Submission Guidelines

WFOL is a special kind of potluck party - all the gifts and goodies we look forward to every year come from you. Without your "dishes", the Great Hall feast would be meager. Imagine... what if every visitor brought just one small treat to the table!

• Submissions should, obviously, be related to Beauty and the Beast. Winterfest themes are, of course, especially appropriate.
• Submit work that's new, or newly online. People like surprises at WFOL. :-)
• Submissions for all seasons and of all ratings are welcome.
• Submissions may be in any language.
• We reserve the right to label submissions in whatever way we deem necessary, or to "unlist" anything we deem inappropriate.

• Write - fanfic, poetry, essay, filk... it’s also a good idea to have your work edited before you post it or have it posted.
• Draw, paint, sculpt, doodle, make a cartoon, create computer wallpaper or an animation...
• Craft - jewelry, clothing, quilts, a Winterfest card...
• Audio/visual - sing a song, make a video, recite poetry - or prose or fanfic...
• Share a favorite recipe -or- create a Tunnel menu: Vincent's Favorite Foods? Father's Boyhood Favorites? What's in Catherine's Kitchen?
• Set up a web site - you've wished you could - give it a try!
• Find an old zine, contact authors and artists, get permissions, and scan it to PDF. (Ah, so much easier to say than do. Like losing weight.)

Once you’ve finished your gifts for WFOL, you’ll need to get them on the internet so they can be shared with Winterfest visitors. There are several ways to do this.

Option 1: Send your work to us to post.

You may send your finished work to the candlemakers. We will post it online for you. Send your work in its final (edited) form.

We can accept pdfs, jpgs, gifs, pngs, audio files, and videos. Please save Word docs to PDF.

Email them to us at this address: wintercandlemakers2@yahoo.com

Include all the information necessary for filling out the submissions database (see next section).

Please note the specific due date for this service in the Deadlines section below.

Option 2: Upload files to your own fan site or blog

Now might be the time to get your personal blog/fan site going if you don't have one already. There are free hosting solutions out there: Wordpress or Blogger, for example; it's easy to get started.

If you have a friend with a fan site, you might ask them if they’d host your projects for you. (Keep in mind, though, that asking someone else to post for you increases your friend's workload!)

If you have a site of your own and are willing to host the projects of others who do not, get that word out among your family of friends.

Option 3: Upload files to Google Drive

We encourage the use of Google Drive. It's free, safe, very easy to use, and accepts almost all file types - docs, jpgs, pdfs, audio files, videos, and more. You’ll need a Google account to upload and store your documents, but if you use any other Google services (like gmail) you may well have one already.

Simply upload your finished work to your Google Drive account page - it’s drag and drop. So easy! Easier even than attaching a file to an email.

After you upload your file, copy the 'shareable' link that Google Drive creates for you. Choose the “anyone with this link can view” option. Then fill out the WFOL submissions database form (which we’ll discuss in the next section). Only those with whom you share the link (i.e. other WFOL visitors) can see the file.

Option 4: Post your work at public websites

Some options are fanfiction.net, archiveofourown.org or youtube. Just be careful not to publicly post your things too soon - else you'll spoil the surprise!

Facebook and Pinterest require viewers to have an account, so these are not good places for your WFOL work. Some visitors will be unable to see your submissions.

Once your submissions are finished and posted online, you need to tell us about them in our Submissions Database. We will post a link to your work on the WFOL day of your choice so visitors can see what you've done! This data will also appear in the Acknowledgements section of our closing ceremonies.

The Submissions Database form will ask for this information:

• First date to make live
• Submitter name(s)
• Email address, in case we should need to contact you. We will not post it or otherwise share it.
• Email address you want posted with your submission (Leave blank if you don't want one.)
• Submission title or description
• Link to submission (We strongly recommend avoiding spaces in links.)
• Category (fic, poetry, art, video, audio/reading, audio/music, game, shop, other)
• New? (Yes, First time online, No)
• 3S? (Yes, No)
• Steamy? (Yes, No)
• Language (None, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Other)
• May be enjoyed by those who don't speak this language (Yes, No) examples: video, song, reading, story that includes art

If you are sending your submission to us to post, please include the answers to the above questions when you send us your submission, and we will enter the data for you once we have posted your submission.

If you're scanning a zine, permissions are non-optional. Likewise if you are reading aloud someone else's fanfic, using someone else's art in your video, or creating other derivative works. Please get that permission in writing and send it to the candlemakers before adding your work to the submissions database.