Community Profile

Timeline

DEC 1ST Official Announcement (All rules & dates finalized.)
JAN 1ST Signups Open! (Including artists and beta volunteers.)
FEB 1ST Writer Signups Closed!
MAR 15TH First Check-in! (Written statement of progress.)
APR 30TH Second Check-in (WIP; fic info.)
MAY 1ST Artist Signups Officially Open
MAY 25TH Third Check-in (Rough draft; matching info. Last chance to drop out.)
MAY 28TH Artist Signups Closed! (All artists recieve roster of fic summaries.)
MAY 30TH CLAIMS OPEN (17:00/5PM UTC)
JUN 1ST Artist Claims are CLOSED
~JUN 5TH All Participants Matched
JUL 20TH Artist Check-in (Written statement of progress or WIP.)
AUG 20TH SUBMISSIONS DUE
SEP 21ST FEST POSTING BEGINS
NOV 10TH Exclusivity Period Ends

Rules

WORD COUNT REQUIREMENT: For this bang, we are looking for complete, self-contained fanfics at least 50k words in length, with all chapters posted at once. That’s a big ask, but the results are worth the tribulations! We encourage you to trust yourself, and trust that you won’t be doing this alone. If you have a huge idea, you are welcome to overshoot 50k to your heart’s content.

BAT FOCUSED: Your fic must focus on the “Bat Family” portion of the DC universe. You don’t have to include a lot of Bats, but at least one Bat must be the protagonist, and each main pairing(s) must have at least one Bat.

CONTENT RESTRICTION: There will be no squee restriction beyond sticking to the Bat theme - any ships, any tropes, any genre, any rating, any scope. You are free to touch upon every single Bat or focus in on just your favorite Bat(s). Gen, Slow Burn, Case Fic, Dark, Explicit, AU, and Bat/Bat are all welcome.

AGE RESTRICTION: All participants must be 18 years old prior to signing up, no exceptions. If you turn 18 after your signup period ends, unfortunately you will have to wait for another event. 

BETA READING: This fest will not be providing guaranteed betas. However, we will put out requests for beta volunteers, and authors who do not have their own beta can contact volunteers for help.

DEADLINES AND EXTENSIONS: The author must provide a substantial draft before matching. If for some reason, you don’t believe that will be possible, there is no penalty for dropping out before matching, and you will remain in good standing for potential future fests. If you have any trouble with an upcoming deadline, please email us rather than keep silent until after the deadline so that we can work with you and support you rather than chase you.

ARTIST SIGNUPS: Artists can sign up at any point between January 1st and May 28th. We ask that all artist applicants link to at least one example of big-bang level work that they’ve done in the past. Signing up will enable you to see fic summaries when they are released on May 28th but does not tie you to a commitment to participate. You will then have two days to read over the summaries and decide whether you would like to commit by participating in the claiming process.

ART REQUIREMENTS: Artists are asked to complete two pieces, of an effort level complementary to the writing requirements. Art can be either traditional or digital illustration, or else pieces of traditional or digital collage of significant illustrative effort.

Craft or mixed media that is illustrative in nature is allowed. All traditional work must be scanned at the highest possible setting.
Collage must combine multiple elements into a single cohesive illustration that reflects the story. 
All art must be of a polished quality that feels complete. Final images must be at least 750x750 pixels in size, though if possible, we encourage you to work larger for crisper results.
We are not looking for moodboards, playlists, or one-image edits for this bang. However, you’re of course welcome to create something in those formats in addition to your two illustration/collage pieces if you have the time and interest.

ARTIST CLAIMING: Claiming will be anonymous. Artists will have two days of access to the fic summaries before the claims survey is sent out. The summaries will include warnings, ships, ratings, and the author’s preferences for style and substance. On the claiming form, artists will rank their preferred fics as well as give us their major preferences and squicks. We will work hard to give every artist a fic they will enjoy working on. Some or all artists may end up working with more than one author. Claiming is not first come, first served.

EXISTING PARTNERSHIPS: Authors can team up with an artist and sign-up together during the initial author sign-up period, each filling out the appropriate form. Please have your partner’s contact info on hand when signing up. Both participants must complete their form before the end of author sign-ups.

If your partner drops out before matching, you can still participate in the bang as a regular participant, but not bring in a new partner outside of the matching process.

HOSTING AND POSTING: It is up to each team of participants to decide how and where to embed the art into the fic. Art embedded on Ao3 has to be hosted somewhere private and reliably permanent by the artist. Ao3 accounts are mandatory for authors - if you do not have one, email the mods and we will send you an invite to create one. 

The mods will reveal fics on the Bang Tumblr account and the Ao3 collection over the course of 1-2 weeks. Teams will receive a posting schedule ahead of time, though there is nothing that authors need to do at that point. Artists can choose to also post their art separately on Ao3 and Tumblr, but in either case must link to their partner’s fic. Please tag the BatBigBang blog in your art post so that the mods can see it and reblog it. 

The exclusivity period for posting fest works on other platforms ends November 10th.