what is the best time to post on ao3

Introduction

This tutorial will guide you lot through the Post New Work course on Archive of Our Ain (AO3) step past stride, and assumes you have no prior knowledge of posting a work on AO3. It also assumes you're accessing the site in the default skin; please brand allowances if your site customization is unlike.

If your piece of work is already online at another site, you may prefer to import it. Note that the success of the import part largely depends on the originating site and its compatibility with AO3; we are currently unable to import from several sites.

You can find more information on posting, editing, and importing works at the Posting and Editing FAQ.

Please note: Nosotros strongly encourage you to compose your work off the site in a word processor or other program and then post it on AO3 once it's set. There is no auto-save function while you are working in this page, and AO3 drafts are deleted one calendar month after their creation date. Deleted drafts cannot be recovered.

To learn more almost drafts and how they work on AO3, please refer to the Posting and Editing FAQ.

About the New Work Page

Go to the Post carte du jour and choose "New Piece of work". This is located at the summit right of the screen next to your user proper name.

screenshot of the Post New Work menu item

This takes you lot to the New Work folio, where yous can add your work's content and other information. Required fields are marked with an asterisk and red text in the field headings.

If you accept a draft saved, an option to "Restore From Concluding Unposted Typhoon?" will appear equally a button at the top of the page. Selecting this will shut the electric current New Work folio and open up the Edit Work page for the terminal draft y'all saved. To learn more about drafts and how they work on AO3, please refer to the Posting and Editing FAQ.

Most of the options have a blueish question mark symbol beside them ? , which brings up a help popular-upwards with additional information.

Entering Tag Information

We utilise tags for the majority of the data (metadata) attached to works. Category, Warnings, Rating, Fandoms, Characters, Relationships, and Additional Tags are all types of tags. For more information near tags delight refer to the Tags FAQ.

Some fields will be autocompleting fields. That means y'all tin can outset inbound the tag and a listing of suggestions will come up upward. But canonical tags— that is, tags that have been marked "mutual" by AO3'due south tag wranglers—will appear. If you desire to create a new tag, you tin can ignore the autocomplete suggestions and type the name out in full. Brand sure you press Enter or insert a comma after each tag. You lot tin can repeat this process until you have all desired tags listed.

Users of AO3 may use this information to aid them find works of interest to them, so filling these fields out as accurately and completely equally possible will assist ensure that other users observe your work.

Rating (required)

Select the rating which you believe best applies to your piece of work (or select "Not Rated").

Ratings measure the intensity of a piece of work's content and give users an thought of the suitability of the work for them. Ratings and warnings can attract users who are seeking specific content, and they tin as well warn off users who are trying to avoid that content. Because fanworks may deal with controversial and painful problems, we encourage creators to choose ratings and warnings that help users make decisions near the works they admission.

The ratings and their definitions are as follows:

Non Rated: This is the default option. For searching, screening, and other Annal functions, this may get treated the same mode as mature and explicit-rated content. Cull this rating if you prefer non to rate your content.
General Audiences: The content is unlikely to exist disturbing to anyone, and is suitable for all ages.
Teen And Up Audiences: The content may exist inappropriate for audiences under xiii.
Mature: The content contains developed themes (sex, violence, etc) that aren't as graphic as explicit-rated content.
Explicit: The content contains explicit developed themes, such as porn, graphic violence, etc.

A user accessing a "Not Rated", "Mature" or "Explicit" rated work will receive a alarm (unless they accept disabled information technology in their preferences) to advise them that the work may comprise adult content. You tin can refer to How tin I turn off the confirmation to admission adult content? regarding this option.

For more information almost ratings on AO3, visit the Terms of Service FAQ - Ratings and Warnings.

Archive Warnings (required)

Select any warning(s) which you believe apply to your work, or "No Archive Warnings Apply", or "Cull Not To Use Archive Warnings". You can make multiple selections. Fanworks may deal with controversial and painful issues; therefore, we encourage creators to cull ratings and warnings that aid users make decisions about the works they access.

AO3 requires that creators either warn for—or explicitly cull non to warn for—a short listing of common warnings: Major Character Decease, Underage, Rape/Non-Con, and Graphic Depictions of Violence. Nosotros've also provided options to warn for additional content or to not warn for content at all.

The warnings and their definitions are as follows:

Choose Not To Employ Archive Warnings: Utilise this if warnings may apply but you don't desire to utilize them.
No Annal Warnings Apply: Utilize this if AO3 warnings don't utilise to your content (in other words, if it contains no graphic depictions of violence, major grapheme death, rape/non-con, or underage sex activity).
Graphic Depictions Of Violence: This is for gory, graphic, explicitly described violence. Exactly where to draw the line is your phone call.
Major Graphic symbol Death: Please use your all-time judgment about who counts equally a major grapheme.
Rape/Non-Con: Again, this is your telephone call. If you think your content is deadline non-consensual, just you lot don't experience like using this alert (or you're not sure if you should), you always have the option of using "Cull Not to Utilise Archive Warnings" instead.
Underage: This is for descriptions or depictions of sex activity past characters under the age of eighteen (this doesn't include dating activity like kissing or vague references with no actual clarification/depiction). This generally applies to humans; if you are writing porn most space aliens who only live for a month or thousand year-sometime vampires with xvi yr-old bodies, delight just use your best judgment. You are always free to specify characters' ages or to use "Choose Not to Utilise Archive Warnings".

Yous can use the Additional Tags field to give other or more than detailed warnings (this will exist covered in more detail further on in the tutorial).

Our policies regarding warnings tin be found in the Terms of Service and Terms of Service FAQ.

Fandoms (required)

Enter the name(s) of the fandom(south) to which your work belongs. Full names, rather than abbreviations, are preferred to avoid ambiguity.

This is an autocompleting field. Note that if you lot create a fandom tag, it may not show up in the fandoms page for a few days.

You tin post works on the Annal that don't relate to specific fandoms. For more information, please refer to Can I annal original fiction? in the Terms of Service. You lot can mail service these types of works using the "Original Work" fandom tag.

screenshot of the fandom autocompleting field in practice

For more data on fandom (and other) tags, please refer to the Tags FAQ or When will you remove a fandom tag? in the Terms of Service FAQ.

Relationships

List the principal human relationship(s) in your work. These can be whatever type of human relationship, not just romantic or sexual. A romantic and/or sexual human relationship is indicated by using a slash ("/") separator (for instance, "Chidi Anagonye/Eleanor Shellstrop"). Nonsexual, not-romantic relationships–such every bit ideal relationships between friends, family unit, teammates, etc.–are indicated with an "&" separator (for example "Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric").

Full names are preferred where possible to avoid ambivalence. Delight note that each relationship tag must be 100 characters or less; if your work contains a relationship involving vi or more characters, you lot may want to use first names or nicknames only to avert going over the character limit.

This is an autocompleting field. For more than information on relationship (and other) tags, please refer to the Tags FAQ.

screenshot of the relationships autocompleting field in practice

Characters

Hither y'all can list the main character(south) in your work. Full names (personal name and family name) are preferred to avert ambiguity. If you are including original characters, you can choose to use the existing tags for those—only offset entering "original character" for a listing.

This is an autocompleting field. For more information on character (and other) tags, delight refer to the Tags FAQ.

screenshot of the characters autocompleting field in practice

Additional Tags

Here you can include any other tags y'all want to give your work. You may also utilize this field to warn for things not covered past Archive Warnings. Please practice non enter fandoms, relationships, or character names in this field, unless you're including extra information almost them (for case "Female person Sherlock Holmes" or "Modest Haku/Ogino Chihiro").

Additional Tags are an important tool for users to find works which interest them (e.grand. in particular genres or tropes, or that deal with particular bug). To reach the maximum number of interested users with your work, it's worth taking the fourth dimension to tag accurately and informatively. However, it's entirely up to you how much (or how footling) you tag your piece of work and what you include.

At that place are no limitations as to what can be entered as an Additional Tag, so you tin utilise information technology in any fashion seems advisable for your work and/or fandom. Y'all tin can help users understand the genres or tropes your work includes (for example, angst, fluff and angst, sense of humour, coming out, BDSM, public sex activity). If you have taken canon characters from your fandom and put them into a unlike environs, you can let users know this by tagging it equally an Alternate Universe work (some AU tropes accept existing approved tags, such as omegaverse). If your work is a crossover or fusion, information technology can be useful to include those tags here. You tin can list kinks included in your work, the time period of your piece of work...the list goes on.

If you're unsure almost what to put here, try browsing your fandom to find out what tags other creators have used. Yous can always edit the work later to change or add to your tags.

This is an autocompleting field. For more information, please refer to the Tags FAQ.

screenshot of the additional tags autocompleting field in practice

Work Title (required)

Enter the title of your piece of work. This can be anything, upward to 255 characters of unformatted text. You cannot use HTML or CSS formatting in this field.

Add together co-authors?

If yous've created the work with others, y'all can check this box and then enter their pseud(s). Y'all tin only add together an existing AO3 account holder as a co-creator. This is non the identify to credit beta readers; mutual practice is to use the Notes for that.

Once added, a co-creator is able to edit chapters they are credited on, delete the work, or add it to their series.

Delight note that one time a co-creator is added, you cannot remove them from the work and nosotros are unable to exercise information technology for you lot. They have to do that themselves. Therefore, please ensure you are adding the right person and not someone with a like pseud.

Summary

Enter a summary of your work. This is a bit like the blurb y'all find on the dorsum of a book jacket or DVD. You tin use it to let people know what they can await from your work and get them interested.

If you're unsure how to summarize your work, you tin browse other works on AO3 for ideas. A summary is not required, so yous can choose not to include 1 if you prefer.

Notes

You can include any additional data you'd similar in the Notes section. Notes can be added to the beginning and/or end of your piece of work, or to individual capacity.

Some examples of Notes could be:

to explicate why you've created the work (e.k. a prompt).
to thank people who've helped yous (eastward.g. betas).
a message to users following your work (eastward.g. when you programme to post updates to a WIP).
content warnings which haven't been included in the tags simply which you'd similar to mention.
anything else yous'd similar people to know near your work that hasn't been indicated in the summary or tags.

Does this fulfill a claiming consignment?

If you have an open assignment, this option will appear on the Mail New Work page.

To fulfill your assignment, check its "Challenge/Souvenir Exchange Assignment" checkbox. Once your work is posted, the post-obit will occur:

your assignment volition be marked as complete.
the work will be gifted to the relevant user (in the instance of gift exchanges).
your work volition be added to the collection.

Post to Collections / Challenges

If you created the work as office of a drove or challenge, hither is where you specify that. If you've used the Challenge Assignment checkbox, y'all don't need to consummate this section. This is an autocompleting field. Note that you cannot create a new drove from this folio.

If the claiming is a gift commutation, you tin also enter the proper name of the recipient of your work in the "Souvenir this work to" field. If the collection you are adding your piece of work to is anonymous and/or unrevealed, adding your piece of work to information technology volition anonymize yous as the creator and/or hibernate your work from all users except yourself and the collection moderator(due south) until the collection is revealed. Please be aware of this when calculation your work to collections.

Please refer to the Collections FAQ for more data.

Gift this work to

If y'all created the piece of work as a gift, or as part of a gift exchange, you can enter the recipient's pseud(s) here. If you accept used the Challenge Consignment checkbox, you don't need to complete this section.

Recipients don't need to have an Annal account, simply the gifted work tin be linked to an Archive account if they do have ane. To link a gifted piece of work to an Archive account, you can start entering the recipient's name and a listing of pseuds for Archive account holders will come up. Select the person you're gifting your work to. If there is a list of like pseuds, it's of import to ensure y'all select the correct i. Works can be gifted to multiple recipients.

If you've accidentally gifted the work to the wrong business relationship or pseud, you can remove the recipient through the Edit Piece of work page by clicking on the red (×) next to their name. Then you can enter the correct name or pseud and select the "Update" push button to have the recipient changed.

For recipients who don't have an Archive business relationship, you can enter their pseud or proper noun in total. However, please ensure the pseud or proper name does not belong to an Annal account holder. If it does, you volition need to differentiate it in some mode, or the work will exist gifted to the AO3 account.

This work is a remix, a translation, a podfic, or was inspired by some other work

Bank check this checkbox if y'all created your work based on another work, and so fill in the details.

URL - enter the URL of the source work. If the work is on AO3, the URL is the only detail you demand to fill in—unless you lot're posting a translation, in which case you'll also need to check that checkbox.
Title - enter the Championship of the source work, if information technology's not posted on AO3.
Author - enter the pseud or name of the person who created the source work, if information technology'south not posted on AO3.
Language - enter the linguistic communication of the source piece of work, if it's not posted on AO3. You will prepare the language of your work farther downwards the page.
Translation - if your work is a translation of the source work, check the checkbox here.

This work is role of a series

Check this checkbox if your work is part of a new or existing series. Yous can just add works to a series if you are the possessor or co-owner. To add the piece of work to an existing series, select it from the "Cull i of your existing series" menu list. To create a new serial, enter the name of the series in the field labelled "Or create and use a new one".

To add the work to some other person'due south serial (e.thousand. a co-creator) they'll need to take fabricated yous a co-author of the serial.

For more information on Series on AO3, please refer to the Serial FAQ.

This piece of work has multiple chapters

Check this checkbox if your work will contain multiple chapters. If you already know how many chapters there will be, you can replace the default question marking with the affiliate total. You can likewise enter a unique title for your chapter, merely this is not required. If you don't enter a chapter championship, the default title will be each chapter's number (due east.g. "Affiliate 2"). If yous enter a title for Chapter ane, it won't appear on the piece of work until you have at to the lowest degree 2 chapters.

You tin can add chapters to your work once it's posted by opening your work and selecting the "Add Chapter" button. You can also get to it from the Works page on your Dashboard.

For more data on multiple chapter works, delight refer to the Posting and Editing FAQ.

Set a different publication date

Check this checkbox if yous'd like to backdate your work, then select the solar day, month, and year of publication. This tin can be useful if you are reposting a work that was previously posted elsewhere and you'd like to have the piece of work on AO3 reflect the original posting date.

Annotation that you can't prepare a publication appointment in the future.

A work with a backdated publishing appointment will all the same bear witness upwardly in RSS feeds as a newly posted piece of work, just will not announced at the top of index pages with the default (engagement updated) sort order (e.g the results page when browsing or searching for works).

Choose a language

Select the language of your work via the carte listing. English is selected by default. If your language is not on the list, please contact Back up and let united states of america know.

Select Work Skin

Y'all tin can create a work skin to modify the advent of your work. The Annal of Our Ain (AO3) only accepts a select list of HTML tags, so piece of work skins let you have greater control over the advent of your work. For case, yous may wish to use font colors to indicate which graphic symbol is speaking, writing, or texting, or to indent certain parts of your work. Delight refer to the Skins and Archive Interface FAQ or the Tutorial: Styling Works for more data on creating a piece of work skin.

There are also 2 Public Work Skins which y'all can cull hither—the Basic Formatting skin and the Homestuck skin.

Select the peel you want to apply from the menu listing.

Privacy

But testify your work to registered users - cheque this checkbox to only allow users logged in to AO3 to access your work.
Disable anonymous commenting - cheque this to prevent comments from users who are not logged in. This selection yet allows guests to admission the work and leave kudos.
Enable annotate moderation - check this to moderate comments on your piece of work. That ways you volition take to corroborate all comments before they appear publicly. Refer to Releases 0.nine.87 - 0.9.91: Change Log (Comment moderation released!) for farther data on comment moderation.

Input the Work

Information technology'southward not notwithstanding possible to host videos, images or audio files on AO3, but you tin embed works hosted elsewhere. If y'all are posting a video, epitome, or audio work, please refer to the Posting and Editing FAQ for details on how to embed this media.

Here you have 2 input types in the Piece of work Text field—you can either enter your work in plain text and apply express HTML tagging (default option) or yous can select the Rich Text button to enter preformatted text.

Delight annotation: We strongly encourage yous to compose your piece of work off the site in a word processor or relevant program, and and so post it on AO3 once it's set up. There is no auto-salvage function while you're working in this page, and works saved every bit drafts are deleted a calendar month subsequently their cosmos date. Deleted drafts cannot be recovered.

To learn more about drafts and how they piece of work on AO3, please refer to the Posting and Editing FAQ.

Using HTML

The HTML editor allows you to mark up your text with HTML tags. For more than elaborate styling, you volition need to employ a "Work Skin", which is basically custom CSS. Delight refer to the Tutorial: Styling Works for more than information on creating a Work Skin.

Allowed HTML

a, abbr, acronym, accost, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, centre, cite, code, col, colgroup, dd, del, dfn, div, dl, dt, em, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, img, ins, kbd, li, ol, p, pre, q, s, samp, small-scale, span, strike, stiff, sub, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, var.

How do we format your HTML?

When yous enter HTML into the Work Text field, we do some cleanup on information technology to brand sure that information technology's prophylactic (to forestall spammers and hackers from uploading malicious code). Nosotros also do some basic formatting both for your convenience and for accessibility reasons.

To preview the results of our formatting and correct whatever mistakes, you lot can select the "Rich Text" push and then "HTML". You tin too choose "Preview" and so "Edit" to return to this page—these buttons tin can be found at the bottom of the page.

Please note that the best style to get expert results is to put in good HTML—that's how yous can be certain your work volition be formatted correctly across various browsers, screen readers, mobile devices, and downloads.

For more data on using HTML and the formatting we do for y'all, please go to the HTML Assist page.

Using the Rich Text Editor

The exact behavior of the Rich Text Editor (RTE) depends on your device, browser, and operating system, equally well every bit the source you're pasting from. All the same, starting with a well-formatted document will help.

For more information on getting the most out of the RTE, pasting from specific text editors, and pasting specific types of formatting delight refer to the RTE Help folio.

In that location are a couple of issues with pasting from some common give-and-take processing programs that we are aware of. Delight visit the Known Issues folio for farther detail on this.

Posting the Work

Once yous're happy with the formatting of your work and the options yous've selected, you tin can preview how your work volition announced by selecting the "Preview" button in the Post department of the folio (beneath the piece of work). When you preview the work, you'll also go the selection to save information technology as a draft. You can post your piece of work without previewing it by selecting "Post Without Preview"; still, it is recommended that you preview information technology first, especially if this is your first time posting on AO3.

There is also a "Abolish" button located in the Post department; please annotation that if you select "Cancel" and you lot accept non saved the draft, you will lose all work on this page and information technology cannot exist recovered.

To make changes, select the "Edit" push. To save your work as a draft and come back to it later, select "Save Without Posting". One time yous're happy with the preview, select the "Post" button beneath and your work will be posted on AO3 for people to savour.

Please note: Unposted drafts are automatically deleted from AO3 one calendar month from the date they're created. Therefore, nosotros strongly encourage you to etch your work off the site in a give-and-take processor or other program, and then post it on AO3 in one case information technology'southward complete. Deleted drafts cannot be recovered.

To learn more about drafts and how they work on AO3, please refer to the Posting and Editing FAQ.

Happy posting!

Where tin I get more than information if my question isn't answered here?

For more information on Posting and Editing Works, refer to the Posting and Editing FAQ. Some other frequently asked questions about the Annal are answered in other sections of the Archive FAQ, and some common terminology is defined in our Glossary. Questions and answers nigh our Terms of Service tin can be found in the Terms of Service FAQ. You may also like to check out our Known Issues. If y'all need more help, please submit a Support request.

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Source: https://archiveofourown.org/faq/tutorial-posting-a-work-on-ao3?language_id=en