Author FAQs

Theo Reads is a reader-facing platform for human-written romance and erotica, across all heat levels and orientations. Authors keep their rights, choose whether to publish exclusively, and earn published royalty rates of 35% to 50% non-exclusive or 70% exclusive. It is built as an author-friendly alternative to Kindle Unlimited and Amazon KDP, with no content banning, no coin or token systems, and reader discovery based on how stories make people feel.

You can also read more about Why We Exist and our origin story - why Theo Reads was founded.

Yes. You own your work, always. Publishing on Theo Reads grants us a license to distribute your story in digital format. It does not transfer your copyright, and it never will.

No. You can publish here and keep selling the same story on Amazon, Kobo, Apple, your own site, anywhere you already are. Exclusivity is a choice you opt into, story by story, in exchange for a higher royalty. If you never want to be exclusive, you never have to be.

No. We do not ban, delist, or shadow ban based on heat level, theme, or orientation. We publish across all heat levels, from sweet romance to erotica. Our content guidelines spell out where we draw the line e.g. no incest.

MM, sapphic, queer and straight/het stories are all treated the same in discovery. Orientation is a search filter and a way readers find you on Theo Reads, not a reason you get hidden.

Readers pay two ways, so you earn two ways.

When a reader buys your story (pay-as-you-go):

• Exclusive: 70% of list price, from day one of a 6-month digital exclusivity term.
• Non-exclusive: up to 50%, based on how many books you bring and their length. Read our complete Terms of Use for authors, to learn more.

When a reader reads it under a subscription:

• You're paid from a dedicated royalty pool, shared out by completed reads. A read counts once someone reaches 50% of the story.

Why completion (50% of story, or more), not clicks or starts? It keeps the pool honest. Paying only on genuine completion (50% of story, or more) takes away the reward for flooding the platform with thin or AI-generated stories just to skim the pool - something that is a real problem on Amazon and every other platform. Every story already gets reviewed by our human team and run through AI-detection tools, but no detector is foolproof yet, so completion-based payout is one more safeguard that keeps Theo Reads human-written and worth finishing.

Additional context: Amazon and Apple are device companies. Kindle and Apple Books exist largely to sell hardware and keep readers inside an ecosystem, so a single author's success is a rounding error to them. That's why they offer little to no marketing or editorial help, and why their economics can look generous on paper.

Books are not a side business for us. They are the whole business. When you do well, we do well, so the royalties and the support are built around that.

Read our complete Terms of Use for authors, to learn more.

Yes, and we encourage you to bring yours. Non-exclusive royalties are tiered, and they reward depth of catalog. The more you publish, the higher your percentage climbs across all of your non-exclusive stories, not just the newest one.

First, a simple rule for how stories count:

Then the tiers:

When you cross into a new tier, the higher rate applies to every full-length and novella you have on the platform, not just the one that pushed you over. Short stories stay at the 35% base rate.

Read our complete Terms of Use for authors, to learn more.

Still have questions? Email us at realhumans@theoreads.com.

Like every reading platform, we legally can't hand over readers' contact information. The platforms where authors do have reader emails, like Ream, work that way because the author brought their own mailing list to begin with. What we give you instead: post a weekly announcement to every reader who follows you, and exchange 1:1 DMs with your followers. You reach the people who actually read you, directly, through the platform.

No, and this is our one true non-negotiable. The narrative prose a reader experiences on Theo Reads must be written by a human. Every story includes a short attestation at publishing: this story was written by me, and the narrative prose is my original work, not generated by AI. The full reasoning is in our AI Policy of a Platform That Gives a Damn.

You can unpublish any non-exclusive story at any time. Exclusive stories carry a 6-month commitment (read our complete Terms of Use for authors, to learn more), but everything else is yours to remove whenever you like.

Non-subscribing readers who bought your story a la carte keep their copy. Subscribers don't keep stories they read under their subscription, the same way a Kindle Unlimited reader loses access when they cancel. That's standard across every subscription reading platform. Either way, the rights stay yours.

Theo stands for "The O." IYKYK.

Go to the main author landing page at https://www.theoreads.com/author. Create a free account and start writing in our custom editor. It really is as simple as that.

Submitted stories go through a review process, typically 3 to 5 business days. Email your book cover to bookcovers@theoreads.com, since we can't publish a story without one. Every story must meet our content guidelines, and every cover must meet our cover guidelines, so the platform stays a safe space for all readers.

If you're new, we recommend:

• Reading the Author Terms of Use to understand royalties, rights (you keep them), and exclusivity.
• Reading Why We Exist, on why we built Theo Reads and why authors join.
• Booking a call with Parneet, founder of Theo Reads.

Founding Authors are Theo's OG authors who helped design the platform and shape our terms, exclusivity, and more before we launched publicly. Think of them as Theo's Board of Authors. We're so grateful to them for helping us get started.

Stories of all spice levels, from sweet to extra spicy, and all lengths, from shorts to novellas to full-length books, as long as they meet our content guidelines. Romance stories need an HEA or HFN, erotica stories don’t, although we like an emotional arc for all stories (hey, explicit stories can have an emotional arc too!).

Minimum length to publish is 2,500 words.

Yes. Every time you refer another author who signs up and publishes, you earn 10% of the royalties they make under pay-as-you-go pricing, net of promotions and refunds, for their first year. See the Referral Agreement for details.

KU pays from a shared per-page pool and requires exclusivity to participate, and many authors of spicy, dark, or LGBTQ+ content have seen titles lose visibility, get recategorized, or get pulled with little recourse. Theo Reads pays a defined royalty on completed reads, never requires exclusivity, and does not bury content by theme or orientation.

Read Theo Reads vs. Amazon KDP and Kindle Unlimited.

These are distribution aggregators or pipes that push your book out to retailers like Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble and take a cut along the way. They are useful for reach, but they are a pipe, not a destination, and the downstream stores set their own content rules. Theo Reads is a reader-facing home with its own audience, loyalty mechanics and rewards, and discovery built around how stories make people feel.

Read Theo Reads vs. Draft2Digital and Smashwords.

Posting to the free Inkitt app keeps your rights, but getting picked up for Galatea means signing a publishing contract. Authors reporting on that contract describe it as taking broad rights across e-book, audio, film, and TV at a royalty of around 6% of net, with editorial changes allowed without your sign-off, and writer advocacy groups have flagged the long terms and difficulty getting out. Theo Reads is a platform, not a publisher: we take none of those rights, our rates are published and plain at 35% to 50% non-exclusive or 70% exclusive, there's no coin system, and you can pull a non-exclusive story whenever you want.

Read Theo Reads vs. Inkitt and Galatea.

Not the story itself. The narrative prose has to be human-written, which is our non-negotiable. Using AI to generate passages, scenes, or chapters, even if you edit them after, isn't allowed. AI is welcome for the labor around the story, like grammar checks and optional blurb or caption help, never for the storytelling itself.

Read our AI Policy of a Platform That Gives a Damn.

For now, copy and paste your story into the editor or directly upload your Word or Google Doc.

On Theo Reads, a series can be one of the following:

• Sequential full-length books: A multi-book arc that follows the same characters or story world.
• Sequential medium-length stories: Installments of approx. 7,500 words, where each sequel picks up directly where the previous story left off.
• Connected medium-length stories with continuity: Standalone stories that share characters, relationships, or a larger universe.
• Serialized chapters for testing only: If you’re experimenting with a new concept, publishing chapters individually is acceptable but not recommended.

Please do not charge for a chapter at a time, as readers perceive this as extractive. Instead, combine multiple chapters into a medium-length story. Anything under 2,000 - 3,000 words qualifies as a chapter.

Important Note: If a serialized work can reasonably be packaged as a single full-length book, it should not be published as serialized chapters (i.e. a “series”) on Theo Reads. This creates a better reader experience—and ultimately leads to stronger performance for authors.

For more, read our Guidelines for Creating a Successful Series on Theo Reads.

Highlight the chapter name, select H# in the editor's top menu, and repeat for each chapter.

Check whether there's text before your first chapter heading. Only a preface or similar front matter that belongs in the table of contents should come before "Chapter 1."

Use Theo's Share feature in the top menu of the editor, which works like Google Docs.

Yes. After clicking Publish, select Suggest for the title or the description.

Pricing must balance two priorities—our guidelines reflect the sweet spot where those two values intersect. Low friction for readers: Pricing should feel intuitive, familiar, and fair. We call this reader-friendly pricing. Sustainable income for authors: Your craft has value — pricing should honor that while keeping discovery easy.

Every author should have at least one gateway story — a low-friction entry point that makes it easy for a new reader to fall in love with your voice. Stories with reviews often make ideal gateways because they already carry social proof.

1. The Free Story Rule
Free stories are a powerful discovery tool — but a catalog that's mostly free doesn't sustain the authors who write it. To keep Theo Reads a platform where your work earns, no more than 20% of your published stories on Theo Reads may be priced at free at any time. If you publish 10 stories, up to 2 may be free. If you have 5, 1 can be free.

This isn't a restriction on generosity but a guardrail that protects your income and the platform's ability to pay royalties. Readers who come in through a free story need somewhere to go — and that somewhere should be a paid story they're excited to buy. Every author should have at least one free or low-cost gateway story. The rule simply ensures it stays a door, not the whole house.

As a reminder, stories that are free elsewhere, on other platforms, may not be published as paid stories on Theo Reads.

2. The Baseline “Fair Market” Word Value
Across the indie romance and erotica ecosystem at the time of writing this guide (December 2025), full-length novels (80k–100k) are priced between $4.99–$5.99. This places the approximate value of a single word at: $0.00006 per word (see Pricing Case Study). This is not a literal pricing formula. It simply anchors the relative value of different story lengths so pricing stays fair, balanced, and aligned with digital fiction norms.

3. Why We Round to Reader-Friendly Price Points
Digital readers overwhelmingly prefer prices that end in: $0.69, $0.99, $1.49, $1.99, $2.49, $2.99, $3.49, $3.99, $4.49, $4.99, $5.49, $5.99. These numbers feel trustworthy, familiar, intentional and professionally calibrated. Prices like $0.47 or $1.12 feel accidental or low-trust, even when mathematically accurate. That’s why Theo Reads uses psychological price points — because they reduce friction and increase reader confidence.

4. The Law of Diminishing Returns
As stories get longer, the cost of writing increases — but the reader’s perceived incremental value increases more slowly. This is why: 5k → free | 5k–10k (free or $0.69) | 10k - 20k → $0.99 | 30k–60k → $1.49–$3.49 | 80k+ → $4.49–$4.99

Charging too high, too early makes discovery harder and slows your growth. Your goal is to choose a price that: honors your craft but keeps the door wide open for new readers. That’s why stories under 5k words are free on Theo Reads.

5. Theo Reads Standalone Story Pricing Table
These are our recommended prices for standalone stories, based on your story’s length, market norms, and reader psychology. These are strongly recommended, but not required as we understand that you may have these stories published elsewhere and consistent pricing is important.

Note that a story is published as a free story elsewhere, may only be published as a free story on Theo Reads as well.

Because of credit-card processor requirements, the lowest price we can offer on Theo Reads is $0.50.

Read our pricing guidelines for more.

Yes. By default, readers preview the first 250 words. For multi-chapter stories, you can extend that to a set number of chapters. We strongly recommend ending the preview on a cliffhanger, the moment that makes a reader need to know what happens next.

After submission, our team takes up to 3-5 business days to review and approve, balancing author convenience with reader safety. You can always find your stories and their status on your Author Dashboard. And, you’ll get an email confirmation when your story is approved or rejected.

Yes, anytime. Revised content goes back through review, up to 3-5 business days.

In the editor, click the eye icon in the top toolbar to switch into reader view.

Email it to bookcovers@theoreads.com. We're building a Canva-style cover designer with drag-and-drop from Theo's image library. Until then, we handle covers manually, and we prioritize quality, since strong covers drive sharing and sales for you and for us.

Yes, always. Content warnings in romance make for a much better reading experience, and they pull double duty in discovery: readers use them in search filters both to screen out flags they don't want and to seek out the ones they do. A warning isn't only a caution, it's another way the right reader finds your story. Many, many readers are actively searching for romance reads by red flag warning!

Reach for a tag when the trope, sub-genre, or kink you want isn't already in our list, or when you want to add color the standard categories don't capture. If you've spent time on AO3, this will feel familiar. Tags let you describe your story in your own words, and they help readers searching those exact terms land on it.

When you publish, you can tag up to 5 emotions a reader is likely to feel, though we recommend no more than 3. Emotions are central to how stories get discovered on Theo Reads. Instead of hunting by star rating, romance and erotica readers come looking for a specific feeling, and your emotion tags are how your story meets them there. Readers also tag what they actually felt when they finish, and on your story page those reader picks take priority over yours.

Section tagging lets you attach emotional tags to specific moments inside your story, right from the editor toolset (look for the tag icon in the editor toolset). Here's why it earns the effort: almost nobody leaves reviews anywhere, anymore. On Amazon it's often well under 1% of readers, and while it runs much higher on Theo Reads, a review still can't show someone what a story feels like moment to moment. Section tags fill that gap. You mark the moments that land, using the same language readers already use to describe stories on BookTok and Bookstagram, and a browsing reader gets a real taste before they buy, including the spicy bits. Longer stories unlock more sections to tag, so the more you write, the more you get to play with.

For a new story, you set the price in the publishing flow when you submit it. To change the price of a story that's already live, go to your author dashboard and click the ⋮ menu next to the story. Update the price there, and it takes effect immediately, with no resubmission or re-approval needed.

The lowest price Theo Reads can charge is $0.50, set by our card processor. For guidelines on how much to price by word count, see our Pricing Guidelines, and remember you set the final price and can change it anytime.

A monthly report on what readers are reaching for next: trope momentum, what's gaining and losing heat, pricing and cover comps, and news actually moving the romance and erotica market. Delivered the first week of each month. Available to authors who published on Theo Reads in the last three months, with one sample issue open to everyone. It's view-only on the platform. Here’s a sample report for a taste of what you can expect.

3D-printed, spice-coded Theo Reads bookmarks to hand out at your events. Most conference swag ends up in the trash. Spice-coded, 3-D printed bookmarks don't. Readers collect them, use them, show them off. Hand one to a reader and you've got their attention before you say a word.

You can order by tier, based on your publishing activity on the platform:

Shipping to the continental United States only. Fulfilled in-house by Theo Reads.

Most platforms hand you a dashboard and wish you luck. We build you the author marketing playbook. Theo Reads offers a growing library of free author marketing guides and courses, built by a 3x CMO, to help you actually find readers, not just upload and hope.

We go deep on one platform at a time, starting with Instagram:

• How Instagram Actually Works for Romance Authors, a 5-day email course covering the algorithm, account setup, what's working now, and copy that earns DM sends.
• 14 Days to Your First Romance Readers on Instagram, a 14-day course with one concrete action per day.

The library keeps growing every week across Bluesky, TikTok, YouTube, podcasting, and more. Everything is free for everyone, published on Theo Reads or not.

Beyond the Instagram courses and Theo Sees above, discovery on Theo Reads runs on Readers Felt, which surfaces the emotions readers actually experienced rather than star ratings, so your story reaches the reader looking for exactly that feeling. We may also feature your stories in seasonal calendars and promotions. We're not obligated to promote, but when we do, royalties are calculated on the promotional price for the duration of the promo.

Yes. We may run limited-time promotional pricing for up to 7 consecutive days per promotion. During a promo, royalties are based on the promotional price. You set your standard list price the rest of the time.

Authors are also be able to set promotional pricing on your own, without requiring approval (coming soon, as of June 17, 2026).

Yes, free, in your author dashboard. You get account-level insight into reader behavior on your stories plus broader industry and platform-level insight, with no separate author subscription required.

Royalties are calculated as a percentage of net revenue from each sale or subscription read. Net revenue means the amount remaining after standard payment processing costs and refunds.

Theo pays authors for each Story per the Reader Pricing Guidelines. Details on pricing, promotions, and eligibility are covered in the Author Terms of Use (linked in the website footer).

Authors earn two types of royalties on Theo Reads.

• Royalties on stories as a pay-as-you-go basis:
  • 70% of the list price on exclusive Stories; note that royalties will be calculated on the promotional list price for any Stories that are promoted for the duration of the promotion. Once you publish a Story as an exclusive story on TheoReads, your Story will be exclusive to TheoReads for a minimum of six (6) consecutive months in order to qualify for the exclusive royalty rate (currently 70% of list price). This higher royalty rate begins on day one of exclusivity and continues only while the Story remains exclusive. The 70% rate ends automatically when the exclusivity term ends unless renewed for an additional term.
  • 35% on non-exclusive Stories; note that royalties will be calculated on the promotional list price for any Stories that are promoted for the duration of the promotion.
• Royalties on Stories read as part of a reader subscription plan: these will be paid out of a Royalty Pool explicitly created for author payouts, and are allocated to payouts based on completed reads for each Story. A 'completed read' currently means at least 50% of the Story has been read. This definition was decided in consultation with authors as an automatic check on quality and may evolve over time to ensure the fairest possible system for all authors.

Go to the menu in the top right corner of your screen, then navigate to Settings.

Once on the Settings page, scroll down to Author Preferences to enter your bank payment details. This takes you to an independent page hosted by our payment processor. Please create a new account — separate from your Theo Reads account — to enter your banking details.

Your royalty applies to net revenue, not the list price. In practice:

• A reader pays the listed price or the promotional price (under a marketing promotion)
• Standard credit card processing fees (on amount paid by reader; not in Theo Reads' control) are deducted
• Your royalty percentage is applied to what remains
• Your royalty payout is made after accounting for payment processing fees (standard ACH fees if you’re domestic in the U.S., or local bank transfers or international bank transfer if you’re International; not in Theo Reads’ control)

This is the same model used by major publishing and reading platforms, but with more transparency since we don't hide behind tokens and coins.

No. Readers always see one clear list price at checkout. Payment processing costs are handled at the platform level and are not shown to readers to minimize friction during checkout.

No. Authors are never charged processing fees outright. Processing costs are shared proportionally as part of the revenue split, meaning authors only bear their percentage share, not the full cost.

For example, if:

• A story is priced at $10
• Standard credit card processing costs are $1
• Net revenue is $9
• Your royalty rate is 35%

Then:

• Your royalty = 35% of $9 = $3.15

You are not charged the full $1 processing cost.

For subscriptions:

• Processing costs are deducted once, when the subscription is purchased
• The remaining subscription revenue is allocated across stories read during that billing period
• Royalties are calculated from that allocated revenue. No individual author ever bears the full processing cost of a subscription.

Royalties accrue as soon as a reader purchases or reads your story. Balances update in your dashboard on a monthly basis (coming soon). Payouts are made in the first week of the following month, if your account meets the minimum threshold of $25 for both domestic and international authors.

Theo Reads uses a single minimum payout threshold of $25 for all authors.

This helps ensure payouts remain meaningful and that authors, especially those outside the U.S., don't lose a large portion of their earnings to banking or currency conversion fees. Once your balance reaches $25, payouts are processed in the first week of the following month. Your earnings continue to accrue in the meantime, and nothing expires.

Payouts to domestic authors are done via ACH - payment processing time is approximately 2-3 days to clear at the beneficiary bank.

Payouts to international authors are done via local bank transfers or international bank transfer - payment processing time is approximately 2-3 days to clear at the beneficiary bank. International payouts typically involve higher banking and currency conversion costs. A higher threshold helps ensure:

• authors keep more of their earnings
• payouts feel meaningful
• fees don't eat into small balances

This approach aligns with industry standards across global publishing platforms.

Yes, but these are payment processor or payout transfer fees, not royalty fees, and are deducted at payout time, after royalties are calculated. When your earnings are transferred to your bank account:

• a small transfer fee may apply (via ACH for domestic authors, and local bank transfers or international bank transfer for international authors)
• international payouts may also involve a currency conversion fee

Yes. Transfer fees vary by country and banking system and are typically fixed, not percentage-based. If currency conversion is required, an exchange rate fee may apply based on your bank or payout provider.

In most cases, yes:

• waiting until your balance comfortably exceeds the minimum threshold helps
• ensuring your bank details are accurate avoids failed transfers

If a sale is refunded or reversed:

• the associated royalty is removed from your balance
• if a payout has already occurred, the adjustment is applied to future earnings

You'll always see these adjustments reflected in your dashboard (coming soon).

By default, Theo Reads does not withhold taxes for U.S.-based authors.

For non-U.S. based or international authors, tax withholding may apply depending on your tax residency, the information you provide, and whether a tax treaty is in place. In many cases, submitting the appropriate tax form (such as a W-8BEN) reduces or eliminates withholding. Any required withholding is determined by tax authorities, not by Theo Reads.

Yes. U.S.-based authors receive a 1099 form in January of the year following the calendar year in which their royalties were paid (e.g., a 1099 will be issued in January 2027 for any royalties paid out in 2026).

Non-U.S. based or international authors receive a 1042-S in March of the year following the calendar year in which their royalties were paid. These forms are issued for reporting purposes and do not change how or when you are paid.

You can get to your payout dashboard from the upper right corner of your screen: Settings >> Author Preferences, which takes you to a website hosted by our payment processor. Once you've created an account (note: this is not the same as your Theo Reads account), you'll be able to access your account dashboard — a centralized hub that shows your recent payments, payout methods, and tax forms.

Contact us at realhumans@theoreads.com for any questions regarding your author account.

Choosing exclusivity on a story means it stays digital-exclusive to Theo Reads for a minimum of 6 consecutive months, which earns you 70% from day one. Print editions, audiobooks, and live readings are not restricted. The 6-month clock doesn't pause or reset, and it survives even if you unpublish or leave. Break exclusivity early and the rate drops to the non-exclusive rate from the date of the breach, with any overpayment recoverable from future royalties.

Non-exclusive stories, anytime. Exclusive stories must stay published for their full 6-month term.

Yes, up to five. Add one while submitting a story or update your profile anytime.

It permanently removes your stories, their reviews, and your interactions. You can do it from your My Account page.

realhumans@theoreads.com or via our Contact Us website form.