How to Post on AO3 (Archive of Our Own) + Add Images - A Detailed Tutorial with Timestamps
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ค. 2024
- In this video, I show you how to post a new story on Archive of Our Own (AO3), as well as how to post a new chapter, embed images, and fix some common issues.
Since this is a long video that aims to cover nearly everything, including some common pitfalls and technical issues, I have posted timestamps here so you can skip to the part you need help with the most.
Time-coded Contents:
1:28 - Navigating to the Post New Work page
2:27 - Tagging Your Work
2:47 - Ratings
3:52 - Archive Warnings
4:43 - Fandoms
5:30 - Categories, Relationships, and Characters
10:14 - Additional Tags
12:36 - Preface
12:49 - Work Title and Co-Creators
13:45 - Summary
14:52 - Author's Notes
16:31 - Associations
16:48 - Post to Collections/Challenges
17:11 - Gift this work
17:30 - This work is inspired by another work
18:11 - This work is part of a series
19:02 - This work has multiple chapters
20:25 - Set a different publication date
20:59 - Language and work skins
22:08 - Privacy
23:17 - Work Text
25:16 - Embedding Images
28:38 - Preview and Final Checks
31:10 - Post Your Work
31:47 - Post New Chapter
32:20 - Name, Order, and Date
32:44 - Chapter Preface
33:55 - Chapter Text and Posting the Chapter
34:46 - Removing Chapter 1's Author's Notes from Chapter 2
I am aware that there are a few brief audio glitches and word stumbles here and there, and that's one reason why I fought the Premiere Pro gods to give you the subtitles you deserve. They'll clarify anything confusing about the audio.
Mentioned Resources:
'Write Epic Summaries!' video: • Write Epic Summaries! ...
'Write Your Summary!' worksheet: • Write Epic Summaries! ...
'All About Author's Notes' video: • All About Author's Not...
Archive FAQ - Collections: archiveofourown.org/faq/colle...
'How to Title Your Fanfiction Chapters (and why)' video: • How to Title Your Fanf...
A Step-by-Step Guide to Work Skins: archiveofourown.org/admin_pos...
Newspaper work skin: archiveofourown.org/works/156...
iOS message work skin: archiveofourown.org/works/643...
Sudowrites exposé: www.wired.com/story/fanfictio...
HTML Google Doc: docs.google.com/document/d/1n...
A little about me: my name is Cora (she/they) and I'm a creative writing graduate, professional copywriter, and self-proclaimed fanfic writer extraordinaire with over 10 years of experience here to help you live your best fanfic writing life! Subscribe to my TH-cam channel for your fortnightly dose of dreamy fanfiction tips. 💞✍️
Want to follow me outside of TH-cam, as well? Check out these links! 👇
Write Your Dream Fanfiction Discord server: / discord
Tumblr: / thecoramaria
Instagram: / thecoramaria
And what sort of fanfic writer would I be if I didn't plug my own fanfiction? 🤭AO3: archiveofourown.org/users/Sca...
TH-cam profile pic by @Illustratornow on Instagram
AO3 profile pic created with Djarn's picrew
Music box cover of 'Bolero' by Maurice Ravel. Cover by R3 Music Box: • Bolero/Maurice Ravel [... - บันเทิง
The part about moving author’s notes from story notes to chapter 1 notes is so helpful 😭😭 Thank you sm
Of course! I remember it confusing the heck out of me too at first
What a perfect time to receive this video. Always been on wattpad, posting things there is such a beginner friendly process, it can be a bit overwhelming to hop on ao3 and see so many boxes to fill out. Thanks again :D
No problem! It's been aaaaages since I've read or posted on Wattpad (I had a short-lived original story but think the website features for fanfiction in particular are lacking) but it is at least easier for beginners to post there, as you say. AO3 is very rewarding once you figure out how it works and why all those boxes are there :)
@@CoraMaria yesss, at the end of the day, the posting process being a bit longer just helps people find exactly what they wanna read. On wattpad it's up to luck because you depend on the author giving a trigger warning or a summary that actually tells you something about the story
@@hal8686The fact that all fanfiction is lumped together under the same genre with no categorisation by fandom at the MINIMUM is so wild to me 💀
@@CoraMaria and i stuck with it for so long because of the asthetics, not being able to put a cover on your story is what was wild to me, hence why i steered clear of ao3 at first
@@hal8686 I mean, you CAN put a cover on AO3 if you use HTML, but no one will see it when they're just browsing for fics.
Firstly- amazing video! Ao3 does definitely have a barrier to entry and posting is certainly more complicated than just hitting paste and posting, so thank you for making such a detailed guide.
Second- Finding your videos helped me get through a chronic illness flare up that really impacted my ability to keep writing my current fic and planning for my next one. Thank you for encouraging passion, not word count, we need more positivity like yours in the writing community! ❤🎉
Thank-you! Making this tutorial was a lot of work. AO3's posting system may take some work to understand, but I definitely feel like all the features are there for a reason. Some are lot as intuitive as they could be, though
I've posted fics on Ao3 before, but decided to watch this video anyway. The idea about contextualizing your tags is so smart?! I write a lot of stories with multiple plotlines, so that's going to be super helpful for me! Great video!
also i don't know anything about legend of zelda but this fic sounds INCREDIBLE and i might have to read it now
@@windowsillcatsAhh thank-you! I did just have another reader from my TH-cam audience binge the whole thing in less than two weeks and they loved it 💖
I have looked through 3 videos before hitting yours. And finally, I was able to embed an image. Thank you very much for the useful tutorial.
You're welcome! Adding images can be tricky so I'm glad I could help
Fantastic, thorough tutorial! ❤️ Oh man, I wish I’d had this when I was first figuring out how to post on AO3!🙏
Thank-you~!
Thank you very much! ❤ All the time I was a little scared to publish work on AO3, because the site where I usually publish my work is very different from this one. But thanks to your video, everything became a hu-undred times easier. Thanks again! ❤
Yay I'm so glad! It's my first time making a tutorial so I'm happy it's clear for you and makes the process seem less intimidating ☺
This helped my understanding a lot. Now ao3 doesn’t seem as daunting
I'm so glad! It can be a lot at a glance but once you understand it, it's pretty easy, or you at least know enough to figure out what you don't ☺
This is such a fantastic resource to both newbies and oldies! 🎉 Thank you for sharing!
Thank-you for watching 💖
THANK YOU SO MUCH! your video is truly helpful, since my usual hos-image-website is error and I cant use it anymore, now I'm gonna try your trick! thank you again :')
No problem! Let me know if it works 💖
@@CoraMaria AND IT TOTALLY WORKSS AAAAH I LOVE YOU, thank you again! 🥰🥰🥰
Thanks for giving this amazing tutorial! I’m currently in the process of writing a fan fiction cross over trilogy and this help me know everything I need to know like AO3 delete drafted work in 30 days. That really helpful to know.
Thanks and have a great day! 😁
Yep, DO NOT trust the AO3 draft feature to hold your fics for you! I'm glad that you got to know this before you experienced the panic of your fic being deleted 💖
@@CoraMaria Yeah that would of complete suck! Glad I know now. 😁
Thank you 😊
Super useful! Thanks so much 💖💖
Thank you, master :>
I love you this was so helpful
Oh my GODDD. THANK YOU SO MUCH IVE WATCHED SO MANY VIDEOS AND READ SO MANY GUIDE AND NONE HAVE WORKED UNTIL NOW
I'm so glad I could help! This is my first ever tutorial video as well. Which part were you stuck with until now?
What a great timing! I currently post the chapters from my google doc on AO3! ❤
Yayyy I'm glad this video found you just as you might need it 💖
Love this video!❤
I'm glad 💖
I didn't even know you could change the banners. Never got looking into that side of thing. You're page is so colourful. Know how to upload already but watching anyway. I often use my notes to list when I originally wrote a story, when I have updated and story and where the story is cross posted to. I have had issues with formatting before even using the rich text option (also been a long time since I last updated anything so that I have updated anything) I copy and paste into the likes of notes first to strip all the formatting and then into AO3 when its not formatting correctly.
What do you mean by "likes of notes"?
Yeah site skins can be fun! Here's the one I used if you're interested: archiveofourown.org/works/31689215/chapters/78427925
Thanks for watching and commenting! The watch time and engagement is very helpful 💖
@@CoraMaria Notes app on Apple devices. I also use notepad on windows for the same purpose.
I followed your steps to upload an image to the Internet Archive, but I must have made a mistake with the HTML code. I was able to upload it from the archive after opening it in a new tab. I have images for the next three chapter of this four-part story, so I'll see what happens next. Thanks for the info. Very helpful.
Yep, opening the image from the archive in a new tab is key! I get tripped up on that moment too. Glad you figured it out and hoping the next three work out, too!
Commenting as second kudos.
Woo thank-you~!
Thank you for this!! ❤️
You're welcome~!!
Thank you so much for doing all of this work! I appreciate it so much!
You're welcome! Making this video cost so much of my sanity 😭
Thank you so much!! ❤
You're very welcome! 💖
THIS VIDEO IS EVERYTHINGGGG THANK YOU SO MUCH! 🙏🥺
WOOOOO YOU'RE SO WELCOME!!!!! This video was so much work lmao so I'm glad it's so useful to you 💖
Thank you. Ao3 loves switching my characters & additional tags around. I've tried to fix it, but I've given up lol. I do say in the tags that if it's a background relationship. I will check to see if it's where it belongs, in additional tags. Also, I have some very popular relationships that don't happen until later chapters, so I let the reader know that in additional tags as well. Thank you for your help. This video is going to need several viewings. There's so much important information in here. Thank you. Can you tell I'm writing a longfic? Also, I will need to ask if any of my beta readers would like any credit. I've only asked one so far.
Glad the video helped! And hello longfic gang
I'm sure most people won't mind if your popular ships don't happen for a while as long as the characters are still interacting and you label them as a slowburn, or make it clear that it'll take them a while to meet.
Regarding the out-of-order tags, someone in my server had a similar issue. They found that if they deleted all the tags, published the fic, then re-added all the tags, they stay in order. Maybe try that if you haven't already?
@@CoraMaria I think I did, but I will try again. I don't know if I deleted all of the tags or just to where it was messed up.
Hello! Your video was so informative, thank you! Just today I posted a story on ao3 and I wanted to add a book cover that I made for it on canva but I was unsuccessful. So on your video you showed how to fix that by uploading the image on the Internet, could you guide me on how to do that please?
Hey, I posted a fic with 4 chapters. But for some reason, when I'm not logged in, i can't click past 1st chapter.
Is there a way to text in my works change, I want the inner thought to be slightly smaller than other text so it's easier to differentiate.
Thanks for the video but I have a tiny question
How do you tag or mention somebody in your author's note
As in when you click on their username it takes you to their account
AO3 doesn't have a system for tagging particular users unless you list them as a co-author or gift them a fic. For everything else, you'd have to use HTML for hyperlinked text and ensure it links to their profile. The HTML code should be in the google doc I linked in the description
Embedding the image through the html way didn't work for me. I had to do it through the rich text way.
Hey, I know I’m supposed to watch this but I have question, I’m not sure if I’m only one but
I have a problem, when I copy my work that has front, dots, and few others, but when I pasted it on ao3, everything wasn’t same as the work I made, all fronts are normal not what it’s supposed to be, and few others like dots or lines, massed up my work a bit.
I did use Rich box to paste. I also used Google Docs but I have this issue lately since, when I first writing my fanfic, it wasn’t a problem with my first few fanfics but now yeah-
Sorry, I’m not good at explaining.
(Btw I use phone)
What supposed I do?
Thank you
I've never encountered this problem before so idk if I'll be much help. I've never used my phone to post on AO3, so I can only recommend you try using phone or tablet. You could also try changing your font in Google Docs to Monserrat like I use. It could be that AO3 is having a hard time interpreting your font and needs something more familiar.
I also don't know if you use the GD app or browser on mobile, but whichever one you use, you could try the other and see if that works.
If all that fails, then you can try contacting AO3's support team here: archiveofourown.org/support
Why don't you want to use html? Also, do I go back and cut and paste each chapter I've done so far in rich text or do I just use rich text in the future?
Do you mean the HTML text box? I don't recommend it because I'm wary of formatting issues, plus it doesn't offer formatting options like Rich Text does. Basically, it's better to use the right tool designed for the job. On the published fic, I'd recommend you check any instance of using italics, bolding, and stuff like that since simply pasting in the HTML box won't necessarily carry that over. If you notice no issue, you're probably fine, then be sure to use Rich Text in future 🙂
@@CoraMaria Yes, I do mean the HTML text box. Thank you! I will check!
Hey, your discord invite is invalid... 🙁
I think it expires after a while. Here you go: discord.gg/aARrfzNaQE
@@CoraMaria
Thank you! 🌺