#new user

• If you want something in bold simply put <strong> before and </strong> after.

• If you want something in italics do <em> before and </em> after.

P.s. you do not need to repeat this process for every paragraph you only need to do it if you want something not to be italics or bold in a paragraph.

• For paragraphs <p> at the start of a new one if it doesn’t auto add it for you when you put the space. </p> at the end.

More General Things

• Do NOT write a chapter into AO3. The site glitches at times and you will lose everything you have written if you don’t temporarily save it or have it posted. Drafts only save for a short time period so do NOT leave a draft on there for long. Write your chapters somewhere else and then copy and paste it in.

• Monetization of any kind is NOT allowed.

• Most authors write for fun so don’t comment things that can come off as entitled like please update or you have to update. Many authors will straight up avoid updating because of that. Instead just comment that you really enjoy it. This gives you a greater chance of getting an update over anything else.

• Orphaning works: once you orphan something it’s no longer tied to your username, you cannot delete it and it can’t be un-orphaned.

• Oneshots: do not put multiple oneshots in a single work. If they aren’t directly related to each in the sense of being a sequel. This is heavily frowned upon and could make users mute or block you. If you want to have them somewhat attached put them in a series.

• Algorithm: this doesn’t exist on AO3. Reads are nice but it’s not like Wattpad.

• Bookmarks: gives the option of both public and private bookmarks with public being the default. Here you can leave notes about the work like how much you enjoyed it or what chapter you left off on and you can add tags to the work. There’s also an option to have it as a work you recommend. When looking through bookmarks you can also filter these, other new options (not listed near the end of this post) are filtering by only ones you recommend or that you put notes for. You can also type in certain words in the more options section of the filters, specifically in the search bookmarker’s tags and notes and find certain fics. For example if you put whumptober in a note or tag and enter that word in that section you will only see works you bookmarked with that word in its notes or tags you’ve added.

• Kudos: this is AO3’s name for liking or voting something. You can only give kudos to a specific work once.

• History: you can view every work you’ve ever clicked on here. And you can also delete your viewing history here.

• Mark for Later: is only visible to you in the history section and somewhat on the home page. You can’t leave a note about the work.

• Subscriptions: want to be emailed when the author posts a new chapter to a work you liked? Subscribe to the work. If you want to be notified for anything the author puts out subscribe to the author on their profile page. This is basically following the author.

• Home page: go to the home page by clicking on the logo, any fandoms you favourite will show up at the top here for easy access. Along with news about the site and some of your marked for later works.

• Downloading: most works give you the option to download the entire thing so you can read it offline and give you different options of formats when you hit download. Simply choose one of those options and open it.

• Dark mode: if you would like to use dark mode instead of the standard light mode scroll down to the bottom of the website, look under customize and select reversi.

• / between names means it’s a romantic or sexual relationship. & means it’s platonic or family territory.

• Leaving kudos, a single word or emoji comment can bring joy to the author. Don’t feel the need to write a few paragraphs if you don’t want to. If you want to do so that is also more than welcome.

Relationships filter

• If you want to only see certain ships for the fandom use filters. Once on the fandom of your choice click filters, go to the include section click on relationships and pick the one you want. If it’s not listed there go down to other tags to include and list the characters like I did above with Steve and Bucky. Then hit sort and filter. For the most part this is all you need to do but if you want the story to not even briefly mention another ship go back to filters, go to exclude, relationships and click the ones you don’t want. And again if there’s another one you don’t want to see that’s not there enter them in other tags to exclude.

Ratings described in simple terms:

General Audiences= if it was turned into a film would it be classified as G or PG? If yes then it goes here.

Teen and Up Audiences= if it was turned into a film would it be rated PG-13? If yes then it goes here.

Mature= continuing with the film comparison this one would be rated R.

Explicit= this would also be rated R but more explicit. Exact movie comparisons would be Terrifier and Fifty Shades of Grey.

Not Rated= this is the default option and will get treated the same way as mature and explicit rated content so it’s in your best interest to select one of the four options above.

Warnings most are self explanatory but I’ll touch on two of them.

No Archive Warnings Apply= there’s no graphic depictions of violence, no major character death, no non-con, and no underage sex in the work. Do NOT use this warning if any one of these things are in your work.

Creator Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings= anything mentioned above can be in the work. If you don’t want to select which one(s) apply use this.

Categories the main three are pretty self explanatory but I’ll touch on the other three of them. (Main three are m/m, f/f, f/m):

Gen= no romantic or sexual relationships or it’s not a main focus

Multi= more than one of the main category fits or multiple partners

Other= mostly used for relationships involving someone who is nonbinary or isn’t human.

More Filter Info:

• Sort by: Creator and Title options are for when you’re looking for specific fics that you know by title or the authors name. Date posted sorts by when it was first posted on the site with the newest ones at the top. Date updated is mostly the same but goes off of the latest chapter versus the first one. Word count doesn’t work for me but I think it’s supposed to be longest works at the top. Hits will put the most viewed works at the top. Kudos will put the most liked works at the top. Comments puts the works with the most comments at the top. Bookmarks will put works with the most bookmarks at the top. After selecting which one you want to use you have to hit sort and filter for it to go through.

• Fandoms: I personally avoid this one but if you want a specific crossover fic this is the place to go. Click on the fandoms you want and only fics that include them all will show up. If you don’t see a fandom you want listed use the other tags to include box and put in the name of the fandom(s) then hit sort and filter. If you just don’t want certain fandoms to show up in crossovers do the same process but in the exclude section instead of the include one.

• Characters: want to see stories with certain characters or ones that don’t mention certain ones this is the filter option for that. Any you want to see check in the include section or add in the other tags to include area and those you don’t to the exclude section.

• Additional Tags: this area mostly features the top additional tags which can be fluff, angst, smut, post-canon, hurt/comfort, slow burn, alternate universe - cannon divergence, etc. If you want any stories featuring tags like this look at this in the include section and check them. Want to avoid them check them in the exclude section. If you don’t see something specific you want once again type it into the other tags to include section, any you don’t want do the same but in the exclude section.

More Options Filter breakdown

• Crossovers: this is automatically set to include crossovers in searches if you want to change it to exclude crossovers or only show them go here. Then click on the option you want and hit sort and filter.

• Completion Status: automatically this is set to show all works but if you want to only see completed works or only ongoing ones you can check one of the boxes in here. Then hit sort and filter.

• Word Count: want to only read books that are a certain length enter that length here. Say you want to only see books between 15,000 and 50,000 put 15,000 in the From section and 50,000 in the To section then hit sort and filter.

• Date Updated: only want to see works that were last updated in a certain time frame enter that here. For example if you want something that was last updated between August 13th, 2026 to today August 17th click on the From area and select August 13th on the calendar that pops up then do the same with the To section but for August 17th. Then hit sort and filter.

I won’t touch on the Search within results section because it has the pop up explanation (the question mark) you can click on in the filter section. And tbh I’ve never used it as I haven’t found it necessary to do so.

• Language: only want works in certain languages use the drop down menu here. Do NOT select your work with any language that’s barely used in your work. Only use the primary one used. If you want to mention the other language do so in the tags.

Posting info

Preface:

• Notes: this is where you put any author notes you have. You have two options placing them before the start of the chapter or at the end. Do NOT put author notes in the actual chapter or make them their own chapters.

Associations:

• Post to Collections/ Challenges: if you ever participate in things like Whumptober you can add the work you created for it here.

• Gift this work to: if you wrote a work for someone on AO3 putting their username here will tag them and send them an email about it.

• Set a different publication date: use this to select the date you wrote the work. Works can predate AO3 itself.

Privacy:

• Only show work to registered users= only people with accounts can view it.

• Enable comment moderation= no comments will appear publicly until you manually approve them.

Site and Work Skins

If you want to change what the site looks like completely for you or add more options for what your work looks like to your readers do the following: click on Hi, (your username), select My Dashboard, then select Skins. After that you have different options, the first one being going through the public site skins options that AO3 staff has put up and hitting use on the site skins or clicking on my site skins or my work skins then hitting create site skin or create work skin. Here you can either create your own css code for either or you can copy and paste someone else’s code. To use a work skin simply go to edit or post a work and scroll down to associations and select the work skin you want.

Options for codes:

• Searching AO3 with the tags: AO3 Site Skin, Site Skin, Work Skin, AO3 Work Skin, and AO3 Skin.

• Here’s a link to a community on here that shares skins and helpful information about making them: https://www.tumblr.com/communities/ao3--skins

• Here’s a link to a tag on here to follow where people post their skins: https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ao3%20skin

• Looking up tutorials on YouTube.