Can people post a preview or partial work on ao3 and provide a link to the full work as long as the work is still entirely accessible for free and is on a website that isn't for monetization/not monetized, like a personal website, or Tumblr, or Dreamwidth?
Linking to a non-commercial site where an alternate version of your work can be accessed in full, for free, by anyone who visits the link is not inherently against the TOS. However, you may not post a partial work with a link specifically in order to get around our TOS, such as by hosting the full work on a site that pays you per view, or if the full work contained content that would itself be in violation of the TOS.
So to clarify the last sentence of your response, it IS allowable to post a partial fic to AO3 with a link to the full fic as long as the full fic does not have content that violates the TOS, and that the full version is fully free and has no commercialized element (like a pay per view or pay wall)?
In general, yes, so long as the work on AO3 does have fanwork content, does not otherwise violate our Terms of Service, and the link is to somewhere that is freely and fully accessible, non-commercial, and does not otherwise violate the Terms of Service (such as by providing pirated material), then this is allowed.
However, generally if you would like to link to works elsewhere, then we recommend that you use bookmarks instead. AO3 is an archive for fanworks, not a blogging or social media site, and is not intended for the promotion of offsite content.
Comment on TOS Spotlight: Commercial Promotion
Giwiidabimin Sat 28 Jun 2025 08:03PM UTC
Comment Actions
AO3_Policy_and_Abuse (Official) Sun 29 Jun 2025 09:24PM UTC
Comment Actions
Giwiidabimin Sun 29 Jun 2025 09:59PM UTC
Comment Actions
AO3_Policy_and_Abuse (Official) Mon 30 Jun 2025 06:39PM UTC
Comment Actions
Giwiidabimin Mon 30 Jun 2025 07:25PM UTC
Comment Actions