Thanks for the visual feedback! I'm not sure I follow all of it - when you say the grey is too light but the background is too contrasty, isn't that a contradiction? If the grey were darker the contrast would be greater, surely?

I'm also sticking with existing Dreamwidth and LiveJournal templates. Do you have any you could recommend?

I'd think that a lot of people are slightly hesitant to have a stranger beta their fic. Yeah, maybe that's so. But beta posts have been a thing in all the exchanges I've done, and I don't know what makes the model work or not. Is someone in Yulechat so much less a stranger?

I may be biased because I've had very good experiences asking volunteer strangers to beta for me.

Maybe for original art that would work. I don't think 'finished graphic' is clear enough - I need something to cite that isn't just my subjective opinion against another's.