I'm wondering...

[astridv]

whether I should occasionally upload some more of my fanart to AO3, or whether it'd be wiser to wait until fanart hosting becomes an official feature. I don't know, does anyone in the Know have a rough idea when that will happen? I don't care much about storage since I have scrapbook to host my images, but if the new feature comes with a preview pic option, which I assume it will, that'd be nice and probably worth waiting for.

Also, I'm always a bit unsure of uploading fanart along the regular fic because I don't know if it will be like spam to people who come for stories... but OTOH I uploaded the last Parker&Hardison sketch on a whim and got more feedback than I expected which made me all :O)...

Fellow artists, how to you handle it? Readers, is it annoying to see fanart sprinkled inmidst the fic? (I mark my fanart as such in the title and in tags but still.)

Comments

[frith_in_thorns]

I'd say go for it. Actually, I didn't even know that one could upload fanart to AO3 -- although now I think about it I've seen graphics embedded into stories there, so I guess you just embed the fanart into a 'fic'? In any case, I don't see that browsing past it if you're looking for fic would be any different than browsing past fic you don't want to read :)

Although I'm really not the best person to ask because I don't really browse AO3, since most of the fic I'd read tends to be posted on LJ as well (or linked from LJ by the author or by fandom newsletters).

[astridv]

Yeah, you embed a graphic in a fic and then leave out the actual fic part. As a workaround it's pretty convenient. You just need to upload the image someplace else and hotlink.

[ratcreature]

I've put my fanart there, and resigned myself to somehow editing the all the art once the fanart is truly supported. But meanwhile I'm getting a nice amount of kudos and even some comments, and I can link the art that is connected to fic better to that. And as a reader I don't mind seeing fanart along with stories, as long as it is tagged/labeled decently. By that I mean that I can not just tell it is fanart, but also get some indication what I might want to avoid seeing while there's no snall preview.

[astridv]

Oh, there's a good point, I should at least start with the art that goes with a story.

[ratcreature]

It's quite nice how things get mutually linked. Well, if you upload art inspired by a story it first links the story, and then the author gets a notice, and once they approve the story also links to your art.

[sqbr]

I'm avoiding it for standalone random pictures, because I draw a lot of those and it's enough of a pain keeping both deviantArt and tumblr updated when I edit a picture. But I'm uploading comics with multiple pages, anything connected with fic, and stuff for exchanges based on AO3. Oh, and anything where I've searched for that fandom/pairing and there's nothing :) Which, all up, ends up being a moderate proportion of my art.

There's always the option of backdating old art. That way it's there for anyone going through all your works or searching for a particular character etc, but you're not filling up the relevant tags for those subscribed to them. And I think people like art as long as it's easy to tell that it's art, I've gotten roughly equivalent levels of positive feedback for art and fic.

[astridv]

Yeah, first I uploaded all the comics because I see them as fic anyway. I don't know if I've already added everything that was done as a gift or for an exchange and all the story illus, those are next.

I've been wondering about the pieces that are one-shots but tell a story - that would cover over half of what I draw, I guess. But the backdating is a good idea! Even when I have to re-upload them as proper fanart, I can always do that and not worry about cluttering the update pages.

[runpunkrun]

I love seeing fanart on AO3. Plus, having it on the archive makes it easy to find, link to, and leave kudos/comments.

[astridv]

Yep, it's just very convenient. The kudos are a very nice bonus. :) I hear not everyone likes them but I love getting them and I also find them really convenient when I don't know how to phrase my feedback.

I've even started to use my bookmarks to link to outside fics... but that feature needs a through overhaul to become really useful. Once everything is searchable and sortable by tag, it'll be awesome.

[runpunkrun]

I love getting kudos, though I'm still in the process of training myself to understand that a kudos doesn't mean I've been robbed of a comment. Which, I suspect, is why some people don't like getting kudos.

[autumnus]

I don't think the hosting is coming that fast (although I am not sure, things can stop for a while then suddenly progress in alarming speed when the right conditions are met). I know there are several things that needs to be coded around posting system before the filehosting. (or that was the plan. I haven't been part of the AD&T since last July).

So I would say go ahead and put it up. It will also help the archive design to see more examples of use, if nothing else. :)

[astridv]

Yeah, xparrot also says it could take at while. I'll go ahead and put them up, then.