Posting Guidelines

**If there is an emergency and you are unable to meet your scheduled posting date, Contact Us. All times are given in ET (Eastern Time).**

## TL;DR

* On your scheduled posting date, artists will post their art to their website of choice and authors will post their finished fic to AO3.
* You or your partner will submit a masterpost to Airtable (link forthcoming) on your scheduled posting date before 11:59pm ET. You must coordinate with your team member. Do not submit a masterpost before both art and fic have been posted.
* Don’t promote your fic/art anywhere before your masterpost is published.
* We strongly encourage all teams to create a promotional graphic to accompany your masterpost.

**Complete posting instructions follow. It should only take you a few minutes to read them. If you ask a question already answered here, we will send you back to this page.** If you are not clear on how to do something, please get in touch so we can help!

## Complete Posting Guide

Posting day can be stressful, especially if this is your first challenge, but we hope this guide eases you through the process.

### Step one: Talk with your partner

The most important part of getting ready to post is talking with your partner about how you will coordinate your posting day to exchange links to the fic and art. We recommend having a conversation a few days in advance of your posting date.

Here’s what you need to figure out:

* Which one of you is going to submit the masterpost to Airtable? Since this is a reverse bang, your artist might want to handle this step, but this is up to your team to decide.
* What time of the day will your team post? What timezones are you each in? It’s not unusual for one partner to be ready in the morning and the other need additional time for formatting. Talk to each other about potential delays so no one worries.
* Will the art be embedded in the fic and, if so, where will it be hosted? You both have a say in this. Not all authors like to embed art in their fics, and not all artists like to have their art embedded in a fic. Ask your partner their preferences and where the files will be hosted (eg. the artist’s imgur account).
* Who is going to make the promotional graphic? (More about promo graphics in the next step.) It’s common for team artists to whip up a banner, but it’s not a requirement for this challenge. Authors, find out if your artist will be making a banner. If they’d rather you handle this, guidelines are in the next step.
* Do you know how to spell and format each other’s names? We can edit a tumblr post, but we can’t edit reblogs, so please confirm spelling/capitalization/spacing etc. of your pennames in advance.

### Step two (optional): Create a graphic to accompany your masterpost

We strongly recommend that each masterpost be accompanied by a promotional graphic. Not only will they look nicer, but posts with images tend to perform better on social media, and we want people to see your work.

Please talk with your partner about who will be responsible for creating your team’s graphic, if one is to be made. Since this is a reverse bang and focuses on art, we recommend this step be handled by the team artist, but this is ultimately up to each team.

**Important:** If the author is going to be designing the graphic, please do not use the artist’s illustration without their permission.

#### Graphic guidelines

* Graphic for the masterpost must be **under 5MB**.
* Graphics can be any ratio, style, and design you prefer. This is up to you to determine.
* You can use whatever program you want to create them. We recommend Canva.
* There are no set dimensions, but please make graphics at least 540px wide so they look good on tumblr.
* Your team artist is welcome to create a graphic from the art they already created for this challenge (eg. a portion of it cut into a banner).
* If your graphic contains an illustration, it may only be done by your team artist - not by the author, not by another artist you’re friends with, not by someone you paid, not even if your team artist says it’s okay. TL;DR: You may not use a manip, illustration, or art created by someone other than your team artist, even if it is legally sourced. It’s not allowed for this challenge. And please don’t ask someone else to make the graphic for you. Play fair.
* You may not make your graphic from existing photomanipulations or fanart that you find on the internet. If you are working with Supernatural episode screencaps, please do not use someone else’s edits without permission.
* If your graphic will be photo based, we recommend Unsplash and Pixabay for free images
* The graphic should mention the art and/or fic title, both partner names, and the name of the challenge. Please write the challenge name as either “Dean/Cas Reverse Bang” or “DCRB.” If you’d like to use the challenge logo, you can use any in this folder.

You’ll submit your banner to Airtable at the time you submit your masterpost. We don’t need it in advance.

If your banner doesn’t follow these guidelines, we’ll remove it, and your masterpost will go up without one.

### Step three: Post the individual components

#### ARTISTS: Post your art

Please post your art as close to your scheduled date as possible. If you need to post the night before because of time zones or work schedules, that’s fine. Do not promo the art anywhere until your team’s masterpost appears on the DCRB tumblr.

Art should be posted wherever you typically host yours (AO3, DeviantArt, LJ, tumblr).

Artists can choose whether to create an art post to be linked from the masterpost, to have the art embedded in the fic (if the author is willing), or both. If your author doesn’t like embedded art, that’s their call. If you don’t like your art embedded, that’s yours.

If possible, please lock your posts or keep them in draft form until your scheduled posting day. Do not promote your art anywhere before the masterpost appears on the DCRB tumblr. (If you use tumblr to host your art, we know you cannot help the art being public before your team masterpost is approved and published, but we ask that you not cross-post to any other social network or reblog yourself until your team’s masterpost is live.)

You are expected to include a link to your author’s fic from your art post and to mention that it was created for the DCRB.

If you post your art to AO3, please add it to the official AO3 collection (see below).

Send your author the link to your art post so they have it.

#### AUTHORS: Post your fic to AO3

Please post your fic as close to your scheduled date as possible. If you need to post the night before because of time zones or work schedules, that’s fine. Do not promo the fic or share the AO3 link anywhere until your team’s masterpost appears on the DCRB tumblr.

Fics should be posted to Archive of Our Own, and you may cross-post to any comparable archive of your choice. If you do not have an AO3 account, contact the mods for an invitation. Keep your fic in draft form until posting day.

If you need help formatting your document, consider this handy resource for Google Docs. You can also send us an email at destielreversebang@gmail.com (at least 24 hours in advance, please!) or ask your peers for help in the Discord server.

Serial posting (posting bit-by-bit over a length of time, such as a chapter per day) is prohibited. All chapters and epilogues must be posted on your assigned posting date, on all platforms where you post the fic. You may not spread out posting for this challenge across several days. If you want to add a timestamp later, you must wait until we release the masterlist for this round.

If your fic contains any of the major archive warnings as defined by AO3, you must tag for them. What you tag for beyond that is up to you, although we recommend erring on the side of caution and tagging any potentially upsetting material.

You are expected to include a link to your artist’s masterpost from your AO3 post and to mention that it was written for the DCRB.

Finally, please add your work to the AO3 collection (see below).

Send your artist the link to your fic so they have it.

#### EVERYONE: Add your work to the AO3 collection

We have an AO3 collection for this challenge. To add your work to this year’s collection, search for “dcrb2023” in the collection field. If it doesn't show up, enter it anyway and it will work! The collection is moderated, so it might take a bit for your fic/art to show up. The tumblr and AO3 collection will be monitored for submissions periodically through the day.

Please include the tag “Dean/Cas Reverse Bang” so we can locate your fic/art another way, in case something happens with the collection.

Artists, if you do not post your art to AO3, this step does not apply to you.

### Step four: Submit your team masterpost to Airtable

By now, you and your partner have posted your individual components and exchanged links, so it’s time to submit your masterpost.

One partner should go to the provided airtable link and submit the masterpost on your scheduled posting date before 11:59pm ET.

The form will ask for the following:

* A promotional graphic
* Pairings: Dean/Cas (Please list any side pairings in parentheses)
* Wordcount:
* Warnings: (You must warn for MCD, underage, noncon, and graphic violence)
* Summary:
* Link to art masterpost
* Link to fic masterpost

## Help: Common posting-day issues

Here are some common posting-day scenarios and what to do about them.

### My partner hasn’t posted their fic/art yet! Should I submit the masterpost anyway?

No. Please stay calm and try to get a hold of your partner first. People have meetings that run over, exams, kids, schnauzers, lawns to mow, and car issues.

If you believe there may be a problem, please email the moderators at destielreversebang@gmail.com.

Email all of the requested information to destielreversebang@gmail.com and one of the mods will happily post on your behalf.

### My computer won’t turn on

All of our participants are expected to make backups of their work as they go (this was in the challenge info you all read before signing up). We require this because hardware and software failures are a reality. Assuming you have a backup and need time to get to another computer, email your partner and us so we can work something out.

If you didn’t back up your work, we’ll do what we can to accommodate your partner.

### I’m not done. Can I get an extension?

No. We don't grant them except in cases of extreme emergency such as an accident or natural disaster.

### I missed my posting date.

We're strict about the 11:59pm ET submission time. We will not stay up waiting on a masterpost. If you don't get yours in by that time, we won't post it the next morning. It'll be held until the end of the challenge.

For teams that miss their posting dates for any reason, we will have a 48-hour amnesty posting window at the end of the challenge. This should only be used as a last resort in case of a minor emergency (eg. sudden illness), not as a free ticket to an extension. Please consider your partner before choosing this option.

### I’ve had an emergency

If a serious emergency keeps you from posting (eg. an accident or natural disaster), please take care of yourself and get in touch with us when it’s safe and reasonable for you to do so. If it’s possible to message your partner so they don’t worry, please do.

## Do you have any questions or concerns?

If you are unclear about any of the instructions in this guide, please Contact Us.