Homosapien Press, publisher of multi-fandom fanzines including Samurai Errant, Homosapien, and Pure Maple Syrup, is importing the zines’ fanworks to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

• A bit of background explanation
• What this means for creators who had work(s) in Homosapien Press’s fanzines
• And what to do if you still have questions

Background explanation

Homosapien Press was based in Australia and run by Julie Bozza, publishing various fanzines from 1988 to 2004. Julie is keen to preserve this part of fandom history, with the explicit permission of the creators.

Please contact us if you had works in these zines and would like them to be imported!

The fanzines to be imported are:

• Samurai Errant: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
• Homosapien: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
• Espresso: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
• Pure Maple Syrup: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
• The Deal/Juliet is Bleeding: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
• Westering Boundaries: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
• Horatio Hornblower & the Prix d’Amor: Fanlore page and AO3 collection

The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s AO3 Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP) is to assist publishers of fanzines to incorporate the fanworks from those fanzines into the Archive of Our Own. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with publishers who want to import their fanzines and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Homosapien Press to import the fanzines listed above into separate, searchable collections on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the fanzines in their entirety, all art in the fanzines will be hosted on the OTW’s servers and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works from Homosapien Press’s fanzines to the AO3 after May 2025, where we have explicit permission from the creators. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the task. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collections in the meantime.

What does this mean for creators who had work(s) in Homosapien Press’s fanzines?

We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We’ll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will add it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.

All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.

Please contact Open Doors with your creator pseud(s) and email address(es), if:

1. You’d like us to import your works!
2. You’d like us to import your works, but you need the notification sent to a different email address than the publisher has a record of.
3. You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
4. You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
5. You would NOT like your works moved to the AO3, or would NOT like your works added to the fanzine collections.
6. You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
7. You have any other questions we can help you with.

Please include the name of the publisher or fanzine in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account the publisher has a record of, please contact Open Doors and we’ll help you out. (If you’ve posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they’re yours, that’s great; if not, we will work with Homosapien Press to confirm your claims.)

Please see the Open Doors website for instructions on:

• importing your works to the AO3
• adding your works to the new collections listed above

If you still have questions…

If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.

We’d also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of Homosapien Press and its fanzines on Fanlore. If you’re new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.

We’re excited to be able to help preserve Homosapien Press’s fanzines!

– The Open Doors team and Julie Bozza

Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.