Reminder and Check-in

[merlin-hols.livejournal.com]

Dear gifters, a reminder that fanworks are due on Sunday 8th December, and we are here for you if you're experiencing any difficulties.

If at any point you know that you won't be able to finish your assignment, please let us know - the earlier you let us know, the sooner we can go about finding a pinch-hitter for your giftee.

We have some new rules in place this year:
• Participants who default after receiving their gift will be banned from future participation
• Participants who ghost (do not post on their scheduled day and do not get in touch with the mods) will be banned from future participation

Please emails us at merlinholidays@gmail.com if you need help, and best of luck to everyone creating their gifts!

~the Mods

Submission Guidelines

[merlin-hols.livejournal.com]

With the submission deadline fast approaching, here are the submission instructions!

There are just two steps:

1. Post your work to the AO3 collection

• When you're ready to submit, all you have to do is rock on over to AO3 and click on "My Assignments" on your user menu. Find your Merlin Holidays assignment, click on "Fulfill" and then fill out all the necessary bits of the usual upload form. The collection name and your recipient should be pre-filled for you.


• Alternatively, you can also go to the Merlin Holidays 2019 collection on AO3 and click on "Post to Collection." That will pre-fill the collection name, but not your recipient.

• The collection is set to await the Mods' approval for the works submitted. Even if it says it's awaiting approval, don't worry!
  Note that it may seem to you like the fic has been published to AO3, but if it says "This work is part of an ongoing challenge and will be revealed soon!" at the top, you're golden.
  
  Important: Please only list the Merlin Holidays 2019 collection under collections. If you also include the one called "Merlin Holidays", your work will be impossible for us to reveal.
  
  Content Notes: We will be following the AO3 warnings scheme for our fest. If your fanwork contains Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-con and/or Underage, you must include these warnings in your header Content Notes and your AO3 post. You may add additional tags you feel are appropriate for your fanwork.
  
  Posting Notes: All submissions will be listed as Mystery Works in the collection until posting begins. We will be posting 1-3 fanworks per day for the duration of the fest. We will also post headers on this community and our Tumblr & Twitter when new works are revealed, with a link to your fanwork on AO3. Fanworks may not be posted anywhere outside of our AO3 collection prior to the conclusion of the fest. Once the reveals go up, you can crosspost to your heart's content.

2. Email us your headers

• Once you’ve uploaded your fanwork to our AO3 collection, we need to know about it. Email us at merlinholidays@gmail.com with the information we will use to announce and promote your fanwork on this community and on our Tumblr and Twitter.


• In the subject line, please put: From [your AO3 name] to [recipient's AO3 name]


• Copy the contents of whichever of the below box applies to your fanwork and paste into the body of your email and fill in the relevant details:

For Fic:
<b>Title:</b> <b>Recipient:</b> <b>Rating:</b> <b>Pairings:</b> <b>Word Count:</b> <b>Content Notes/Warnings:</b> <b>Summary:</b> <b>Author's Notes:</b> <b>AO3 link to fanwork: </b>

For Art:
<b>Title:</b> <b>Recipient:</b> <b>Rating:</b> <b>Pairings:</b> <b>Medium:</b> <b>Content Notes/Warnings:</b> <b>Artist's Notes:</b> <b>AO3 link to fanwork: </b>

Note that you can edit your fic/art on AO3 up until your posting date, even after you've posted it for our submission deadline.
If anything changes in your header, you'll have to email us, though!

An important note about Published Dates on fest fanworks on AO3!

AO3 uses the date a fanwork is uploaded as the Published Date, this means that your work may be quite buried in the tags on AO3 when it's revealed on your posting date. For example, if someone uploads their work to the collection on Nov 23 but their work isn't posted to the collection until Dec 16, their work may end up on page 10 of the recent works list for the Merlin fandom.

Luckily, AO3 has provided us with a very easy work-around: simply to edit your work once it's been approved/posted and change the Published Date to the current date. By doing so, you can ensure that your fanwork will appear at the top of the recent works list on the day your work is revealed.

This is entirely optional, we just want to give you the chance for the widest audience possible for the work you created for the fest.

We hope your creative process is going well and we're looking forward to receiving your submissions!

~ the Mods