Exchange Guidelines

[sakuramod]

These are the guidelines for Sakura Exchange (updated for 2025). If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please comment on this post.

Mediums: Fic and art
Minimums: 1000 words or clean lineart on unlined paper
Matching: fandom, relationship and medium

Canon Eligibility

Nominated canons should be Japanese productions, i.e. produced by a Japanese company, in Japanese, for a Japanese audience.

Translations, localisations and dubs are fine.
    • If there are significant differences between versions (e.g. subtitled vs English dub vs Italian dub; anime vs manga; differences more substantial than names) and you want a specific version, please nominate the specific version.
    • If a version is not specified in the nomination, it is assumed you are fine with all versions.

Other-language adaptations of Japanese source material will not be accepted.

If your canon might be an edge case, please comment on the nominations post or current nomination clarifications post with the details.

Nominations

You may nominate 7 fandoms, and 7 relationships within each fandom.

Please disambiguate nominations: add the fandom name, or acronym/shorthand, in brackets at the end of the relationship, e.g. Chiba Mamoru/Tsukino Usagi (Sailor Moon A&M), Vivi Ornitier & Zidane Tribal (FFIX).

If there are significant differences between versions (e.g. subtitled vs English dub vs Italian dub; anime vs manga; differences more substantial than names) and you want a specific version, please nominate the specific version. If a version is not specified in the nomination, it is assumed you are fine with all versions.
    • Broadly, we will accept fandoms as AO3 has canonized them.
    • If you want more specificity than the canonical tag (e.g. the tag is Banana Fish (Anime & Manga) or Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup! but you specifically want only the anime or only the manga), please nominate that way, e.g. Banana Fish (Anime) or Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup! (Anime).
    • If the canonical tag is specific, but you are fine with other versions of the canon as well (e.g. the tag is Dr. Stone (Anime) but you are also fine with the manga), feel free to specify in your nomination or in optional details.

& and / relationships are accepted.

Relationships involving more than 2 people are accepted.

Character & None, and Character &/ Any are accepted. "Any"-type nominations may specify within that group (e.g. Any Fairy Type Pokemon).

Crossovers are accepted and should be nominated under "Crossover Fandom."

RPF is accepted. All people involved must be 18 or older and famous in their own right.

Creator's Choice of Fandom is not allowed in this exchange.

Nomination clarifications will be posted to this community.

Requests, Offers and Matching

You may request 1-10 fandoms with at least 1 relationship and 1 medium in each. You may request a fandom multiple times. You must request at least 3 distinct fandoms to be guaranteed a gift.

The signup form will include space for optional details and a Dear Creator letter link. If there is content you do not wish to receive, please specify in the optional details box, clearly marked Do Not Want/DNW.

You may offer 1-10 fandoms, with at least 1 relationship and 1 medium in each. You may offer a fandom multiple times.

Matching will be done on fandom, relationship, and medium. Unmatchable participants (i.e. participants who have no possible recipient, given their current offers) will be contacted to add offers. If you cannot offer anything someone is currently requesting, your signup will be deleted.

If you receive an assignment that does not include a fandom/relationship/medium combination you offered, please contact sakuramod or sakuraexchangemod@gmail.com as soon as possible.

Assignments, Pinch Hits and Treats

You may create for any of your assigned recipient's requests, which need not be the one you matched on.

Fic should be a complete work of at least 1000 words. Art should be at least clean lineart on unlined paper.

The use of LLM or other AI tools to generate works is not allowed.

Please do not include any of your recipient's Do Not Wants/DNWs in your gift.

Please remain anonymous until creator reveals. Please refrain from discussing which work you created, placing your work in a personal series/collection with other, revealed works, or including other identifying information while works are anonymous. You are free to do this after creator reveals!

Pinch hits will be posted to this community. The collection will not be revealed until all signed-up participants who requested at least 3 distinct fandoms and have created a work for their assigned recipient have also received a gift.
If you requested fewer than 3 distinct fandoms and are listed as a post-deadline pinch hit, you will be given 48 hours past the works deadline to add additional fandoms and guarantee a gift. Otherwise, your pinch hit will remain up but will not delay reveals.

Treats do not need to meet the minimum work requirements, but should feature a requested fandom, relationship, and medium (unless the recipient has stated it's fine to do otherwise). Please follow the recipient's DNWs.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

In preparation for nominations, I have a question. If a character doesn't have a canon gender (such as self-insert/player characters in certain visual novels), should I nominate my preferred gender/s, or should I DNW the gender/s I don't want? Non-Japanese canon examples, but I'm thinking more along the lines of the player in DDLC (where the fourth-wall breaking character admits that she doesn't know the player's gender) rather than Frisk or Commander Shepard (who have canonical genders, even if multiple genders are canonical in the latter case).

[sakuramod]

Hello! Please nominate the specific gender(s) you do want. We will approve specified genders where there is no canon gender, as well as if there are multiple "canon" genders, ex. Male Robin for Fire Emblem Awakening. Nonspecific terms (ex. just Robin) is also fine.

[sirvalkyrie]

Are crossovers to be only between eligible fandoms or can they be between an eligible fandom and one that isn't. For example Tsukino Usagi (Sailor Moon)/Jason Lee Scott (MM Power Rangers).

[sakuramod]

Hello! Yes, we will accept crossovers with a non-eligible fandom as long as one character is from a Japanese canon.

[(Anonymous)]

Is there a way to nominate a child version and not the adult version of a character? In the game there are two version, and I don't want to nominate the adult version. Or is that not allowed? Thank you :)

[sakuramod]

Hello! Yes, this is fine, and please nominate as 'Child X' (e.g. Child X & None).

Edits before work reveals

[gerard_way_is_sexah]

Hello,

May I edit my work between the submission deadline and work reveals? That is, provided my initial submission meets the exchange minimums (1000 words) at the deadline? I've seen some exchanges specifically state that this kind of revision is allowed, but I see nothing in the guidelines here.

Thanks!

Re: Edits before work reveals

[sakuramod]

Hello! That's fine, as long as the work is still complete and meets exchange requirements after each time you edit it.

[(Anonymous)]

First-time participant here, with a possibly silly question: If I nominate a crossover between two eligible fandoms that have already been nominated, does that become a third, distinct fandom for purposes of requests/offers?

[sakuramod]

Hello! Yes, please nominate the crossover ship using 'Crossover Fandom' as the fandom, and request and offer under Crossover Fandom as well.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello! This is probably a silly question, but I couldn't find the answer anywhere. Does the gift we create have to be spring-themed itself?

[sakuramod]

Hello! The gift does not have to be spring-themed.

[lunartulip]

It's occurred to me as probably worth double-checking, before I submit my signup: what are the semantics of an "& None" relationship? It's not a structure I recall encountering prior to this exchange, and I'm not quite as confident-in-how-to-interpret-it as I'd like to be before locking in signups around it. Does it specifically denote a work in which the focal character isn't in a focal relationship, or more generally a work in which the focal character is present-and-focal (with relationships not specified in any particular direction), or something else I'm currently failing to think of?

[sakuramod]

Thanks for the question! "& None" tags are the same as "Solo:" tags in other exchanges, and your second interpretation is correct - the intention is to request/nominate a focus on that character, without specifying a particular relationship.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, just realized I missed the exchange this year (oops) and I'm wondering if it's too late to submit treats to the collection?

[sakuramod]

Hello! The collection is still open for treats and will remain open after reveals. Your treat is very welcome!