fic fest submissions?

[kennahijja]

Um, yeah, I *will* shut up at one point today, but for now...

Being one of the few LJ fic exchange fest virgins around here, I wonder, when you submit your finished fic... do you format it for posting to LJ right away, or submit it as text or doc file? Any etiquette on this?

Comments

[fourth_rose]

Most mods give info about the posting format (often in the userinfo, if there's a special account for the fest); if they don't, I think formatting it with all the necessary html tags is the best way to do it.

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

I don't know about ettiquette, but I've taken over the past year, to incliding the html formatting in my first draft text as I write it, instead of relying on the Word italics and whatnot.

But then again, I only participate in fests that are run here on LJ, so it's not an issue of trying to match up to any other format for me.

Where is this fest you're in going to be posted?

[gmth.livejournal.com]

For Smutmas, I asked people to submit their fics in Word files with any HTML (bold, italics, etc.) included. You'd be better off addomg the HTML even if the mod didn't specifically ask for it, because chances are good he/she won't read everything submitted and will not put the coding in him/herself. You might end up with all formatting stripped, and that can impact how your fic is read.

[reposoir.livejournal.com]

Nope, unless specified, I submit it as an html or doc file.

[fleshdress.livejournal.com]

I attach it as a Word doc. with the header and html tags all included. But no-one ever told me so I probably made some huge screw-ups in the past! *g*

[plaidphoenix.livejournal.com]

What I do for an lj-fest story is copy the story to another folder, and format it for posting there and then copy&paste that into the submission box then delete that copy after I've submitted it. Maybe it's an overly complicated process, but it works for me.

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Hijja, sorry for the OT, but the link in your Niffle goes to a wrong fic. Thought you might want to know it asap.

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

If you want your fic to have the formatting you want - italics in place, etc - put in the html codes (whether it's a Word file or a txt file). LJ mods at least are going to expect it, I think. Also most website archive mods will require it, or be grateful for it. FA must be one of the few archives which doesn't work like that. And you are being careful to disable smart quotes, aren't you?

For a couple of years now I've been in the habit of putting in the codes as I draft - it avoids the risk of missing out on some of them when I'm finalising text for posting. That includes [center] and [bold] for headings. (If the words are just tumbling out, it's another matter - but usually I even correct the output of my stubbornly dyslexic fingers as I go, too.)

If for some other place I want a version with text showing in italics, all I have to do is put it in an LJ post and copy across the results.

[captainjames.livejournal.com]

I'd ask the mod =D. But anyway, what I did for harry_holidays (and what I'll do for hpvalensmut, remixredux and sunandsmut) is copying and pasting the text into a .txt file, and then add italic/bold/center/etc html tags, but not paragraph or line break tags. That way it can be easily copied and pasted into the LJ entry update box.