Content Guidelines

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 realhumans@theoreads.com.

You must be 18 years or older to access our Platform.

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.

Stories are prohibited from including content involving:

• Sex with minors, minors in a sexualized role, or sexual acts between two minors.
• Self-harm themes such as suicide.
• Illegal sex acts including, but not limited to, bestiality, necrophilia, incest (although pseudo-incest and incest play are OK), or child sexual exploitation.

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:

• We are in no way prohibiting Stories containing this content - authors may continue writing content that doesn’t violate any other content guidelines.
• Market research suggests that content warnings ultimately help reader engagement, which benefits authors. Readers can exclude or include specific content in their Theo searches.
• Content warnings may ultimately also reduce negative reviews, which helps authors.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The content does not violate laws or copyright, trademark, brand, privacy, publicity, or other rights.

Please do not include content advertising products or services unrelated to TheoReads Inc.

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.

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: