Author Reveal, Make-Up Assignments, and Feedback

[longficmod]

And that's all, folks! All author names are now revealed, but you can keep reading, enjoying, and commenting on stories in the archive.

A huge thank you to everyone who signed up, beta read, and pinch hit!

We have reopened both the Fandom 5K collection and Fandom Couch for treats and make-up assignments, and they'll stay open until signups begin next year. Please put all works longer than 5k into the Fandom 5k collection, and works that are not quite 5k into the Fandom Couch collection!

If you defaulted after the no-fault deadline of 1 April but wish to participate in the next round, you'll need to fulfill your original assignment before then. Please drop us an email at fandom5kmod AT gmail when you do. If you're not sure whether this applies to you, please send us an email.

Speaking of--yes, we do plan to run this exchange next year! We welcome your feedback on what went well and what we can improve. You can respond to this survey, leave comments on this post, or send us an email if you'd prefer.

Please note that even if there's general consensus on a suggestion, we may choose not to implement it for a variety of reasons. We will certainly take it into account, though! There are lots of ways you could choose to run an exchange like this. If you're interested in starting up a multifandom longfic exchange of your own, we'd be happy to coordinate schedules and avoid overlap.

We're particularly interested in answers to the following questions:

1. Were the genre tags generally helpful, counterproductive, or neither?


2. Was the writing period (about 8 weeks) a good length?


3. We required requests to specify at least 4 fandoms with 1 character/relationship per fandom, and offers to specify at least 5 fandoms with 1 character/relationship. Would you prefer this or 3 fandoms with 2 characters/relationships for requests, 4 fandoms with 2 characters/relationships for offers?


4. Would you be interested in offering or requesting art next year? What do you think the equivalent of 5k would be for artwork?

Comments

[arysteia]

I loved this exchange, so thank you for having the initial idea and seeing it through. I definitely intend to come back next year, it'll be a fixture on my calendar if it continues.

1. Were the genre tags generally helpful, counterproductive, or neither?

My recip gave me a great letter so I didn't need the tags, but I think they're a really good backup for the eventuality someone gets no ODs.

2. Was the writing period (about 8 weeks) a good length?

Pretty much just right. I had a crisis at the end that was to do with work-work, but that would have happened regardless of how long the period allowed. I certainly wouldn't want it to be any longer, because my enthusiasm begins to ebb at that point.

May I strongly recommend you shift away from Mother's Day for reveals though? That made it impossible for me to get to my fic in good time, and I know some authors begin to feel anxious if that's the case. As a New Zealander this went double for me because it automatically kicked me into Monday, and then ongoing crises at work held me up till Tuesday. I did use the AFK post, and I know Kiwis are a minority, though there were at least three of us fwiw, but if we could shift to Friday NY/Saturday NZ that'd be grand. If not, just avoiding holidays would do.

3. We required requests to specify at least 4 fandoms with 1 character/relationship per fandom, and offers to specify at least 5 fandoms with 1 character/relationship. Would you prefer this or 3 fandoms with 2 characters/relationships for requests, 4 fandoms with 2 characters/relationships for offers?

I would not be able to participate if we switched. A lot of my fandoms are for movies or small canons that only have one major pairing. I don't mind a 1000 word minimum for gen or a different set of characters, but there's no way I'd want to write 5000+.

4. Would you be interested in offering or requesting art next year? What do you think the equivalent of 5k would be for artwork?

I couldn't offer, and would be unlikely to request. One thing I would consider requesting would be a set of comics/several linked pieces that told a story, rather than a single piece.

ETA: I did want to make one more comment.

I think it's great that there is a readmission requirement for defaulters, but I personally think it should be to complete any outstanding request from the previous year, rather than the defaulter's specific assignment.

Leaving flaky behaviour to the side, most people default either because of time pressure/intervening events, which makes completing their assignment easy enough, or because there was something in the assignment itself that just didn't work for them.

If there was something in the assigned recip's ODs that was within the bounds of the exchange but nonetheless made completing a fic for them (a 5000 word one, not a 1000 word one) difficult or impossible then I think it's unduly harsh to effectively ban that writer permanently. I would be happy to see them make a good faith return by writing any prompt that was not fulfilled in the exchange the year they defaulted as a makeup assignment.

Anyway, that's my two cents. Thanks for considering it. :D