Author FAQs

A reading platform for human-written romance and erotica, at every heat level and orientation. You keep your rights, choose whether to go exclusive or wide, and earn 35% to 70% of your list price. Read About Us and Why We Exist.

Romance and erotica from closed door to extra spicy, and any length from 2,500 words: short stories, novellas, full-length books — finished and ongoing — and series. Romance must have an HEA or HFN. Erotica may not, though we love an emotional arc. Our Content Guidelines spell out the few things we don’t allow, such as incest and underage characters.

No. If we accept your story, it shows up in search, whatever the heat level, theme or orientation. MM, sapphic, queer and straight stories are all treated the same.

Yes, always. We never take your copyright, or your audio, film or merchandise rights.

No. Keep selling everywhere you already sell. Exclusivity is optional, story by story, for a higher royalty. See Terms of Use and royalties.

You earn royalties on list price or promo price.

Subscriber reads are paid from a separate royalty pool. See Terms of Use and royalties.

• Have at least one free or low-priced story. It’s how new readers find your voice. (No more than 20% of your catalog can be free.)
• End your preview on a cliffhanger. The preview is the part of your story readers see without logging in: the first 250 words by default, longer for multi-chapter stories.
• Use a cover that signals your genre. Before anyone reads a word, your cover tells them what kind of story this is. See our cover guidelines.
• Tag emotions, tropes and content warnings. They’re how readers find you.
• Tag sections of your story. Mark the moments that land so browsing readers get a real taste before they buy.
• Add market comps. Comps help your story show up when readers search Google or AI tools for “stories like [a bestseller or cult favorite similar to yours].”
• Put a reader magnet at the end of your story to grow your mailing list. See Reader Magnet FAQs.
• Add your full-length backlist to Weekly Drops. Readers can read your book free, a few chapters at a time, every Wednesday and Friday, and you decide how many chapters go out. Readers who can’t wait can buy the book and binge it. Weekly Drops brings in new readers who weren’t going to buy your book yet, and gives them a reason to.

Look, we’re not gonna lie. Amazon has a chokehold on the market. But we’re effecting change one feature at a time, and they’re adding up:

• Fixing reviews. Less than 1% of romance readers leave reviews on any platform. So, we’re encouraging readers to leave other feedback including asking them if they would recommend the story (yes / no / maybe) and what they felt when they read it (which then allows other readers to discover stories based on what they want to feel).
• Better discovery filters. In addition to being able to search by trope and sub-genre, readers can also search by spice level, content warning, orientation of characters, and kink.
• Helping authors build the infrastructure around your stories. We offer for free tools that cost at least $100–200 / year on other platforms, including reader magnets, ARCs, market trend reports (Theo Sees™), free marketing courses, 3D bookmarks for your reader events, and seasonal promotions.
• Weekly Drops to monetize your backlist. Readers can read your finished full-length books free, a few chapters at a time, every Wednesday and Friday. Readers who can’t wait can buy the book and binge it.
• Let readers read as you write. Publish a full-length book while you’re still writing it, with new chapters dropping every Wednesday and Friday. Loyal readers follow along and build momentum before your book is even finished.

No. This is our non-negotiable. Every story must be written by you. AI is fine for grammar checks and blurb help, never for the storytelling itself. The same goes for covers: the photography and artwork must come from humans. AI editing tools in design platforms like Canva and Photoshop are fine for things like removing a background or adding filters. AI that generates or adds new imagery, such as Generative Fill or Magic Expand, is not. Read our AI Policy.

Straight talk — you can take down a non-exclusive story any time, but exclusive stories stay up for their full 6 months (break it early and you drop to the non-exclusive rate). Readers who bought your story keep it. Subscribers lose access when they cancel.

Said plainly: Theo Reads was built from the ground up in collaboration with 50+ founding authors, and it shows. Authors are treated fairly, and we actively ask for your input in monthly author meetings (check our Discord for the times). The door is always open: email us at realhumans@theoreads.com to talk to the team or if you have any questions.

• Built only for romance and erotica. Every reader here came for stories about love and desire, and they find them by how they want to feel.
• No banning or burying. If we accept it, readers can find it.
• Human-written only. You’re not competing with a flood of AI books.
• You keep your rights. No film, audio or merchandise grabs, and no edits without you.
• Higher royalties. 35–50% non-exclusive, or 70% if you opt into exclusivity. It’s always your choice.
• No coins or tokens. Readers pay one clear price for a whole story.
• Free marketing tools for authors. Weekly Drops, ARCs, reader magnets, promo codes, a trends report and event bookmarks.
• Paid safely. We’ve been approved by payment processors and we don’t pay through PayPal, so PayPal can’t freeze your earnings over “adult content.”

More detailed comparisons below:

• Why Romance Authors Should Publish on Theo Reads
• Theo Reads vs. Amazon KDP and Kindle Unlimited
• Theo Reads vs. Draft2Digital and Smashwords
• Theo Reads vs. Inkitt and Galatea

Create a free account at theoreads.com/author and import, paste or write your story into our editor. Attach your book cover during submission. Review takes up to 5 business days because until tech is able to detect AI reliably, every story has to be curated by humans (it’s time consuming but what a way to go!). Want to talk first? Book a call with our founder, Parneet.

Readers can read your full-length book free, a few chapters at a time (you decide how many), every Wednesday and Friday, or buy it and binge.

• Finished books: Got a backlist that isn’t selling as much as it could? Weekly Drops puts it in front of new readers, a few chapters at a time, and gives them a reason to buy.
• Ongoing books: Still writing? Your most loyal readers can buy it in advance and read along as you write, like Patreon but without running a Patreon.

Full-length books of 65,000 words or more, finished or still being written. Ongoing books need four weeks of chapters ready before they go live (see below).

Free drops bring in readers who’d never risk money on an author they don’t know. Many get hooked and buy the book so they don’t have to wait, then buy other books by their new favorite author. It’s especially useful for backlist books, which can struggle to reach readers chasing the next bestseller.

1 to 5, you choose. You can change it any time, and the change takes effect from the next drop.

No. A free book can already be read in full, so there’s nothing to drop.

On a finished book, yes, any time. On an Ongoing book, drops stop only if:

• you don’t upload a new chapter for 3 months, and your book moves back to draft
• you unpublish the book
• you finish the book and choose to sell it as a paid book only

Readers always keep everything they’ve already read or bought.

Enough chapters for 4 weeks of drops: your chapters per drop × 8 (2 drops a week for 4 weeks). For example, at 2 chapters per drop, that’s 16 chapters.

Free, or $0.50 to $2.69 for the whole book. Readers pay once and are never charged per chapter. All sales are final, even if your book is later paused. See our Refund Policy.

Buying a book that isn’t finished is a leap of faith for readers. They don’t know how it ends, or when. A low price respects that risk. We’ve also watched serial apps charge readers by the chapter until the costs piled up and readers left for good. We’d rather keep readers coming back to your book, and to the next one. When you finish, you can set any price you like. See our Pricing Guidelines.

On a finished book, every chapter at once. On an Ongoing book, every chapter you’ve published so far, then each new chapter on the next drop day.

We’ll email you when your first readers are two weeks from catching up, and again if they do catch up.

If you don’t upload a new chapter for 3 months, your Ongoing book moves back to draft. Readers keep everything they’ve read or bought. Upload a new chapter and once it’s approved, your book goes live again and readers pick up where they left off.

Readers who’ve paid for the book upfront get the rest of the book, and you set a regular price for new readers. You also choose if you’d like to keep the Weekly Drops on.

From every sale, and from subscriber reads on paid books. Free books don’t earn from subscribers.

Paste it into the editor, or upload a Word doc, PDF or EPUB.

Highlight the chapter name and pick ‘Chapter Title’ in the editor toolbar.

Yes. Use the Share feature in the editor toolbar. It works like Google Docs.

Yes, readers can see the preview before they’re asked to login or buy. Choose the first 500 words, or end the preview after a chapter. We recommend ending on your first big cliffhanger.

If it’s one full-length book, publish it as one book. If you’d like to release it chapter by chapter, use Weekly Drops, for a finished book, or Ongoing, for a book you’re still writing. Series are for separate books, or for standalone shorts or novellas that share characters or a world. We discourage selling single chapters, because readers find it extractive and often don’t come back. See our Series Guidelines.

Email it to bookcovers@theoreads.com. We can’t publish a story without one, and every cover must meet our Cover Guidelines.

Up to 5 business days. Check its status on your Author Dashboard. We’ll email you when it’s approved.

Yes, any time. Changes go back through review. You can also change pricing at any time from the author dashboard, no approval required.

Yes. Readers search by warnings, both to avoid them and to find them. Tags cover anything our trope and kink lists miss. Add up to 3 emotions a reader will feel. Once readers finish, their picks replace yours on your story page under the Readers Felt section.

It lets you tag the emotion of specific moments in your story, using the tag icon in the editor toolbar. Browsing readers get a taste of how your story feels before they buy.

Yes, up to five.

Price by length, using the reader-friendly prices in our Pricing Guidelines.

Up to 20% of your stories. A free story is how a new reader finds your voice. If most of your catalog is free, though, readers learn to stop buying, and that hurts your income and the income of every other author on Theo Reads (and beyond). Keep free stories as the way in, and give readers somewhere paid to go next.

A story that’s free elsewhere must also be free here.

On your Author Dashboard, open the ⋮ menu next to the story. Changes take effect right away, with no re-review.

You earn royalties on list price or promo price.

Subscriber reads are paid from a separate royalty pool. See Terms of Use and royalties.

From a separate royalty pool, shared by completed reads. A read counts once a subscriber reaches 50% of your story. Paying for completed reads, not clicks, stops people from flooding the pool with thin or AI-written stories. Paid Ongoing books count sooner: once a subscriber reads 32,500 words.

Not directly. They come off the sale before your share is worked out, so you only bear your percentage. For example: a $10 story with $1 in fees leaves $9. At 35%, you earn $3.15.

In the first week of each month, once your balance reaches $20. Earnings never expire.

Your bank may charge a small transfer fee, and international payouts may carry a currency conversion fee.

Settings > Author Preferences. This opens our payment processor’s site, where you create a separate account.

That sale’s royalty comes off your balance, or off future earnings if you’ve already been paid.

No withholding for US authors. You’ll get a 1099 each January. International authors may have tax withheld unless they submit a W-8BEN, and will get a 1042-S each March.

Yes. 10% of their pay-as-you-go royalties for their first year — coming out of Theo Reads’ share. See the Referral Agreement.

• How often: once every 30 days. One code can cover one story, a series or your whole catalog.
• How long: 1 to 14 days. The default is 7.
• Code: 4 to 20 letters and numbers. Not case-sensitive, and you can’t reuse a word.
• Uses: up to 200 redemptions by default, and you can raise it.
• Where: works in every country we sell in.

Yes, everything except the code itself.

Readers get the story free and you earn no royalty on those reads.

A free story you give away in exchange for an email address. You can run up to 5 at a time, on any story you’ve published here, free or paid. You’ll see who clicks, starts and finishes.

Yes, for every reader who agrees. Export them from your magnet’s stats page, up to 30 days after it ends.

End the magnet. The link will then send readers to your story page.

A free advance copy before launch. You can run one on any unpublished story, with no limit on how many.

You invite up to 500 readers by email. Most teams are 20 to 50. An ARC runs 7 to 45 days (30 by default), ending on or before your publish date. Only invited emails can open it, and copies are watermarked.

ARC reviews carry over to your story page, and ARC readers keep their copy.

A market trend report covering trope momentum, pricing and covers, sent the first week of each month. It’s free for authors who’ve published here in the last six months.

Yes. 3D-printed, spice-coded bookmarks, shipped within the continental US. Free for authors published on Theo Reads.

Yes, free guides and courses, starting with Instagram, open to every author.

Your ebook is sold only on Theo Reads for 6 months, and you earn 70% from day one. Print and audio aren’t restricted. If you break exclusivity early, your rate drops to non-exclusive from that date.

Non-exclusive stories, any time. Exclusive stories, after their 6 months.

Your stories, reviews and interactions are permanently removed.

Not their account details, which no platform can share. But reader magnets collect emails from readers who agree. You can also post announcements to your followers and message them directly from your pen name profile page.

Write to us at realhumans@theoreads.com.