questions about running a fest

[twisted_miracle]

Hi. Last year I ran the Harry/Draco/Severus fest called hds_beltane. It was fun and I believe it went well. It could have gone better, of course. That's true of everything.

I'm looking forward to doing it again. So I'm hoping for advice. I'm particularly appealing here to people who've run successful fests. Got any brilliant advice for me?

For example, I would love to know how to insert a section of clippable html formatted text for folks to use to sign up, like hd-holidays did. I have no idea how to do that, however.

I would be very interested in knowing who has been banned from other fests for non-participation, as well.

Mostly, though, I'd like any information people feel like passing along. If I already knew whatever you have to say, well, that just reinforces the importance of it, now doesn't it? :D

Comments

[fourth_rose]

There's information on the sign-up template here (check the comments).

[twistedm.livejournal.com]

thank you so much!!

let me try right here.

<b>title</b>: <b>name</b>: <b>ships</b>: <b>squicks</b>:

[twistedm.livejournal.com]

wow. it worked. that's amazing! i'm not accustomed to making stuff like that work the first time. ;)

i really appreciate your help with this!

[fourth_rose]

You're welcome! I saw that a while back and saved the post because I reckoned it might be useful at some point :)

[twistedm.livejournal.com]

so useful! thank you for pointing me towards it. terribly helpful, that!

[mordyn4]

Idea:

Over the years, a few of my friends have been upset by a lack of response from their giftee. I think it would be nifty if the mods emailed the giftee to tell them that their gift has been posted, especially if they have not commented on their gift. For whatever reason, people may not see their gifts or perhaps they think that no one will notice their lack of response. It's possible this won't make a difference, and would require too much time of the mods. I've done it for my friends, but I wouldn't do it for people I don't know without the mods' consent.

[twistedm.livejournal.com]

hmm. i could probably email recipients who haven't responded after a few days, yeah. thanks for the idea! i can't promise anything, but i do like the idea. i'll see how crazy my may is, how many people sign up, all that sort of thing. :)

[sesheta-66.livejournal.com]

Nothing helpful with this post, except that I really enjoyed the fest last year, and I'm all about doing it again. Good luck!

[twistedm.livejournal.com]

great! because sign-ups are now open! :)

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

I truly admire anyone who has the commitment to undertake such a complex and daunting task. I wish I could offer some sage advice, but I can't. If there was one thing I would fix about exchanges it would be something to address authors who drop out. In a recent exchange I wrote for someone who was binned from the fest for not turning a fic in, and I had followed their entire prompts list, likes AND dislkies to the letter, only to have my fic regifted to someone else who wanted entirely different things. I cannot begin to tell you how much that gutted me, because I felt like so much hard work went unrecognised. Don't get me wrong - my recipient was lovely, but I never got the anticipated reward of that one, single, squeeing review from your intended recipient because you fitted in EVERYTHING they wanted. I'm being a bit dramatic about it, but it sort of ruined the exchange for me.

[twistedm.livejournal.com]

interesting. i didn't do it that way last year and i'm now doubly not planning to do it that way this year. thanks for the feedback!

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

What do you mean? You wrote a fic with the prompts as secondary? I had an idea in my head already, but I changed it to comply with the requests. It was hard work.

:-/

twistedm here ;)

[hds-beltane.livejournal.com]

sorry to be unclear. i meant that i did not reassign fiction to a new recipient. i had several people drop out of the fest, but almost all of them still got gifts. iirc, the only one who did not was in that situation only because their giver also dropped out. otherwise, everyone gave their gifts to the person they had always intended to give them to.

as for those whose giver dropped out? they got at least one pinch hitter who wrote for them. actually though, i think all of them got two, and one got three. it was a little crazy there at the end.

Re: twistedm here ;)

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

That does sound like a good way to do it. I know not everyone drops out because they're lazy or something, so it's still nice to get a fic. You just have to hope they're around to read it though, I suppose.

Good luck - I'm seeing this pimped everywhere so I'm sure you're going to have yet another full-house. I can't see myself doing another exchange for a long time, if ever. Having a deadline completely killed me. It's just not possible to write reliably and coherently with a small child, at least for me.

:)

Re: twistedm here ;)

[twistedm.livejournal.com]

i did not actually have a full house last year, and i'm willing to accept more folk this year. so we'll see. but i think it is a good time of year for a fest. sign ups are right after the fabulous december fest season, when people are all excited about how wonderful fests can be, but the actual work is afterwards and the posting comes when no one else is doing a fest. at least, that's the logic. ;)

as for not wanting to join in, i completely understand! i have pretty much sworn off participating in fests myself, as i seem to write crap for them. (eros excluded, i was very pleased with the way and your damage done (http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=16408) came out. it is worth noting that i turned it in extremely late!)

of course last year i signed up for beltane and did at least one pinch hit, and i expect to pinch hit for the fest again, but that is different, i think, there is a lot more picking and choosing involved in pinch hitting for one's own fest!

i've been pimping the fest like mad, myself. i hope you mean that others have been posting about it. that would be wonderful! i hope you'll mention it to your flist, actually. you have a nice large one.

have a good day. :)

Re: twistedm here ;)

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

Hm - I think it might be a bit of an uphill battle this year. Many, many people on my f-list are down after the fests, mostly because of the criminally small response rate to everyone's fics except Frays! I've had a few quite tearful e-mails from friends shaking because no one's commented on their fics. I know how they feel. It felt tough to me too.

I recced 'and your damage done' to my recipeient, ships-harry. She said she'd read it and really, really liked it. I hope she commented. I haven't read it I'm afraid. The angst warnings put me off as I am a total and utter coward about unhappy endings. :)

Oh yes - I've seen the fest pimped on more than a couple of journals.

Re: twistedm here ;)

[twistedm.livejournal.com]

well, uphill battle is definitely possible. i still don't even has as many participants as i did last year. but i think all will be well nonetheless. i'm feeling optimistic. :D

i know i didn't comment on nearly as many fics as i've done for previous fests. i simply didn't have the time to read very much this year! it felt like there were a zillion fests to follow, and i felt painfully overwhelmed. so i occasionally looked at the fests themseles and read something if it looked interesting from the sumamry. otherwise i pretty much relied on recs. i missed a LOT of fic.

as for aydd, it technically has an ambiguous ending, but most readers assume the worst, it seems to me. which is interesting.

and yay for pimpage! thanks for telling me. :)

Re: twistedm here ;)

[calanthe-fics.livejournal.com]

When I signed up for hd-hols I wasn't even aware of smutmas, not that it would have stopped me.