Big Bang: Posting Guide

[talkingtothesky]

The time has arrived! Posting has begun! November, at last! (Sorry this post is a little late. I wrote it on Halloween but was abducted by aliens. Thanks to Tee for helping me with artist tips and tricks.)

You can see the posting schedule again on the Date Claims post HERE.

You'll be posting to AO3 on your date, at whatever time is convenient for you. Once both writer + artist have posted, the works will be reblogged on the PoI Big Bang tumblr for everyone to signal boost. (Read! Squee! Give lovely feedback!)

You can cross-post on your own tumblr on that date, but please make sure art is embedded on AO3, not just linked to on tumblr in the fic notes. This is to make sure all the fanworks are visible in the AO3 collection.

Please make sure you don’t post to the 2013 one (Person_of_Interest_Big_Bang), which will also show up if you type it into the field. You want PersonOfInterest_BigBang. If you follow the instructions below, that’ll make sure you do the 2018 one.

There's no Mystery Work or anon period for Big Bang like there was for the Exchange, so as soon as you hit post, your work is up.

A Dreamwidth masterlist of works will be posted to this community at the end of November / sometime in December, depending on when everyone has finished posting. If you miss your posting date in November, December is amnesty month.

Keep reading for a step-by-step posting tutorial

 

Decide in your teams how you want to post. There are two options.

Option A: Post as co-creators (fic + art, 1 work)

Example 1: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11822493/chapters/26677986

Example 2: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5373389 (Example 2 shows how you can post fic & art in the same work and not both get comment emails, but your name won’t be on the work as artist. This author has thanked the artist in the notes but not listed them as co-creator.)

[Advantages of Option A: This is good if one of you is more confident with posting on AO3 than the other. If you've made art that's a cover or scene illustration, you might wish it to appear alongside the fic words. Option A means both fic and art gets posted at the same time, if your timezones are far apart. Both of your names are on the work. Both of you can edit the work.

Disadvantages of Option A: You'll both get emails when someone comments on the work, and they might not address both the art and fic directly. It also adds a work to your total that you might feel isn't wholly yours. You might be uncomfortable about sharing access to the work with someone else. As well as edit, both creators can orphan or delete the work. For an alternative which keeps the benefits and avoids this particular disadvantage, see Example 2.]

Step 1 ] Decide which of you will do the posting. Make sure that person has everything they need to upload your fanwork.

Step 2 ] Follow THIS LINK to open a New Work page. This will already ensure you are posting to the PersonOfInterest_BigBang AO3 collection (see the field filled in under ‘Associations’)

Step 3 ] Fill in the ‘Tags’ portion of the form (Rating, Warnings, etc) as you normally would. Suggestions to add to the Additional Tags field: PoI Big Bang, Big Bang Challenge

Step 4 ] In the ‘Preface’ section, under Work Title, tick the box to Add Co-creators. Type in your artist’s AO3 name, if you’re the writer, and vice versa.

Step 5 ] If your fic has multiple chapters, tick the box next to ‘This work has multiple chapters’ and get the text formatted how you want it in the ‘Work Text’ field.

Step 6 ] If you’re in HTML, rather than Rich Text editor: Get the links to the art (should end in .jpg or .png or .gif), encased in <*img src= “”/>and position images where you’d like them to appear in the text. (remove the asterisk, paste link in between quotation marks). Alternatively, you can insert links through the Rich Text editor.

Step 7 ] OPTIONAL Skin which resizes images for mobile and tablet

Some of you might have noticed that sometimes when you see an art on ao3 on your laptops, it looks absolutely fine, but when you view it through the mobile, the sizes are too big, and too off. You can use a very easy skin for that.

Open your ao3. Click on *Skins* that’s on the left of your page, under your pseud name and preferences.

Click on *My work Skins* and then on *Create work skin* Name it BB-skin.

Paste this in the CSS section:

#workskin img {<br /> display: block;<br /> max-width: 75%;<br /> width: auto;<br /> height: auto;<br />}

Save the skin.

When posting your work, in the options: Choose work skins, select BB-skin.

And enjoy your art being easily viewable in all screens.

Step 8 ] Preview the work to make sure the links are working, then post when you’re ready.

Option B: Post separately, then link (2 works)

Example 1: https://archiveofourown.org/works/968725 (fic), https://archiveofourown.org/works/968957 (art)

Example 2: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16180130 (art)

[Advantages of Option B: Get comments, kudos and hits purely on the fic and art separately.

Disadvantages of Option B: Possible time delay in linking up the fic and art so they lead to each other.]

Step 1 ] If your respective timezones allow, agree on a convenient time for you both to upload on your posting date. If there isn't one, skip this step. (Writer ideally needs to post first. See Step 6)

Step 2 ] Follow THIS LINK to open a New Work page. This will already ensure you are posting to the PersonOfInterest_BigBang AO3 collection (see the field filled in under ‘Associations’)

Step 3 ] Fill in the ‘Tags’ portion of the form (Rating, Warnings, etc) as you normally would. Suggestions to add to the Additional Tags field: PoI Big Bang, Big Bang Challenge

Step 4 ] AS ARTIST: Use tumblr (you can post ‘privately’ to get the embed link ahead of your posting date) or imgur as your image hosting site, then find the direct links (ending in .[filetype]). Tee’s tip: Tumblr messes with the sizes, so you might be better off with imgur. Use the Rich Text Editor or HTML to position the art in the AO3 work.

Step 5 ] Post your fic or art as its own work as you normally would. (See Option A Step 5-8)

Step 6 ]

AS ARTIST: Under Associations, tick the box next to ‘This [...] was inspired by another work’. Paste the fic’s URL into the field.

AS WRITER: After art has been posted, go to your AO3 Related Works (scroll down the left sidebar) and Approve. A link to the art will show up underneath the fic as ‘works inspired by this one’.

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Happy posting, and enjoy the Big Bang fanwork celebration!