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

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.