Merlin Holidays: Submissions are due November 24!

[merlin-hols.livejournal.com]

Submissions are due November 24! You have about SIX DAYS before works are due. We're excited. We hope you are too.

When your submission is ready, please get it to us. We love early submissions so we can get on scheduling. And this year, we're making it easier on you (and us). Instead of sending us a word doc please upload it to the AO3 Merlin Holidays collection then send us the Header information below. 

Posting to AO3

All fanworks are to be posted to our AO3 collection by Sunday, November 24. We welcome early submissions, so if you finish early, feel free to submit your fanwork to the collection at your convenience.

To submit your fanwork, go to the Merlin Holidays AO3 Collection and click Post to Collection. Fill out the form as you normally would, including who you are gifting to. The collection name should be pre-filled for you.

All submissions will be listed as Mystery Works in the collection until posting begins on Monday, December 2. We will be revealing two or three fanworks per day for the duration of the fest. Your mods will post headers on this community and our Tumblr 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.

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

The AO3 uses the date a fanwork is uploaded as the Published Date, this has the potential to make works in our fest virtually impossible to find when people look for new fanworks by date. For example, if someone posts their work to the collection on Nov 23 but their work isn't revealed until Dec 6, their work may end up on page 10.

Luckily, the AO3 has provided us with a very easy work-around: simply to edit your work once it's been revealed 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. We realize this is a bit of a nuisance, and changing the Published Date is entirely optional, but we think it's a small price to pay to give you the widest audience possible for the work you created for the fest.

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.

AO3 tagging: Please refrain from using tumblr-style tags (e.g. feeeeeels, I don't know what to do with my face, etc.) on your AO3 entries while the fest is in progress. Tumblr tags are great on tumblr, but they aren’t helpful when trying to use AO3’s lovely search-by-tags function and we’d like to make it as easy as possible for people to find fest fanworks that are of interest to them. If you would like to go back and edit your work to include tumblr-style tags after the fest is over, you’re welcome to do so.

Header Templates

Once you’ve uploaded your fanwork to our AO3 collection, please copy the coded text from the appropriate textbox below, fill out the required information and e-mail it to the mods at merlinholidays@gmail.com. Don't forget to include the AO3 link to your gift. This is the header we will use to announce and promote your fanwork on this community and on our Tumblr.

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

HEADERS:
FOR FIC
<b>Title:</b> <b>Recipient:</b> <b>Author:</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>Artist:</b> <b>Rating:</b> <b>Pairings:</b> <b>Medium:</b> <b>Content Notes/Warnings:</b> <b>Artist's Notes:</b> Link to fanart: Link to thumbnails: (optional) <b>Also on AO3: </b> (optional link to AO3 post if you are also uploading to AO3)

Comments

[malu-3.livejournal.com]

Hiya - as a newbie to this fest and notorious nitpicker (even after beta reads!), I'm wondering if after uploading to the ao3 collection creators will be told their posting dates and can still make edits prior to reveal, or if no edits are possible once things are in the "mystery works" stage?

Either way, THANK YOU MODS! I am so excited for this fest.

[xfortytwo.livejournal.com]

Hello!
You can do beta edits, etc, after you've posted to the AO3 collection and can make them until your posting date :)

[malu-3.livejournal.com]

*sighs with relief* Thank you for this info! There is always that one horrible typo that sneaks by everyone's eyes, then leaps up and starts waving once stuff is posted ;-)

[lizzietothet.livejournal.com]

How do you post anonymously to Ao3? Or have I misunderstood?

[xfortytwo.livejournal.com]

Hello!
If you go to the part in the post that says "Posting to AO3" and follow those instructions, your fic will automatically show up as anonymous in our collection because those are our settings. So, basically, you need to click yourself into our collection linked above and submit through there :)

[lizzietothet.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[doctoraicha.livejournal.com]

Mine should be there. Will you guys let me know via email if it isn't or if something is wrong?

[ragnelleloathly.livejournal.com]

wow, I think I accidentally published the work. I've deleted it for now but do I save it as a draft or actually post it? Sorry, for bothering you even that late :/

[merlin-hols.livejournal.com]

It shouldn't be possible for you to publish the work, as long as you've posted to the Merlin_holidays collection! :) If you post it, and check the fic it should say "This work is part of an ongoing challenge and will be revealed soon!" up top. As long as it does, you're good!