Welcome to MERRY MERTHUR 2010!
Welcome to MERRY MERTHUR 2010, a fanfiction and fanart gift exchange! We are so excited to be hosting our very first challenge in this fandom and hope you will join us in giving a gift that is truly from the heart of a Merthur fan!
Dates for Merry Merthur 2010:
Sign-ups: Open November 2nd and run until all the slots are full or until November 13th at 6pm EST – whichever comes first.
Assignments: will be emailed by Thursday, November 18th
Submissions Due: December 18th
Merry Merthur Postings: Weekly posts of fic/art through December with all fic/art posted by December 25th
Master List revealing authors/artists and giftees and personal posting on the day of the Feast of Epiphany: January 6th
For this exchange, we will be posting here and at merry_merthur on LiveJournal.
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These are the rules for the Merry Merthur fic & art exchange. Please read them carefully. By signing up for Merry Merthur, you are agreeing to abide by all of these rules and swearing a solemn oath that you will complete the challenge set before you.
RULES
ANONYMITY:
This is an anonymous fest - you may not reveal your identity as an author or artist to your friends, flist, giftee, or anyone other than your beta. This means no posting fic/art in your personal webspace(s), no commenting or answer comments when your fic/art is posted in this comm, and no private emails between you and your giftee! Your fic/art cannot be part of an ongoing series or part of another fest. The reveal on Jan 6th will be worth the wait!
SIGN-UPS:
We are limiting participation to 60 writers and 60 artists. We will close sign-ups if we reach that cap, but we will need alternates for those who are unable to fulfill their assignments. In the case that you sign up after our cap is reached, we will confirm you as an alternate!
ASSIGNMENTS:
1. If for whatever reason, you find yourself unable to complete the particular fic/art assignment that you are given, you MUST let the mods know within 24 hours of receiving your assignment so an alternate can be provided immediately. After 24 hours, we will mark an assignment as accepted.
2. If you ask switch assignments for a reason not listed on your sign-up form, we may not be able to give you an alternative assignment. Please carefully fill out your sign-up form!
3. If you have questions about your assignment, or require clarification of your giftee's kinks, squicks, or desires, please contact the mods at merrymerthur [at] gmail [dot] com, and we will act as the go-between for you. Do not contact your giftee directly – remember, this is an anonymous fest!
DEADLINES:
1. All submissions are due on December 18, 2010 by 11:59pm EST.
2. In order to receive a one-week extension on the deadline, you must let us know that you need one and send in proof of progress at the time of asking for an extension. 3. Further extensions cannot be guaranteed - depending on the amount of submissions received and the amount of time needed to finish a submission, additional time may be granted.
BETAS & EDITING:
1. All submissions must be edited. We *strongly* encourage beta readers, but if you produce well-written work with minimal errors without using a beta, it will be accepted.
2. If you need help finding a beta, we will help! We will post a sign-up for betas, as well. Please email us if you find yourself in need of an extra pair of eyes and cannot find one!
3. Even if your work has been betaed, we reserve the right to request a fic be edited and re-submitted. We will not post raw work, unfinished work or work with numerous errors.
CONTENT:
1. Your gift must fit at least one of your recipient's requests, within reason. It is not always possible to include every single element in a request, but this is a gift exchange: if your recipient states that they do not wish to receive a specific thing, then do not include them in the gift. The mods reserve the right to return submissions for revisions if they do not fulfill the request.
2. Fic must be at least 2,000 words in length. Unless requested, no drabbles (even a series of them) will be accepted. There is no upper limit, but fics which are longer than 10,000 words will be hosted off-site due to IJ and LJ limits. For art, there are no perameters, but please submit a finished piece - a rough sketch is not acceptable.
3. A significant focus of your submission must be Merthur pairing – the relationship, whether romantic or otherwise, between Merlin and Arthur. Gen, pre-slash, and slash are all acceptable.
4. Submissions of any rating (G-NC-17) are acceptable, taking into consideration the request for which you're writing.
Please note, however, that no-one under the age of 18 can write, draw, or receive NC-17 rated works. Merry Merthur has open membership, but we ask that any under-age members read all header and rating info with care, and refrain from viewing NC-17 fic and art, please and thank you!
5. Merry Merthur is a holiday fest, and while holiday-themed submissions encouraged, they are NOT required.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
1. Please submit your work to merrymerthur [at] gmail [dot] com by the deadline.
2. Fic should be in a .doc or .txt format. Art may be in any image format (.jpg, .gif, .png, etc.), including animated formats!
3. Include the formatted header when you submit your entry – in the body of the document for fic, and in the e-mail itself for art. Please use the standard Merry Merthur fest header without making any extraneous modifications to it – the headers need to be uniform throughout the fest!
4. Please carefully consider your warnings, especially if your work includes chan. If proper warnings are not present, the mods will add them to the headers. The mods will notify you if your story requires additional or changes to the warnings you have provided. The mods have final decision on a warning for the protection of our participants and readers.
5. Please post your work to your own IJ or LJ using a PRIVATE filter to check the appearance of your work before submitting it to the fest. It's a quick step that will ensure your work is posted to the fest exactly as you want it to appear.
6. Formatting: Your submission must include all HTML formatting: bold, italics, and so on. The mods cannot go through and fix your HTML tags for you - if the formatting is incorrect, your submission will be returned to you for corrections. If you are unfamiliar with HTML tags, the mods would be happy to answer questions.
7. Please do not submit your work until you are completely satisfied with it. Each fic submission will be allowed ONE revision request in case you find a mistake you absolutely cannot live with, but you must re-submit your ENTIRE fic, with headers and formatting, in order for the mods to replace the post.
DROP-OUTS:
1. To receive a gift, you must submit a gift. If you drop out, your gift will be reassigned and (barring extenuating circumstances) you will not be allowed to participate in future Merry Merthur fests.
2. If you must drop out, you must notify us as soon as possible. We need to know in order to arrange for pinch hitters.
POSTING:
1. We will be posting to IJ and cross-posting to LJ.
2. Chan will not be posted on LJ, but we will post links to the IJ posts on LJ so that you may view these entries on our mirror site.
2. We cannot post your gift until we have received your submission.
3. Once your submission has been posted, you will be allowed ONE revision request as stated above. If we've goofed up the HTML, please let us know. Any errors on our part will not be considered a revision request.
If you have any further questions, please comment here or e-mail us at merrymerthur [at] gmail [dot] com. And without further ado ... we're very pleased and excited to launch Merry Merthur!!