Archive of Our Own ^beta

The 10 Items or Less Exchange welcomes authors and artists from all fandoms to request and create works for any ship with 10 works or less on ao3. Ships must be tagged with a / (no & for this exchange).

Nominations

Nominations take place for 2 weeks, and participants are allowed to nominate 5-10 ships for unique fandoms. Ships must have 10 or fewer works in their tag, allowing for use of otp: true (See this post on otp: true for more info). RPF is allowed as long as the people requested are 18 or over. Character/Reader and OC/Character ships are not allowed since that's not the focus of this event. This event uses the honor system for nominations, so if I'm told that a ship does not fit this criteria, it will be deleted from the nomination pool.

Sign ups

Sign ups will take place over 2 weeks. Participants can sign up with 5-10 requested ships and can share an optional sign up letter. DNWs are limited to only 10 bullet points and must be listed in the ao3 sign up or else they will be unenforceable. You may share as many likes or prompts as you'd like! All mediums are welcome for this event, and requests may not be limited to only fic or only art.
You may must offer fills for 10-20 (ao3 only has capacity for 10) fandoms with up to 20 ships per fandom in your sign up. It's strongly encouraged that you offer fandoms and ships outside of what you requested in your sign up to increase the odds that you'll be matchable.
Once match ups happen, if you cannot be matched, I will make a pinchhitter post on Dreamwidth and allow 2 weeks for claims. If you are still unmatchable after this, unfortunately your request will need to be dropped from the event.

Creation Period

Participants create their fanworks over 1 month. All mediums are welcome for this event, and there is no minimum for any medium. If you personally would be happy receiving the fanwork you're creating, then it is welcome in this event. If not, then try again, idk lol :).
If you think you'll need to drop out after you've been given an assignment, please contact the mod immediately via email at whimwitch @ protonmail . com (remove spaces). If you drop out without ever saying anything and do not post your fanwork during the posting period, you will be banned from participating in future runs of this exchange.

Posting

All works must be posted and revealed by the posting deadline. Works will be anonymous for 1 week, then authors/artists will be revealed after this. If you want your piece to remain anonymous after reveals, add it to the anonymous collection. ANONYMOUS WORKS MUST ALSO BE PART OF THE 10 ITEMS OR LESS COLLECTION! DO NOT SUBSTITUTE THE ANON COLLECTION FOR THIS EXCHANGE! You can de-anon at any time by removing your work from the anonymous collection.
Works must be complete by the posting deadline. If a work is not posted by the deadline, it will be assumed that you've dropped out without warning. Extensions are not granted for this exchange.
Please thank your gifter for their work after your receive it! This is not an enforced rule, but it's super rude to not verbally acknowledge someone that created something for you.

Any questions received that are already answered in the introduction or rules will not be answered.

Q. Can I nominate crack ships/crossover ships?
A. Yes! As long as they follow the rules of this event. Pick whatever fandom you consider the "main fandom" for the ship since nominations cannot use more than one fandom for a request.

Q. Can I nominate a ship that has fewer than 10 fanworks if I filter it to only show English?
A. No, this event allows all languages to be used when creating fanworks.

Q. Can I write in a language other than English?
A. Yes! All languages are welcome.

Q: Can I filter out anything that's not a fic when searching ao3?
A: No, since this event is inclusive of all mediums, all works within a tag need to be included.

Q: What if I don't want to potentially receive any kind of fanwork for my ship?
A: I would recommend finding a different exchange that's specific to the fanwork you want or allows you to specify what you do/don't want. This event is open to all mediums, so expect that you could be getting literally any kind of fanwork you can think of.

Q: Is podfic allowed?
A: If it's tied to a fic you wrote specifically for this event, yes. If it's a podfic for a pre-existing fic, no. All pieces submitted to this exchange must be unique to this collection.

Q: Is AI allowed?
A: No! And if I find out you've submitted an AI piece to this exchange, you'll be banned forever!

Q: Why can't I nominate/sign up with 5-10 ships per fandom?
A: Nominations and requests are per unique fandom. The nomination and sign ups for requests are working as intended to give this event more variety. Sign up offers will be per fandom, with 10-20 (ao3 only has capacity for 10) fandoms offered with up to 20 ships per fandom.

Q: Can I nominate ships even if I'm not signing up?
A: Sure, go nuts.

Q: Can I add a work to this collection if I'm not signed up?
A: No, only works created for this exchange will be added to the collection. If you don't have an assignment, you cannot add works.

Q: Why is [insert fandom] categorized incorrectly in the tag set?
A: I don't have control over how a fandom is categorized, and it's an issue with ao3s tag wrangling. Contact ao3 if you notice issues.

Q: Can I nominate ships from separate series within one parent series? For example, a ship from the comics vs a ship from a specific movie?
A: Yes, as long as the ship still qualifies. Make sure to use or create the specified fandom tag and not use the parent tag. I do not have control over how ao3 decided to wrangle and collapse fandom tags, so I would also suggest contacting them about this issue if you're finding that only the parent tag exists. In the case of a series that has both a tv show and films within the same universe with the same cast/same continuity, no, only the parent tag would count (ex: Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan would both be considered under the tag "Star Trek: The Original Series"). Anime adaptations of a manga will be counted as 1 fandom with the manga, and the same goes for film/tv adaptations of a book since these are all the same continuity. The only exception to this is if there is more than one adaptation, and the additional adaptations are a different continuity (for example, the Devilman manga/OVAs vs Devilman Crybaby... Crybaby is a completely different continuity and is counted separately).

Q: Do we need to wait for a nominated ship to have a request before we can offer it in a sign up?
A: No! Sign up whenever you want with whatever you'd like to offer. You can check the requests at any time before sign ups close and edit your offers if you see something that sparks your interest. If no one signs up with the ship/fandom you've offered, then it won't be matched. If you're unmatchable because no one signed up with what you've offered, then I'll reach out to you with options if there are any other unmatchable people.

Q: Can I request a ship in my sign up that I didn't nominate?
A: Yes! Anything in the tag set is fair game. It doesn't matter who nominated it, and you can sign up even if you didn't make nominations.

Q: Will people be able to claim a pinch hit without being signed up for the exchange?
A: Yes! Anyone can claim a pinch hit once these are shared up until 2 weeks before the post deadline.

1. All nominated ships must have 10 or fewer works within their relationship tags. Relationships must be tagged as "Name/Name."
2. Any requested RPF ships must only involve people over the age of 18.

See details in the Introduction for more info.