Rules & FAQ

[austenmod]

Basics
By signing up for this exchange, you are agreeing to write one complete, standalone fic of at least 1000 words that fulfills a request by your assigned recipient. This means that your fic must be within a requested fandom and focus on a character or relationship your recipient has requested for that fandom. It may not feature anything your recipient has listed as a ‘do not want’ (DNW). In return, all participants who complete their assignments by the deadline will receive a fic that fulfills one of their requests. 

If you have any questions about the exchange, you are welcome to leave a comment on this post or to contact the mod privately at austenian@gmx.net.

Schedule

Nominations and sign-ups may open early; this will not affect their end dates. The collection will not open before the listed time, even if all assignments are in. In the case of outstanding pinch hits, the collection will be delayed until all participants due gifts have received them.

Nominations: 23 July to 30 July, 22:00 UTC → countdown
Sign-Ups: 2 August to 11 August, 22:00 UTC → countdown
Assignments Out: on or before 14 August
Posting Deadline: 27 September, 22:00 UTC → countdown
Collection Opens: 5 October, 00:00 UTC → countdown
Author Reveals: 12 October, 00:00 UTC → countdown

Nominations

Each participant may nominate up to 10 fandoms, with 15 characters or relationships in each fandom. Nominate romantic and/or sexual relationships as ‘Character A/Character B (Fandom)’ and platonic relationships as ‘Character A & Character B (Fandom)’. Relationship tags may involve larger groups following the same format. Individual characters may be nominated as ‘1: Character A (Fandom)’.

You can submit nominations to the 2024 tagset here from 23 July until 22:00 UTC on 30 July (countdown).

What canons are eligible for this exchange?
Any of Jane Austen’s works may be nominated. This includes juvenilia and unfinished works as well as completed novels. Adaptations of any of these works, such as films, television series, and webseries, are also eligible. Retellings, such as Sonali Dev’s Rajes series, are welcome so long as they are clearly based on a work or works originally written by Jane Austen. In edge cases, the mod will generally assume nominations to be made in good faith. Nominations for All Media Types or Related Fandoms will not be accepted.

Are crossovers allowed?
Yes, but they may not involve works ineligible for this exchange. For example, Jane Fairfax & Fanny Price would be accepted, but Jane Eyre & Fanny Price would not. Crossovers should be nominated under the ‘Crossover Fandom’ umbrella tag.

Are original characters allowed?

Yes, but only within relationships. All nominations must include at least one canon character. If you have a preference for the OC’s gender, you may indicate so within the tag (e.g., ‘Original Female Character’).

What about Rule 63 characters?

Rule 63 characters are allowed. You may nominate, offer, and request characters as a different gender than they appear in canon using the relationship tags. Designate the change like so: ‘Anne Elliot/F!Frederick Wentworth’ or ‘1: M!Lydia Bennet’ with the corresponding disambiguations. Tags that make no gender designation are assumed to refer to canon gender.

 

What is a disambiguation?

A disambiguation is a parenthetical addition at the end of a tag that identifies the appropriate fandom. For example, if you wanted to nominate Harriet Smith/Emma Woodhouse under the Autumn de Wilde adaptation, the complete, disambiguated tag would look like this: ‘Harriet Smith/Emma Woodhouse (Emma 2020)’. This parenthetical keeps the tag distinct from the original novel and other adaptations. 

Sign-Ups

Your sign-up consists of two parts: requests and offers. Requests indicate the kind of gift you would like to receive, while offers indicate the kind of gift you are able to create for someone else. In order to sign up, you must make a minimum of two distinct requests and two distinct offers, but you are allowed to make up to ten of each.

What is a distinct request/offer?
A distinct request/offer is one made in a different fandom than your other requests/offers. Requests and offers for the same relationship are still considered distinct if they are within different fandoms (e.g., the original novel and a film adaptation). As a requester, your expectations should be aligned with the specific version(s) you are asking for; what someone writes for Persuasion (2022) may be very different from what the same person would write for Persuasion (1995), or Persuasion – Jane Austen, even if all requests are for Anne Elliot/Frederick Wentworth.

How does matching work?
Matching is OR matching using the relationships field on AO3. This means that, in order to be matched, a recipient and an author must share at least one fandom between their respective requests and offers, and they must also share at least one tag (i.e., a relationship or character) within that same fandom.

What should I include in my request details?
You are free to include as much or as little information as you wish. The idea of this section is simply to give your writer an idea of the kind of story you might enjoy. For example, you might provide prompts, list tropes you like to read, or talk about why you like a certain relationship. If there is any content that would prevent you from enjoying your gift, you should list it as a Do Not Want (DNW) in your request details. While all other request details are optional, writers are required to avoid requesters’ DNWs.

I really want to write [a modern AU, an epistolary narrative, etc.]. Can you match me with someone who wants that?
Maybe! If you leave a note in the ‘Offer Details’ box, I will do my best to consider your matching preferences. However, it is not possible to guarantee a match according to any preference other than fandom and relationship tag.

What if no one offers anything I request?
Your request will be sent out as a pinch hit. Pinch hits may be claimed by anyone willing to write for one of their requests. Participants on the pinch hit list are welcome to email the mod to add requests if desired, but there is no obligation to do so.

What if no one requests anything I offer?
Unmatchable participants will be required to add offers until they are matchable. If you are unable to write anything being requested, you may choose to withdraw your sign-up. Any unmatchable participants who do not respond within 24 hours of being contacted to add offers will have their sign-ups deleted.

Assignments & Posting

After sign-ups are complete, you can expect to receive your assignment on or before 16 August. You will then have a period of approximately six weeks to write a gift for your recipient. Assignments may be posted to the collection at any point before the 2024 deadline of 22:00 UTC on 27 September (countdown). There is no deadline for treats.

Do I have to write the request I matched on?
No, but you must write one of your recipient’s requests. As long as your fic fits the completion requirements and matches a fandom and a character or relationship requested by your recipient, your assignment has been fulfilled.

Can I write something I wasn’t assigned?
Yes, treats to participants and to the collection are both welcome. Treats to participants must be in a requested fandom and include a requested character or relationship. Treats to the collection must be within an eligible fandom. There is no minimum word count for treats, but they must be complete, standalone works. Writing treats has no effect on the status of your assignment.

How do I post my assignment?
Navigate to the ‘My Assignments’ page from your AO3 profile, then click the button that says ‘Fulfill’. The names of the challenge and your recipient should be automatically filled in. From there, you can fill in the rest of the form and post as usual.

If you’ve written a treat, the process is a little different. Since you won’t have an assignment to fulfill, you should select ‘Post To Collection’ on the current challenge page on AO3. From there, you must manually enter the recipient’s name in the ‘Gift this work to’ field before posting as usual.

What happens if I default?
You are no longer expected to write your assignment, and it will be posted to the community as a pinch hit. If your writer defaults after you have defaulted, your request will not be sent out as a pinch hit.

How do I claim a pinch hit?
Leave a comment on the screened post with the number of the pinch hit and your AO3 username. The mod will let you know if you have been assigned the pinch hit.

Am I guaranteed a gift?
Gifts are guaranteed for all participants who complete their assignments by the deadline. The collection will not open until all participants guaranteed gifts have received them.