Although the AO3 has a URL Import feature, it is not compatible with all archive types. If this is true for an archive you would like to import works from, we recommend the instructions below.
- Click on “Log In” on the Archive of Our Own (AO3) homepage.
- Enter the username and password for your account. (For convenience, you can also check the box next to Remember Me so that you don’t have to log in next time.) Then use the “Log In” button.
- Open the page for the AO3 collection you want to add your works to, and use the “Post to Collection” button.
- In the Tags section, the first three fields are required:
- Rating: Select the most applicable rating for your work. (If you are not sure, choose “Not Rated”.)
- Warnings: Select any applicable warnings for your work. (If you are not sure, check “Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings”.)
- Fandom(s): If your work is from a single fandom, enter the fandom name here and select it from the autofill when it appears. If your work is from multiple fandoms, do this for each fandom.
- The other fields are optional, but allow users to find your works using filters for those attributes, so it’s good to fill them out if they’re applicable.
- Category: Select any applicable categories. (F/F = Female/Female, F/M = Female/Male, Gen = no romantic relationships, M/M = Male/Male, Multi = polyamorous relationships, and Other = other types of relationships)
- Relationships: Use this field to enter any applicable relationship tags. For romantic relationships, use a “/” (slash) symbol, and for platonic relationships, use a “&” (ampersand) symbol. Names are ordered alphabetically according to family name if known, and first name if family name is unknown. For more information about relationship tags, review the AO3’s tag wrangling guidelines for relationships.
- Characters: Use this field to enter any applicable character tags. For more information about character tags, review the AO3’s tag wrangling guidelines for characters.
- Additional Tags: Use this field to enter any other tags you’d like! Some examples are genres, tropes, or names of related plot arcs. For more information about additional tags, review the AO3’s tag wrangling guidelines for additional tags (freeforms).
- In the Preface section, you can enter notes and related attributes.
- Work Title: Enter the title of your work.
- Author / Pseud(s): If you have multiple pseuds attached to your AO3 account, choose which one(s) you would like to associate with this work.
- Add co-authors?: If you created this work with another person who also has an AO3 account, you can check this box. A field will appear for you to enter your co-creator’s AO3 account name.
- Summary: Enter the summary for your work, if any.
- Notes: If you have any notes you would like to add to the work, check one (or both) of the boxes. A field will appear for you to enter the note you would like to appear at the beginning or end of the work.
- In the Associations section are more attributes to customize.
- Post to Collections / Challenges: The archive collection you used in Step 3 should already be added, but you can add additional collections if you’d like.
- Gift this work to: If you know another AO3 user that you would like to gift this work to, you can enter their username here.
- Checkbox for “This work is a remix, a translation, a podfic, or was inspired by another work”: Use this checkbox if you would like to link to a work that inspired this current work.
- Checkbox for “This work is part of a series”: Use this checkbox if you would like to add this work to an existing series or create a new one.
- Checkbox for “This work has multiple chapters”: Use this checkbox if you would like to set the total number of chapters and/or set the chapter title.
- Checkbox for “Set a different publication date”: Use this checkbox if you would like to backdate the work.
- Choose a language: Use this dropdown to set the language for the work (defaults to English).
- Select Work Skin: A “skin” is custom CSS for a work. (If you know what this means, feel free to play with the public skins available! Otherwise, you can ignore this field.)
- In the Privacy section, you can set the visibility and comments settings.
- Checkbox for “Only show your work to registered users”: Use this checkbox if you would only like logged-in users to be able to view your work. (This will also prevent the work from appearing in search engines like Google.)
- Checkbox for “Anonymous commenting disabled”: Use this checkbox if you would only like logged-in users to be able to comment on your work.
- In the Work Text section, you can enter the content of your work.
- If you are copying text from another site, use the “Rich Text” button on the right-hand side before pasting in your work content.
- If you are embedding art, video, or audio, please see Let’s make some noise! (Embedding Media at the Archive of Our Own) for instructions.
- At the end of the page, you can either preview your work (and save it as a draft) or post it immediately without previewing it. Once you post your work, you are done!
