Now that nominations are over, it’s time to SIGN UP for Black Emporium 2017!
The mods are providing a guide to this process under the cut in hopes that it will make the process smoother for everyone :)
1. Sign in to Ao3
If you don’t have an Ao3 account, contact the mods for help!
2. Go to the Black Emporium signup form
3. Scroll to the “Requests” field
There are several different components of this field:
Fandom: The specific Dragon Age title that your requested characters are from. You may select as many as apply.
Relationship: Enter one or two approved relationships that you would like to see in a fanwork created for you. This field will autosuggest approved pairings, so if it’s not there, it hasn’t been approved.
You also have the option to select any relationship. This means that you are willing to receive fanwork for, literally, any of the approved pairings. You may not use this option to say, for example, “Any Alistair pairing”. This option is for any and all of the approved pairings. Do not use this option unless you are sure that any is what you want.
Additional Tags: You can request fanfic, fanart, or both.
Letter: If you have written a letter on an external website (such as Tumblr/Wordpress/Dreamwidth/Google Docs), you may link it here.
Description: Here is where you can provide additional detail about what you would like to see in a fanwork, both in general and for specific pairings.
If you do not enter anything into this box, and you do not have a link to a letter, we will assume that means you are okay with anything for the specified pairing(s). If you have any preferences or triggers, we would encourage you to add them. It makes the process smoother for all involved.
Here are some things commonly put in the description box:
Likes and Dislikes - Frequently it can be considered helpful to your author or artist if they have some idea of what you like to see, and what you don't. For example: I love F!Adaar/Sera because I think the idea of them merrily pranking they way around Skyhold is so much fun. Please don't write me something sad about them.
Squicks and Triggers - Stuff you absolutely do not want, stuff that makes you uncomfortable, or just plain stuff that is Not Your Thing. While the Black Emporium does not believe in kink shaming or otherwise insulting people for their own personal taste, we do want people to let their artists or authors know what their limits are. You don't have to give any reasons for this; no x/y/z gives your author plenty of ability to discern where your limits are.
Prompts: Prompts can be just about anything, but they're meant to be ideas that you'd like to see that can help give your artist or author something to work off of. Sometimes this can be a prompt or a question you'd like explored (for example: What if Solas found himself falling for M! Trevelyan? How would he feel about potentially falling for a human?) or an idea you'd love to see (Josie and M!Cadash snuggled up in front of a fire, please!) or just a few words of inspiration (Leliana/Josephine - secrets, lies, ravens).
Details about your character(s): It is fairly common for people to give basic descriptions of their characters, particularly if fanart is requested. These descriptions can be very basic indeed (Purple Hawke), or extremely detailed (This is Celeste Trevelyan, she loves her squad more than life itself, pink hair, dusky-rose skin, build like she could bench press you six ways from Sunday).
Examples of things you should not put in the description field:
“I would like anything but nasty [kink]. I think people write that are gross and nasty.” Please do not insult people who like something you dislike. It’s Not For You, and That’s Okay. “No [kink]” expresses this much better than a long explanation of why you don’t like [kink].
“I’m only choosing this to get to five nominations. Please don’t write/draw it.” While we know someone who signs up for a,b,x,y and z may want a,b, x and y more than z, please don’t scream to your author or artist that what you may well match on is something you don’t want as much as other pairings. Writing something like this also reduces your chance at treats as well.
“Even though I said I wanted M!Solavellan, I’m fine with F!Solavellan too if you like that better.” Please don’t tell people that you’d be alright with non-nominated pairings, as fics with non-nominated pairings cannot be added to the collection.
You are required to fill out a minimum of five requests (Required fields: Fandom, Relationship, Additional Tags; Optional: Letter, Description). Remember that you may put in one or two relationships per request field, so the maximum number of pairings that you can list in this manner is twenty.
You may also use the description field to note additional pairings that you would be willing to receive. You may find this option helpful if you are willing to consider different Warden or Inquisitor backgrounds for your specified pairing that have been nominated. You are limited to an additional ten pairings specified in this manner. Please fill out the form entirely before resulting as filling in pairings manually in description; those that you fill in in the relationship line will take priority.
4. Continue to the “Offers” field
There are several different components of this field:
Fandom: The specific Dragon Age title that your requested characters are from. You may select as many as apply.
Relationship: Enter one or two approved relationships that you would like to see in a fanwork that you create. This field will autosuggest approved pairings, so if it’s not there, it hasn’t been approved.
You also have the option to select any relationship. This means that you are willing to create fanwork for, literally, any of the approved pairings. You may not use this option to say, for example, “Any Alistair pairing”. This option is for any and all of the approved pairings. Do not use this option unless you are sure that any is what you want.
Additional Tags: You can offer to create fanfic, fanart, or both.
Comments to mods: Here is where you can provide additional detail about what you will and won’t create. As with your requests, you can provide general likes and dislikes as well as things that you absolutely will not do.
If you do not enter anything into this box, we will assume that means you are okay with anything for the specified pairing(s). If you have any preferences or triggers, we would encourage you to add them. It makes the process smoother for all involved.
You are required to fill out a minimum of three offers (Required fields: Fandom, Relationship, Additional Tags; Optional: Comments to mods). Remember that you may put in one or two relationships per request field, so the maximum number of pairings that you can list in this manner is twenty.
You may also use any description field to note additional pairings that you would be willing to receive. You may find this option helpful if you are willing to consider different Warden or Inquisitor backgrounds for your specified pairing. You are limited to an additional ten pairings specified in this manner. Once again, those filled in the actual relationship fields will take priority over those written in the comment box, so choose which pairing goes where carefully!
Nugs, Nuglets, and Nuggles,
Our nominations are winding down and your mods have spent the night getting fancy spreadsheets ready, polishing the tagset, writing up hwo to sign up, and working on testing the sign-up form to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. Tomorrow once Mod K and I bough get off work, we’ll be opening up sign ups.
However, we have made a count down to sign-ups opening here. Since the time we both get off varies a bit each day due to work and travel, the exact sign up moment could vary, but we should be opening a little bit early or on time with this count down.
We’re so excited to see what you all will do tomorrow. <3
If you have any last nominations to get in, do it now, and as a reminder, if you nominated some pairings for the last court, please get in touch with the mods so we can make sure you get your pairings set the way you like them!
Your mods are now running matching; we had one person who was unmatchable. Email has been sent to this person so please check your Ao3 email. We will start assignments as soon as we've heard back.
