Posting Guidelines

Following is a guide that walks you through the steps for posting your DCBB. If you are not clear on how to do something, please ask us so we can help. Only registered participants may submit masterposts. If you aren't registered for this year's round, we would love to have you next year! Please follow us on Twitter or Tumblr so you can be notified when registration opens.

For the purposes of this challenge, times will be given in ET (Eastern Time, US).

TL;DR

 * On your scheduled posting date, authors will post their entire finished fic to AO3 (and any other archives of choice) and artists will post their art to their website of choice.
 * You or your partner will submit your masterpost information via airtable form by 11:59pm ET on your scheduled posting date.
 * Please coordinate with your partner. Do not submit a masterpost without a link to BOTH the fic and art.
 * Don’t promote your fic/art before your masterpost is published on the DCBB tumblr.
 * We strongly encourage all teams to create a banner or cover to accompany your masterpost.
 * If any problems come up, please Contact the mods for assistance.

The DCBB Posting Walkthrough
Posting day can be stressful, so we hope this guide eases you through the process. We wrote it with our first-time participants in mind, but we hope it's helpful to everyone.

Step one: Talk with your partner
The most important part of getting ready to post is talking with your partner about how you will coordinate your posting day to exchange links to the fic and art. We recommend having a conversation a few days in advance of your posting date. Here’s what you need to figure out:
 * Which one of you is going to submit the masterpost information? This is typically done by the team’s author, but this is up to your team to decide.
 * What time of the day will your team post? Sometimes the art is ready in the morning, but it’s late in the day before your author will be ready. Let each other know about any delays so no one worries.
 * Will the art be embedded in the fic and, if so, where will it be hosted? You both have a say in this. Not all authors like to embed art in their fics, and not all artists like to have their art embedded at all. Ask your partner their preferences and where the files will be hosted.
 * Who is going to make the promo graphic? (More about promo graphics below) It’s common for team artists to whip up a banner, but it’s not a requirement for this challenge. Find out if your artist will be making a banner. If not, authors, banner guidelines are below.
 * Are your names spelled and formatted correctly? We can edit a tumblr post, but we can’t edit reblogs, so please confirm spelling/capitalization/spacing etc. in advance.

Step two: Create a graphic to accompany your masterpost
We strongly recommend all teams have a graphic to accompany their post. Team artists often make these for their authors, but they are not required to, so authors should check with their artists about who is doing what.
 * Graphics should be a minimum of 540px wide or they’ll be too narrow for tumblr. The height is up to you to determine. You can make narrow banners or book-style covers.
 * Your team artist is welcome and encouraged to illustrate the graphic, but it doesn’t count toward their 2-piece minimum. They can also grant the author permission to use part of an illustration as a cover background, but authors must ask before doing this.
 * If the covers contain illustrations, they may only be from your team artist. Authors, you may not illustrate the banner yourselves or commission art for the cover. This includes asking artist friends to illustrate something for you. That would be disrespectful to your team artist and we won’t make exceptions to this, even if your artist says it’s okay. It’s not.
 * Graphics should include the fic title, the name of both partners (double check with each other about spelling/formatting), and “DCBB” or “Dean/Cas Big Bang.” You can also use the DCBB logo.
 * Graphics should be safe for work. We will tag the post for blood and disturbing imagery
 * If you use photography, please make sure you’ve sourced legal stock images (Pixabay and Unsplash are good resources) and that they’re good quality (eg. not blurry or stretched). See our Resources page for more.

AUTHORS: Posting your fic to AO3
Please post your fic and art as close to your scheduled date as possible. If you need to post the night before because of time zones or work schedules, that’s fine. Do not promo the fic or share the AO3 link anywhere until the masterpost appears on the DCBB tumblr.

Fics should be posted to Archive of Our Own, and you may cross-post to any comparable archive of your choice. If you do not have an AO3 account, contact the mods for an invitation. Keep your fic in draft form until posting day. If you accidentally post it early, please let us know and add it to the collection "dcbb_oops" in order to keep it hidden until the correct dat.

If you need help formatting your document, check our Resources page.

Remember that serial posting is prohibited. All chapters and epilogues must be posted on your assigned posting date, on all platforms where you post the fic. You may not spread out posting for this challenge across several days. If you want to add a timestamp later, you must wait until December.

If your fic contains any of the major archive warnings as defined by AO3, you must tag for them. What you tag for beyond that is up to you, though we recommend erring on the side of caution and tagging any potentially upsetting material. You are expected to include a link to your artist’s masterpost from your AO3 post and to mention that it was written for the DCBB. Finally, please add your work to the AO3 collection (see below).

Send your artist the link to your fic so they have it.

ARTISTS: Posting your art
Art should be posted wherever you typically host yours (AO3, DeviantArt, LJ, tumblr).

Artists can choose whether to create an art post to be linked from the masterpost, to have the art embedded in the fic (if the author is willing), or both. If your author doesn’t like embedded art, that’s their prerogative. If you don’t like your art embedded, that’s yours.

If possible, please lock your posts or keep them in draft form until your scheduled posting day. Do not promote your art anywhere before the masterpost appears on the DCBB tumblr. (If you use tumblr to host your art, we know you cannot help the art being public before your team masterpost is approved and published, but we ask that you not cross-post to any other social network or reblog yourself until your team’s masterpost is live.)

We have no specific requirements or templates for art posts. We would recommend you include the title of the fic, your author's name, and a link to the fic. To see what artists did last round, please see this tag.

You are expected to link to your author's fic from your art post and to mention that it was illustrated for the DCBB.

If you post your art to AO3, please add it to the official AO3 collection.

Send your author the link(s) to your art so they have it.

EVERYONE: Adding your work to the AO3 collection
We have an AO3 collection for this challenge. To add your work to this year’s collection, search for “dcbb2021” in the collection field. The collection is moderated, so it might take a bit for your fic/art to show up. The AO3 collection will be monitored for submissions periodically through the day after this time.

We'd appreciate if you would include the tag “Dean/Cas Big Bang” so we can locate your fic/art another way, in case something happens with the collection.

Artists, if you do not post your art to AO3, this step does not apply to you.

Step four: Submit your team's masterpost information by 11:59pm ET
You did it! Your fic is finished! The art is done! You and your partner have posted your individual components and exchanged links, and now it’s time to submit your masterpost info to the mods.

One partner should go to the airtable link (https://airtable.com/shrx34yMaScHZafeo) and submit the masterpost information by 11:59pm ET on your scheduled posting date. You have 24 hours to submit your masterpost to us. Please plan accordingly. Late posts will not be accepted (please see below about what to do if you miss your posting date).

Information that will be requested:

Title, Author, Artist, Rating, Length, Pairings (Dean/Castiel, and please put any secondary/background pairings in parentheses), Warnings (You must warn for any of AO3’s major archive warnings. Beyond those, what you warn for is up to you), Additional Tags, Fic Summary, Link to Fic, Link to Art.

Double check your spelling and grammar before you submit! We cannot guarantee that we'll be able to edit your post before it’s reblogged in the event of a typo.

Submit the information. It will not post automatically. The mods will approve and schedule it.

Help: Common posting-day issues
Here are some common posting-day scenarios and what to do about them.

My partner and I can't post at the same time. Do I need to wait to post my part?
Nope! If you need to post before work and your partner can't post until after work, post your work in the morning. When your partner can post their half, then you can get your team's masterpost together and submit it to us. It's 100% okay if a fic needs to sit on AO3 for a few hours or art starts to circulate on tumblr before the masterpost goes up. We just ask that you don't promote the fic/art on your own social media before the masterpost goes up on the DCBB tumblr and Twitter.

My partner hasn’t posted their fic/art yet! Should I submit the masterpost anyway?
No. Your masterpost must contain both links (or a combination link if the art will be embedded only). Please stay calm and try to get a hold of your partner first. People have jobs, classes, kids, homes, and car issues. If you believe there may be a problem, please email the moderators at deancasbigbangmod@gmail.com so we can help.

I can’t figure out the form!
That's okay! Email all of the requested information to deancasbigbangmod@gmail.com and one of the mods will happily post on your behalf.

My computer won’t turn on!
We ask participants to keep backups of their work as they go because hardware and software failures are awful. Assuming you have a backup and need time to get to another computer, email us and your partner so we can figure out a solution.

If you didn’t back up your work, we’ll do what we can to accommodate your partner.

Can I get an extension?
Due to the size of the DCBB, we do not grant extensions except in cases of emergency such as a natural disaster. If you cannot make your scheduled posting date, please Contact the mods and let us know you will use the open posting window at the end of the challenge.

I’ve had an emergency!
If an emergency keeps you from posting (such as an accident or natural disaster), please take care of yourself and get in touch when it’s safe and reasonable for you to do so. If it’s possible to message your partner so they don’t worry, please do. If you are still able, we will work with you to get your work posted.

I missed my posting date.
If you missed your posting date, we will have a a window at the end of the challenge (November 26th, 27th, and 30th) that any team may use to submit their masterpost. Masterposts will be approved as they come in, and it’s possible we will have a good number of them, so your post might get buried. If you are unable to post on your scheduled date, it's your responsibility to communicate that to your partner. Please don't make them worry. We would also appreciate a head's up so we can update our calendar.

If you miss both your posting date and this open-posting window, your fic/art won't be included in this year's masterlist or AO3 collection, and you won't be eligible for next year's challenge. (This excludes people involved in a natural disaster who have not been able to contact us at all with an update.)

Do you have any questions or concerns?
If you are confused about any of the instructions in this guide, please contact the mods.