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Claims will be on a first-come, first-serve basis, based on slides created by the artists.
If you're unable to submit your own claim, you can use a proxy, ie. you'll give a person your sign up information ahead of time, and they will submit for you.
All writers will list at least five options (with a max of 10) when submitting in order of preference, with 1 being your top choice.
While we’ll try and find matches for everyone, we unfortunately cannot guarantee that all art gets matched, nor that all writers will get an artist to work with. Whether your art gets matched or not, it will be welcome in the AO3 collection.
When claims open, mods will go through the matches.
Emails to writers whose claims were invalid due to the art already having been claimed will go out immediately.
Emails to successful matches will go out as soon as possible.
Please give us time to process this.
After 48 hours, a second round of claims will take place, if necessary.
Once you've received an email that your match was successful, contact your partner as soon as possible.
In the email, there will be a number of ice-breaker questions for you and your partner to get to know each other - we recommend answering those as it might make the collaboration smoother.
All prompts will have a Do Not Want section - this section must be respected, so keep that in mind when claiming. If your fic is in violation of the specified DNW’s, it will not be allowed in the AO3 collection.
Even if a prompt doesn't list specific kinks as a DNW, anything that warrants a tag on AO3 must be cleared with your artist.
All prompts will also have an indication of the collaboration level wanted - see the section underneath for information on this.
Additionally, when deciding what to claim, keep in mind that this is a reverse bang - since the artist is providing the inspiration, the initial idea should be respected, and the artist should get to weigh in on the shape the story takes - from story beats, to tropes implemented, as well as characterisations. But it's also not a commission - the artist shouldn't expect to be able to dictate every aspect of the story. The collaboration goes both ways.
On the slides is an indication of the sort of collaboration that your partner wants - be sure to read this carefully, as it defines how the collaboration is expected to proceed. Read more in the Collaboration Levels section
Please note that both Artists and Writers will be equally worried about generally the same issues, so joining our Discord can help ease any anxiety by knowing you are not alone in hoping you get one of your top choices or hoping that your art gets chosen. We mods are generally busy during claims time, but we try to have someone in chat to help ease anxieties.
As an artist
When you create your submission slide, consider how it'll read from a writer's perspective - are you clear about what you want and what you don't want?
You're free to create whatever art-piece you like, but consider how that affects your chances of getting matched - if you create a niche AU artwork, your piece might be difficult to match. The same goes for PWP-artwork where there's no clear story in the art itself - if making one of these, consider adding a description of the scenario in the text part of the slide to get the writers' attention.
Be confident in your slide! If you need help writing a catchy summary, ask for help in the Discord.
There's always a risk that your slide won't get chosen immediately - that doesn't mean that your art is bad or doesn't deserve a story.
Be careful when choosing the collaboration level! This will define what you can expect from your writer, and what your writer can expect from you.
As a writer
Before claims, read the slides carefully to ensure that you understand what the artist is interested in.
Pay particular attention to the collaboration level indicated!
In 2023, art claims went very quickly - if you're very keen on specific slides, make an effort to enter your claim soon after the form opens.
If all art on your list has already been claimed, you'll need to resubmit your claims form - listing more pairings lessens the risk of this.
For easy copy/pasting into the claims form, consider typing your information out beforehand (setting up a Google Slides/Excel document is effective)
Join the Discord to chat with other writers during claims! Last year there was a lot of hype.