Sign In

Content Guidelines

Last Updated: 2/25/2025

This agreement was updated on the date listed above.

TheoReads is author-first; we prioritize supporting authors. My team has dug deep to understand your biggest frustrations and deepest aspirations so you can focus on what you love most - writing captivating stories. We’re here to support you every step of the way, from ensuring fast Story load times and assisting with titles and descriptions to providing story editing and creating compelling book covers.

Given the nature of the content in the Erotica and Romance domain and restrictions placed on us by social networks, banking partners, and others, it's important for us to establish clear guidelines governing the kind of content that can be posted on our platform. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to read through these.

If you notice gaps or come across content that violates the guidelines below, let us know at parneet@theoreads.com.

  • Age Restriction: You must be 18 years or older to access our Platform.
  • Content Outside Login. For us to do business, use social platforms to promote authors and work with payment and banking partners, we are unfortunately required to prohibit the use of explicit content available to readers outside login. Readers are required to log into theoreads.com to read a Story, whether free or paid. However, the first 250 (for now; this will likely evolve as we learn more about reader preferences, and suggestions are welcome) words of every Story, free or paid, are available outside login - and as a result, may not contain explicit content or the use of explicit words, including but not limited to cunt, dick, cock, fuck, etc. And yes, we’re not happy about this either…but are forced to adhere to these restrictions in order to conduct business. We’ll play along for now 😏.
    Theo Reads will also have “flash” stories called Quickos that are short, sweet, and of a more taboo nature such as non consensual stories, will be completely behind login. These will not be held to the ‘Content Outside Login’ restriction as they will only be accessible once a reader has logged in. Note: Please reach out to parneet@theoreads.com for longer (taboo) stories.
  • Content Restrictions: Stories are prohibited from including content involving:
    1. Sex with minors, minors in a sexualized role, or sexual acts between two minors.
    2. Self-harm themes such as suicide.
    3. Illegal sex acts including, but not limited to, bestiality, necrophilia, incest (although pseudo-incest and incest play are OK), or child sexual exploitation.
  • Content Warnings: When loading your Stories, we encourage you to be thoughtful in tagging your content with content warnings, including graphic violence, Consensual Non Consent (CNC), or a major character death. Note that:
    1. We are in no way prohibiting Stories containing this content - authors may continue writing content that doesn’t violate any other content guidelines.
    2. Market research suggests that content warnings ultimately help reader engagement, which benefits authors. Readers can exclude or include specific content in their Theo searches.
    3. Content warnings may ultimately also reduce negative reviews, which helps authors.
  • Hate Speech and Violence: Stories may not glorify or encourage hate speech, hate groups, racial violence, racism, anti-LGBTQ content, mass shootings, terrorism, and other themes that promote hate acts or speech based on race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age or disability.
  • Privacy and Fictional Characters: Stories cannot reveal personally identifiable information on individuals or disparage a TheoReads user (authors and readers). Due to the fictional nature of this content, we cannot remove a fictional character who has the same name or is similar to a real person.
  • Media Guidelines: Any media (videos, gifs, images) must not include exposure of private parts, sexual intercourse, self-harm, or suicide. Media featuring individuals who are not public or celebrities are not allowed without their consent.
  • AI and Authenticity of Content: At Theo Reads, we value authentic storytelling that reflects the creativity, passion, and individuality of our authors. To maintain the integrity of our platform, we require that all submitted works adhere to the following guidelines:
  • Original Content: All submissions must be original works created by the author. Plagiarism, including content lifted from other books, websites, or media, is strictly prohibited.
  • No Unauthorized AI Content: Submissions generated entirely or predominantly by artificial intelligence tools are not permitted unless explicitly approved in advance. Authors must disclose the use of AI in any part of their creative process, including on the first page of the Story.

Disclosure of AI Assistance We consider AI-generated writing to be content primarily produced by AI-writing software with minimal or no edits, revisions, fact-checking, or enhancements. This definition does not extend to AI tools used for outlining, verifying facts, checking spelling, or correcting grammar. If you use AI tools more extensively for writing (i.e. beyond brainstorming, grammar checks, or limited edits), you must:

  • Declare this in your submission, including on the first page of your story.
  • Ensure that the final work reflects your unique voice and creativity.

Failure to disclose the use of AI tools may result in rejection or removal of the book from our platform.

AI Content Detection and Review To safeguard our platform, we may:

  • Use AI detection tools to assess submissions for compliance.
  • Conduct manual reviews of flagged content.
  • Request additional writing samples or clarifications from authors if necessary.
  • Hold all Stories to a high standard of quality.

Violations of this policy will result in:

  • Immediate removal of the story or book from our platform.
  • Possible suspension or termination of the author's account.
  • Forfeiture of any earnings from the infringing work.

Appeal Process Authors whose submissions are flagged for potential violations may appeal the decision. We will be putting in place and sharing a process for appeals, but for now appeals will involve:

  • Providing additional proof of authorship.
  • Engaging in a dialogue with our review team to resolve concerns.

We welcome feedback from our readers. If a book is flagged by readers for potential AI generation or lack of authenticity, we will review the submission and take appropriate action. This policy may be updated periodically to reflect changes in technology and our commitment to quality. Authors will be notified of significant updates via email and announcements on our platform.

  • Legal and Copyright Compliance: The content does not violate laws or copyright, trademark, brand, privacy, publicity, or other rights.
  • Advertising Restrictions: Please do not include content advertising products or services unrelated to TheoReads Inc.
  • Story Title and Description Guidelines: In order to normalize Erotica, readers need to feel comfortable publicly talking about stories they like and share them with friends. Keeping this goal in mind, my team has sought early author input and buy-in on the following guidelines.
    1. Title length: The title may be no longer than 80 characters.
    2. Description length: The description may be no longer than 2,000 characters.
    3. Keep it clean-ish: Titles should be free from any explicit or NSFW (Not Safe For Work) language, including
    4. profanity e.g. “The expletive adventures of Captain Bold”
    5. anatomical parts such as “cock”, “pussy”, “cunt”, “clit”, “vagina”
    6. too graphic words depicting anatomical parts e.g. “erection,” “shaft,” “bulge,” “phallus”’, “trouser snake” 😳, “folds”, and “inner lips”
    7. NSFW acronyms or abbreviations, even if they are not spelled out explicitly, such as "F***: A Love Story" or other words such as “cum.”
    8. words intended to shock or disgust the reader
    9. words depicting self-harm or violence
    10. anything that violates sections 3, 5, 6, 7,8 and 9 above.
    11. Avoid Graphic Descriptions: Titles should refrain from including overly explicit descriptions of violence, sex, or other sensitive topics. Keep in mind that Descriptions will also be available outslide login; read 2. Content Outside Login.
    12. Do be tastefully suggestive. ❤️‍🔥
  • Directing readers to other websites: We support and encourage authors to promote their work, but stories may only include links to the following: the author’s personal website and their social accounts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, and BlueSky. Links to other websites, including Medium or Patreon, are not permitted. Examples of violations include:
    Okay
    1. An author includes a sentence at the end of their story like: "Want an exclusive bonus chapter? Sign up for my newsletter at authorwebsite.com."
    2. The story includes a hyperlink or URL within the text to the author’s personal website, such as:"To explore more about the characters, visit [authorwebsite.com/characters]

    Not Okay
    1. An author promotes their work on another platform that is not their author website or social account: "Find more of my stories on otherplatform.com."
    2. "Support me on Patreon for early access to new stories at [patreon.com/author]."
    3. The story provides an external resource link, such as: "For historical context about this story, visit historicalresource.com."
    4. The author includes a QR code in the story’s cover art or a supplementary page that redirects to their author website or social media. (a cool idea, but we’re not supporting images yet)

Thank you for helping us maintain a safe platform for all our users. For any other questions, please read our Author FAQs or reach out to me at parneet@theoreads.com.

With love, Parneet, Co-founder, Theo Reads