People with fannish auction experience?

[extrapenguin]

I missed Fandom Trumps Hate and Fandom For Oz, but equalityauction has its offers posting now. What is writing an auction fic like? I have plenty of experience writing exchange fic; is this similar? If not, what's different?

(Potential offers: 1k+ of Guardian PWP, 1k+ of plotfic for Guardian, MDZS, [other fandoms here???]. IDK if I'm willing to toss in an "extra 1k per $10 up to 5k" or whatever. Also, minimum bids are ???)

Comments

[isis]

In my experience it's much like writing an exchange fic, except that optional details are not optional (though they might be negotiable), and since you're not anonymous you can (and should) consult with the recipient. Basically, they've commissioned a fic for you to write, it's just that the money goes to a charity and not to you.

I don't do this any more. I fell out of a fandom after agreeing to write a particular fic for someone, and then it was super hard for me to write it. In fact I decided to just quietly not fulfill it, but then I felt guilty, and I finished and posted it seven years later.

[melannen]

I have done more bidding than writing, but yes, about what isis said: it's a lot like an exchange fic, except you can set whatever conditions you want to start with, and there's room to consult with your bidder. What happens after that depends on you and your bidder, I think - sometimes there's a ton of communication with the bidder through the whole process, sometimes there's not. Sometimes they will check in before bidding to see if their idea would work, sometimes not. Some bidders are super invested in getting exactly what they bid for, some are just using the auction as an excuse to give and don't really care.

Follow-up is the same - usually with auctions there's no deadline unless you set one with your bidder yourself, or if the auction does have a general one they don't do any enforcement, so you have to work that out with yourself, your bidder, and your conscience in a different way than with an exchange.

[china_shop]

What they said. I haven't done many exchanges, but I've had really good experiences writing for auctions in the past. It's really motivating to have someone choose you specifically, because they like your writing. (I am much worse at deadlines when my recipient is a friend, though. /o\)