your e-mail address.
  • A link to your portfolio, if you have one.
  • Whether you are interested in contributing an original piece or would like to sell us the rights to use an existing piece.

Contact Us about AGQ