natsumeyuujinchou | Sign-ups now open for the Book of Friends fic, art, & AMV/vid exchange!

Please find below (hopefully) all the information you need! :D

FAQ & Sign-Up Tutorial

Do I need an Archive of Our Own (AO3) account to participate?
What does signing up commit me to?
What are the deadlines?
What if I can't finish my assignment?
What is a pinch hit?
Signing up
What's a request?
What's an offer?
What's a beta?
What's a Dear Creator letter?
What's a treat?
How do I post my work to AO3?
Anything else?

Do I need an Archive of Our Own (AO3) account to participate? back to top

Yes, you will need an AO3 account. If you need an invite code, contact

littlebutfierce /

littlebutfierceby PM or via e-mail (paperwarfic at gmail dot com).

What does signing up commit me to? back to top

If you sign up, you are agreeing to do: one complete fic of at least 1000 words, or a complete (not a sketch) piece of artwork or an AMV/vid of at least one minute, that fulfills one of the prompts your recipient gave. In return, you will receive either art, fic, or an AMV/vid (you can specify which you would like) yourself!

What are the deadlines? back to top

Sign-ups will take place from January 25 to February 7, closing at approximately 7 PM GMT (what time is that in your time zone?). Assignments will go out as soon as possible after that.

Assignments will be due on March 17 at 9 PM GMT (what time is that in your time zone?). You can post them earlier if you want, of course!

The exchange fanworks will be revealed on March 24, or when all the participants have a gift (whichever is later). At this point they will be anonymous. On March 31 the creators' names will be revealed. Please don't post your assignment anywhere but to the exchange collection on AO3 until the creators' names are revealed!

Please also see below for deadlines for defaulting.

What if I can't finish my assignment? back to top

If you can't finish your assignment for any reason, you must contact the mod (

littlebutfierce /

littlebutfierce or paperwarfic at gmail dot com) immediately. Things happen sometimes; that's understandable. However, everyone signed up wants to receive a gift – so please let the mod know as soon as possible if you need to default on your assignment, so it can be reassigned to someone else.

You can default by contacting the mod as in the above paragraph, or by going to your AO3 account, clicking on "Assignments" and then clicking the "Default" button next to your Book of Friends exchange assignment.

Defaulting can be done by March 3 (by 9 PM GMT -- time zone converter) without penalty. Anyone who defaults after this date will not be permitted to participate in future rounds of the exchange until they complete a 1000-word fic or complete artwork or AMV of at least one minute for one of the original prompts for their assignment.

Anyone who defaults at any time without notifying the mod (whether directly or by using the default button on AO3) will not be eligible for future exchanges. If you need to default, contact

littlebutfierce /

littlebutfierce by PM or via e-mail (paperwarfic at gmail dot com), or by clicking Default next to your assignment on AO3.

What is a pinch hit? back to top

If a participant can't finish their assignment, a pinch hitter steps in to take it and make sure everyone has a gift! If you are interested in pinch-hitting, please subscribe to the pinch hit mailing list. If any pinch hits are needed, a message will be sent to the list asking for a volunteer to take the assignment. You don't have to be signed up for the exchange to be a pinch hitter.

Signing up back to top

Sign-ups will take place using this form on AO3.

You must make 3 requests & 3 offers. You can make a fourth offer if you want (which may also make matching easier).

What's a request? back to top

When you sign up, you must make 3 requests. You will receive a gift based on one of them.

Here's what the request section looks like:

Each request must have between 1 and 3 specific characters chosen. You can scroll down to see all the characters, or you can click to show all the characters' names at once. Click to select the character(s) you would like to request.

The next section, labeled "Freeforms," has three tags: Art, Fic, & AMV/vid. Please check if you would like to receive art, fic, an AMV/vid, or any (by checking all three boxes). You can choose different options for each request!

A note on how the matching system works: say you'd be happy to receive works featuring Natsume, Matoba, Nyanko-sensei, Taki, and Hinoe. But you don't want to have Matoba and Taki appearing together, and you only want to see Hinoe with Nyanko-sensei. You must then make three separate requests: one with Matoba (and whoever else you want to see with him), one with Taki (and whoever else you want to see with her), and one with Hinoe and Nyanko-sensei.

There's an optional space to provide a link to a Dear Creator letter (see below for more on that).

And finally, there's a space to provide optional details to give your creator more of a hint on what you like. Your creator will be matched on medium (fic, art or AMV/vid) and characters only – this is a chance to offer more suggestions to help them make a work that you'll love! Giving your creator several ideas to work with can be really useful. You can put details here or put a link to your Dear Creator letter (see below) or both!

Here is an example prompt (from a past exchange):

Taki is my favorite character, so I would love something with her at the center. I'm a big OT3 shipper, but something friendshippy with her & Tanuma & Natsume would also be fantastic.

Yours can be shorter or longer, with more detail or less!

Please note that only characters that you specifically name in the request (the 1-3 characters you typed in) are required to be in your gift. In your optional details you can suggest ideas that might include other characters, but your creator is not required to use them. Please also note that you are matched on characters & medium -- your optional details are provided to help your creator know more about what you like, but they aren't required. Again, it helps if you give multiple suggestions if possible. Note that you might request something shippy & receive something gen (with the same characters), etc.

What's an offer? back to top

An offer is how you describe what you are willing to do for your assignment in terms of characters. You must make three offers. You can make a fourth if you like, which may make matching easier.

Here's what the offer section of the sign-up form looks like:

Again, as with requests, you can scroll down the list of characters or click "Show all checkboxes" to see them all at once. You can select from 1-5 characters per offer – this is more than you can select per request, to make matching easier.

And if you are happy to use any nominated characters in any combination, then check the "Any" box. However, most people will probably want to specify characters, or sets of characters, in each request. Borrowing from the example above, if you are comfortable making fanworks featuring Natsume, Matoba, Nyanko-sensei, Taki, and Hinoe, but don't want to do anything featuring Taki and Matoba together, you would have to make one offer with Taki (and whoever else you'd be comfortable featuring with her) and then another with Matoba (and whoever else you'd be comfortable featuring with him). And again, if you only want to create something with Hinoe if she's with Nyanko-sensei, then you'd have to make a separate offer including only the two of them.

The next section, labeled "Freeforms," has three tags: Art, Fic, & AMV/vid. Please check if you would like to offer art, fic, an AMV/vid, or any (by checking all three boxes). You can choose different options for each offer!

Note after your third offer, there is a button on the right if you would like to add a fourth offer.

Once you're done, look over your signup carefully, though you can edit your signup as long as signups are open, and then hit submit.

The signup summary gives an idea of what people are requesting & offering.

What's a beta? back to top

A beta is someone who looks over your fanwork before you post it & offers helpful suggestions: anything from catching grammatical mistakes to pointing out someone took their shoes off twice in one scene to more detailed suggestions. Betas can really help take a fanwork from good to amazing, so if at all possible, please use a beta for your exchange gift! You can offer to beta & request a beta in this post.

What's a Dear Creator letter? back to top

This is optional, but very useful for whoever has your assignment! It's a letter (that you can post on LJ or DW, for example) that gives more details than you might have included in your sign-up: more thoughts about the characters you chose, types of fanworks that you like (or would rather not receive), etc. The more your creator knows about your tastes the more likely they'll be able to create something that you love.

You don't have to have a Dear Creator letter written when you sign up; you can make the post in your journal & simply note that it's a placeholder, so that you can put the link to it in your signup. Don't forget to go back & edit your post to put in your letter, though!

Here is an example letter (from a different exchange with different rules about character requests, but the idea is the same).

And here are the collected Dear Creator letters for the exchange!

What's a treat? back to top

A treat is a bonus gift for anyone in the exchange. Perhaps your recipient has two prompts that you really want to create something for, or perhaps you've seen something in the Dear Creator letters that you'd like to fill. Please go ahead! You can post treats to the main collection in the same way as you post your assignment (see How do I post my work to AO3? below). There's one small difference, though: make sure you fill in the "Gift this work to" box with the username of the recipient.

In addition, after assignments are due on March 17, but before the collection is open for viewing on March 24, all prompts will be made visible -- this means you'll be able to see the requests for everyone in the exchange & have a week to make any treats you want.

Treats can be any length -- they are not subject to the same minimum requirements as your main assignment. In addition, you don't have to be part of the exchange to do treats, either!

How do I post my work to AO3? back to top

There's a FAQ on posting to AO3 as well as a brief tutorial on posting to a challenge.

In brief, to get started you can either use the Post New Work link off your profile page, or you can go to the Book of Friends exchange collection and click on “Post to Collection."

You can also click on Assignments, where you'll find your Book of Friends assignment listed, & click "Fulfill." This will auto-fill the "Does this fulfill a challenge assignment", "Post to Collection" & "Gift this work to" fields -- but if you use the Post New Work link or go to the Book of Friends exchange collection and click "Post to Collection," there will still be an option for you to check the box next to "Does this fulfill a challenge assignment."

For art and AMVs/vids, you'll do the same thing, except you will have to upload your image or video to an image or video hosting site first and then use the img src tag to post it.

Anything else? back to top

If you have any other questions, please comment here or PM

littlebutfierce /

littlebutfierce or e-mail paperwarfic at gmail dot com.