I’m confused, how does this all work?
. It’s easy! These writers are donating their time to Support Stacie. You choose which author you wish to bid on and follow the bidding instructions below.
. If you win, you get to tell the author what you want written. For example, suppose you think Buffy the Vampire Slayer should have ended up in a polygamist relationship with Spike, Angel AND Xander. You’d tell the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fic author to write you THAT story. But be fair, if you bid on an author that says he or she won’t write slash, don’t ask them to write the epic love story between Angel and Xander. The authors' “restrictions” are listed next to their names at the top of each thread. If you have any questions about a story idea, feel free to contact the authors by leaving your question on their auction thread, messaging them on this board, their LJ or their fanfic sites.
. Remember to be flexible with your wishes. But most of all, have FUN with this event! Our hope is that this will be a uniting moment for everyone involved. Get to know one another! Feel free to engage in fun competition with your fellow readers! Trade ideas, interact, and enjoy yourselves on the forum threads! This is for Stacie, but it’s also for YOU!

How do I sign up?
All authors must submit an application to supportstacie@gmail.com in order to sign up. Auctions are posted by the administrators - NOT by the authors. Additional details are available here.

How long does the auction last?
This is a 69-hour auction. The dates you need to keep in mind are as follows:
Friday, March 27th – Deadline for author registration forms
Friday, April 3rd, 11:59pm – Auction opens
Monday, April 6th, 9:00pm – Auction ends
All times are Central Daylight Time (-6 GMT).

What am I bidding on?
You are bidding on an author. Or, to be specific, you are bidding on that individual's time. You will be issuing a writing challenge to the author, who is committing to a certain amount of time spent responding to your challenge.

How do I bid on an author?
. A step-by-step tutorial is available on This Post.
. Prior to bidding, you need to register here: index.php (Registration Instructions are HERE)
. When the bidding is open, go to the Author Auction forum (viewforum.php?f=101)
. Open the thread of the author you wish to bid on
. Click on “Reply” and fill in your bid information. A simple reply stating “I’ll raise the bid to $7” is fine. Any other text is fine, too; feel free to tease your fellow bidders and interact as you wish! Just make sure we know exactly what dollar amount you are bidding.
. If you want to be notified if someone outbids you, click on the button that says “NOTIFY ME WHEN A REPLY IS POSTED.”

My favorite author is offering a fic in a fandom I don’t like! Can I ask them to change the fandom in their description?
The authors have listed the specifics about what they are willing to do. You are free to discuss this with the author directly, but we are not able to promise you something other than what is on their description. We are happy with whatever the author wants to do, we just ask that the author post on their thread or contact us if any adjustments are made.

How do I pay?
. Payment for auctions is preferred via This Paypal link. PayPal accepts credit cards or will make automatic withdrawal from your bank account.
. Sign in, then click on send money on the upper left corner and select the email as supportstacie@gmail.com.
. In the paypal payment information form write the author’s name, what fandom, and what email the author can reach you at. For Example: “This donation is on behalf of MAJIKLMOON in the Roswell fandom. She can email me at MyEmail@_____.” Make sure you indicate in your payment information that you are donating on behalf of the AUTHOR; we are not accepting payments for fanfic.
. Money Orders are also acceptable; contact us for the mailing address. Please be aware that your fic will not be written until your payment is received.
. If you have any questions or concerns about this please email us at supportstacie@gmail.com.
. Payment is due by April 20th (two weeks from the auction's close). If a winning bidder fails to pay, the auction automatically defaults to the 2nd place bidder. So if you are the second place bidder in an auction that is important to you, you might want to keep that in mind.
. All payments must be in U.S. Dollars.

What happens after I pay?
When your auction payment is received, you and the author will both get an email from the Support Stacie volunteers stating that the auction has been paid for and providing you each with the other's contact information so that you can discuss the writing challenge. Within 30 days of that notification email, the author should delivery the story (if a one-parter) or the first chapter of the story (if a longer fic) to the designated recipient. For longer stories, you and the author should discuss your expectations about the time frame for the entire story to be completed. If for any reason you do not receive your story by the assigned date, please contact us immediately. If you wait longer than 90 days to contact us, there is little we can do to resolve the issue. Please keep in mind that this is a charity auction run by a handful of volunteers (not a large non-profit organization) with all proceeds going directly to Stacie Holeman's medical expenses. As such, we do not offer refunds.

What happens to the fic after the author sends it to me?
That depends upon you. This is YOUR story. It’s for your eyes only if you wish, or you can give the author permission to post it on other sites. We would love it if the story were also posted on this board under the Auction Stories forum, but that's up to you and the author.

None of my favorite authors are listed!
Well, go recruit them! : We’re accepting applications through Monday, March 30th. After that, go nudge your favorite author and ask them to sign up for the September 2009 Author Auction by emailing supportstacie@gmail.com! In the meantime, you can get into practice now by clicking this DONATE! link. You don’t have to wait for an event to help support Stacie!

How Can I help?
Promote the auction on your LJ, on your Facebook and MySpace pages, on your fandom communities and fanboards, and anywhere else you're comfortable talking about fandom! Remind your friends repeatedly to come bid in the auction, and keep the enthusiasm alive for all 69-hours that the auction is open!

What’s with that Email signup link?
We welcome everyone to sign up for Stacie’s mailing list so that we can update you directly about her health, upcoming fundraisers, opportunities to meet Stacie, fun projects and more! Details will continue to be posted on this site, of course, but if anything important happens and we need to notify you all quickly, this will be our best method of contacting you. There will be no spamming involved, your email address will NEVER be shared under any circumstances with anyone else, and general updates about Stacie’s health are only expected to go out monthly or when something new occurs.

Still have questions?
Feel free to email us! General questions go to supportstacie@gmail.com.

Hope it's alright to post a question here - or not really a question so much as a problem.

I tried to pay this morning through the link provided, and noticed that there was nowhere on the paypal form to enter the extra details - just amount of money to donate, source of funding, and home address! I've sent a message to paypal already, but thought I'd let you know about the snag.

Followup: Ebay just sent me a message that 'the email I received' (which I hadn't told them anything about receiving) was a phish spoof, and that I should have logged into ebay to make sure that the auction was genuine. Stupid helpdesk person, making assumptions about the problem instead of actually reading through my whole email.

Is it alright to just go into paypal and use the 'send funds' button to send to supportstacie@gmail.com instead of using the link provided? I think that would bypass all these issues.

Yes you can do that, some people are able to send the info in the comments and some aren't. I'm not sure why? You can send it and then send a e-mail to the same account to confirm.

Thanks

My donation was sent. Will we be getting any confirmation that it was received? Thank you so much!

Paypal usually sends you a confirmation e-mail, if they don't send a e-mail to supportstacie@gmail.com


Thank you!

This is nothing more that a test to see if I can now post with Firefox. Yes!

Woo-Hoo! I'm so glad that worked out for you!!

So, I really really suck at time differences. Am I right in thinking the auction finishes 3am Tuesday morning Greenwhich Mean Time?

I think it would be 2am GMT. Can someone confirm that?

Short answer: 3:00am is probably right.

Long answer: Unfortunately, because not all countries do Daylight Savings Time, and those that do start it at different times, it definitely gets confusing! The easiest way for you to calculate this is to check what time it is in Nashville, TN right now and compare it to where you are. It's 3:30pm at the moment in Nashville. If you're in Daylight Savings Time, then it should be 9:30pm where you are. That means that 3:00am is correct.

I'm confused about the time difference too. My time zone is Eastern Standard Time. Does that mean the auction ends at 8:00pm or 10:00pm for me? I know CMT is one hour off, but I'm not sure which way... If anyone could help, that would be great. I'd really just like the extra certainty that comes with checking with the mods so I don't miss the end of the auction while I'm, like, reading pr0n or something. Thnx!

The North American Times I can do, lol!

The auction ends at:

10:00pm Eastern
9:00pm Central
8:00pm Mountain
7:00pm Pacific

Or, to put it another way, the auction ends in roughly 3 hours.

Oh good, then we still have three hours. Thank you gioia!

I just went to the paypal link and paid the donation for the auction that I won, however there was no section to include the following information as you suggested.

. In the paypal payment information form write the author’s name, what fandom, and what email the author can reach you at. For Example: “This donation is on behalf of MAJIKLMOON in the Roswell fandom. She can email me at MyEmail@_____.” Make sure you indicate in your payment information that you are donating on behalf of the AUTHOR; we are not accepting payments for fanfic.

I sent a follow up email to supportstacie@gmail.com to confirm my payment and details through paypal. I am concerned that the follow through confirmation loop to you and the author is complete.

Please advise.
AmoreTwilight

How do you want those of us that bid as a team to handle the money transaction? Do we all do our separately (some with the money for the other auctions they won) or do you want us to send it all through one Paypal account?

If you aren't logged in to your paypal account before you start the payment process, it won't allow you to enter the message with your payment. So in that case, sending the email separately like you did is exactly the right way to go.

We are totaling up all the threads right now, but tomorrow we will start processing all the payments that are coming in right now. At that point the authors and winning bidders will all get emails confirming the payments received so that the authors know they can begin accepting challenges.

Thank you!

If we won more than one auction, should we combine the payments (so that y'all don't have to pay processing fees twice) and just indicate in the message how much is on behalf of which author, or do we do them as individual transactions?

Combined payments is absolutely fine. Just include in your note (or separate email) what the breakdown is. E.g.,

This is Jessa. I am sending you $xx. That covers $xx for This Author and $xx for That Author.

Thank you for asking!

ok so I want to send in my payment but when I followed the link it sent me to paypal I signed in but did not see anywhere to add the message on behalf of....., I also tried it without signing in and got nothing so what should I do, I am sorry I am new to this and want to make my payment.