How to Sign-Up

Sign-Ups consist of requests for which ships you want to receive content of and offers for which ships you’d be willing to create for. Each participant may request up to 60 ships and offer for an unlimited amount of ships.

Once sign-ups are complete you will be matched to a participant who is requesting at least one ship you are offering to create for, and you will be expected to create a fanwork which meets the minimum requirements outlined here.

Please keep in mind matches look for only one ship you have offered to match to one ship your recipient has requested, so you may receive an assignment where there is only one prompt you would like to write. This is fine! You will create a work based on this request. The matching will also make sure that artists are matched to people who want art and writers are matched to people who want fic.

Tip

No one can see what you have offered except the moderators. If you are inspired by a ship or prompt that was not one you offered, you are absolutely free to write something different!

When sign-ups open go to the main AO3 profile for the exchange. In the left-hand sidebar you will see a link for the sign-up form. There is also a sign-up button on the top right. Click one of these two.

Requests

Enter your requests. There will be three request forms by default. To complete your request forms, follow the below steps:

1. Title (Optional)

   Use this field to name your pairing groups, add an extra note, or even add a content warning like “NSFW prompts below”.

2. Relationships

   Put at least 1 and up to 3 nominated relationships you would like to receive content for. You must have at least one relationship per request. These tags should match the tags in the tag set/nominations list exactly. The form will make suggestions from the tagset.

   To request the minimum amount of three ships, please put one relationship in each default form.

   Note

   Your three requests should not consist of three requests which limit your creator to only creating your specific OC. You must have at least one requested ship for which you are happy to receive any OC or which is canon characters only.

3. Additional Tags

   Choose what type of gifts and treats you would like to receive. Select as many as apply, but please be sure not to select No Treats Please and a Treats option on the same request, as this is confusing!

   • Fanart - you would like to receive a main gift that is fanart.
   • Fanfic - you would like to receive a main gift that is fanfic.
   • No Treats Please - you do not want to receive a treat for this prompt. (please be sure to mark this on every request if you want no extra gifts at all!)
   • Treats - Fanart - you are open to receiving a fanart treat.
   • Treats - Fanfic - you are open to receiving a fanfic treat.
   • Treats - Other - you are open to receiving an alternative fanworks treat (for example, a fanmix, podfic, etc.)

4. Letter/OC Info (Optional)

   Feel free to link to a general or specific exchange letter here. Please see On Exchange Letters for more information on exchange letters.

5. Prompt/DNWs

   Must be completed even if it simply says “please see letter”. You can add DNWs, specific prompts, or whatever you’d like here. Please see FAQs - What Are Do Not Wants (DNWs)? for more info!

6. Optional Tags (Optional)

   If you have more than 30 ships to request, please enter up to 3 more relationships in this field that you’d like to request.

   Danger

   Please note this field is a bit quirky and keep the following in mind if you decide to use it!

   • This field only allows canonical AO3 tags. Any tag which will be newly created in the exchange or which has not yet been wrangled cannot be entered here.

   • AO3 does not restrict this field to only three (3) entries. Mods will be checking your sign-ups to ensure that only three tags are entered. If there are more than three (3) we will delete additional ships without contacting you!

   • AO3 does not make sure these tags are in our approved tagset. Ineligible, non-nominated ships will be deleted without us contacting you.

7. Add Another Request Button (Optional)

   Want to request more ships? Click this button to add another request form. You can add up to 10 for a total of 60 ships/characters (3 in the Relationships field, and 3 in the Optional tags field).

Offers

Enter your offers.

You must have at least 3 offers, but there’s no maximum number of offers. However, please keep in mind that due to the way AO3 enforces its minimum number of ships, you will need to fill out at least three offer forms.

1. Relationships

   Put at least 1 and up to 3 relationships that you would like to create content for. To offer the minimum amount of 3 ships, you should put one relationship in each form.

   • Any Relationship - Please click the “Any Relationship” button to indicate you’re okay with creating content for ANY ship or character that was nominated. You should do this on all 3 Offer forms!

2. Additional Tags

   Choose whether you would like to create fanart or fanfic (or either). Please do not click any Treats related tags on your offers!

3. More Info (Optional)

   You can add info about people you would like to avoid being matched to with 100% confidentiality or request that you not be matched.

   New for 2025

   Please be sure to provide usernames of individuals you would not like to be matched with. We will no longer be honoring requests to not match based on specific prompt types since prompts are optional.

4. Optional Tags (Optional)

   Add as many nominated tags as you’d like to offer here, but please keep in mind that you do need to complete all three offer forms.

   Danger

   Please note this field is a bit quirky and keep the following in mind if you decide to use it!

   • This field only allows canonical AO3 tags. Any tag which will be newly created in the exchange or which has not yet been wrangled cannot be entered here.

   • AO3 does not make sure these tags are in our approved tagset. Ineligible, non-nominated ships will be deleted without us contacting you.

5. Add Another Offer Button (Optional)

   Want to offer more ships? Click this button to add another offer form. You can add up to 10 offers.

Click the Submit button on the bottom right hand corner and you’re done!

Tip

You can edit your requests and offers up until sign-ups close and the matching begins, so feel free to adjust and change things until the last minute!

Caution

Be very careful if you edit your sign-ups. During an exchange last year we noticed a bug where more “Additional Tags” can be selected on Requests when someone is editing. For example, Fanart may be added to your request, even though you have only requested Fanfic. Please review your requests and offers very carefully after you edit.

Thanks for your interest!