Rules for the Third Round of Snarry Holidays!
These are the rules for our next round; they have changed from last year, so please read them carefully. By signing up for Snarry Holidays, you are agreeing to abide by all of these rules.
General info
Dates for the 2009 Round of Snarry Holidays:
Sign-ups: Open August 20 at 8pm EST and run until all the slots are full or until August 26 at 6pm EST – whichever comes first. Assignments to be Sent Out: September 1 Submissions Due: November 16 Posting: November 28 – December 21
For this round we will be posting to: InsaneJournal, LiveJournal, and Dreamwidth. Please watch us in as many places as you prefer. ;-)
Rules
Anonymity: This is an anonymous fest - you may not prematurely reveal your identity to your friends, your giftee, or anyone other than your beta(s)! Your work cannot be part of a pre-existing series, and cannot be posted elsewhere until after the fest is over and the masterlist is posted.
Sign-ups: This year we are limiting participants to 60. Please be aware that we will close sign-ups if it reaches the cap, but you're still welcome to sign-up in case someone else isn't eligible to participate. If we have had problems with your reliability in the past, you might not be eligible. Please feel free to email us if you're unsure about your standing with the fest.
Assignments 1. If for whatever reason, you find yourself unable to complete the assignment that you are given, you MUST let the mods know within 24 hours of receiving your original assignment in order to be receive a different one. 2. If you ask to switch assignments for spurious reasons, or because you did not submit a clear and complete sign-up form specifying what you are willing to write, your request for a different assignment is highly likely to be denied. 3. If you have questions about your assignment, or require clarification of your giftee's kinks, squicks, or desires, please contact the mods at snarryholiday [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 November 16, 2009 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: 1. All submissions must be beta-read -- NO EXCEPTIONS. 2. By definition, you may not beta-read your own work. You must have at least one other person beta your submission. 3. We will have a sign-up post for betas, and will attempt to help anyone who is having troubles finding a beta, so please contact us if you need help. 4. We encourage you to work with your betas early and often, and to have as many betas as necessary in order to polish your submission. The final product should be something that you can be proud of – remember, you're creating a gift for another person! 5. Even if your work has been betaed, we reserve the right to return it to you for further editing if there are significant spelling and grammar errors.
Content: 1. Your gift must fit your recipient's request, 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 x, y or z, 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. There is no upper limit, but fics which are longer than 10,000 words will be hosted off-site. For art, there is no limit but please spend a comparable amount of time – a quick doodle will not be sufficient. 3. A significant focus of your submission must be Snarry – the relationship, whether romantic or otherwise, between Severus Snape and Harry Potter. 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. Snarry Holidays 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. 5. Although Snarry Holidays is a holiday fest, holiday-themed submissions are welcome but not required.
Submissions: 1. Please submit your work to snarryholiday [at] gmail [dot] com by the deadline. 2. Fic should be in a .doc format or similar. Art may be in any accessible format (.jpg, .gif, .png, etc.) 3. Include the appropriate 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 fest header without making any extraneous modifications to it – the headers need to all appear in the same format. 4. Please pay careful attention to 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 contact the participant and request an additional warning or a warning change should it be needed, but that the mods have final decision on a warning for the protection of our participants and readers. 5. Please make sure that your work appears exactly as you would want it to appear when it is posted. You may do this by posting it as a private entry to your own journal, to check the formatting and appearance of your work. 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; the mods do not necessarily have the time (or patience) to make a hundred corrections to the piece once you have submitted it.
Drop-outs: 1. To receive a gift, you must submit a gift. If you drop out, your gift will be reassigned and (barring any extenuating circumstances) you will not be allowed to participate in future Snarry Holidays 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. 3. If you dropped out last year, you are not eligible to participate this year. Contact us if you are unsure of your eligibility.
Posting: 1. We will be posting to IJ, and cross-posting to LJ and DW. 2. Chan will not be posted on LJ, but we will post links to the IJ/DW posts on LJ so that you may view these entries on our mirror sites. 2. We cannot post your gift until we have received your submission. 3. Once your submission has been posted, no revisions can be made to it. If we've goofed up the HTML, please let us know, but if you're still fretting over the dangling participle on page four or worrying about the angle of Harry's arm – sorry, no! Make sure you're completely happy with your work before submitting it to us.
Let us know if you have any further questions about our next round, by commenting here or e-mailing us at snarryholiday [at] gmail [dot] com. Other than that ... start getting ready for a very Snarry Holiday this year! We hope that you're just as excited as we are. :)