Help / FAQ

How do I register and set my preferences?
I forgot my password! What do I do now?
What kinds of stories are allowed?
How do I contact the site administrators?
How do I submit stories?
How do I create a text file from a Word document, keeping italic and bold text?
How do I insert blank lines between each paragraph?
How do I create a series?
What are the ratings used on the site?
What are the story classifications?

How do I register and set my preferences?

You register by entering your chosen author name, e-mail address, and password on the Registration page

After you have registered, go into Account Information and click on Edit Preferences.

• Tick/check whether you want to be e-mailed about reviews (feedback) etc.
• Leave 'Display table of contents for stories' unchecked, or you will have to click twice to get into each story.
• Tick/check that you are of the age of consent if you wish to read stories with adult content.

I forgot my password! What do I do now?

To recover a lost password, click here and enter the e-mail address with which you registered. Your password will be sent to you shortly.

What kinds of stories are allowed?

See our Submission Rules.

How do I contact the site administrators?

You can e-mail us via our contact form.

How do I submit stories?

If you have not already done so, please register for an account. Leave 'Display table of contents for stories' unchecked in your preferences, or you will have to click twice to get into each story.

Once you've logged in, click on Account Information and choose Add Story. The form presented there will allow you to submit your story.

Submission Tips

• You must select at least one timeline option and click on the arrow to move it into "Selected Categories" or your story will not be added.
• Characters, Genres, and Story Types are not mandatory, but if you don't select them, your story won't show up in searches.
• For Characters, select each character that has a major role in the story, holding the Ctrl key down for more than one.
• In most cases you will need to tick the 'complete' box. Yes, it should default to complete, but that's the way it is in the software.
• If your story has only one chapter, blank out the Chapter Title so that it defaults to the story title. Note that if you forget and want to change this later, you will have to change it to the story title as blanking only works for new stories.
• If your story has more than one chapter (and the maximum number of words is 16,000 per chapter), then add the first chapter, then edit the story to add subsequent chapters.
• The story itself may be added by pasting the plain text into the text box, or you can upload it as a .txt file. In both cases, any italics or bolding etc must be coded with HTML. Never try to upload or copy and paste from a .doc file.
• We do not host images, but you may insert images hosted elsewhere into your story. Please keep them to a maximum of 800 pixels width, and 400 height.

How do I create a text file from a Word document, keeping italic and bold text?

To convert a Word document with italics into a text file to upload:

• In Word, go to the Edit menu and choose "replace."
• When the find-and-replace window comes up, go down to the bottom of it and click on the "more" button.
• Click on "format" and choose "font" from the menu that comes up.
• It will then give you a "find font" window. Choose "italic" and hit "OK."
• Then, in the "replace with" field, type < i > ^& < / i > (without the spaces!)
• If you can't remember the ^&, you can instead click on "special" and choose "find what text," and it'll fill it in for you.
• Click on "replace all" and it will insert the HTML before and after all your italic text.

You can use the same procedure to put bold text into HTML.
When you've converted all your formatting, do a "Save as," choosing "Plain text (*.txt)" as the file type, reassure Word that, yes, that really is what you want to do, and you have a text file ready to upload.

How do I insert blank lines between each paragraph?

The easiest way is to copy the text into Word, replace all ^p with ^p^p, then create a text file as described above.

How do I create a series?

A series is a collection of stories. Before you create a series, you should add at least one of the stories. Then click on Account Information and choose Add Series. The form presented there will allow you to submit your series. You choose the stories to add to your series on the next page, and can reorder them on the page after that.

There are three types of series:

• Closed (the default) - Only the series owner may add to a closed series.
• Open - An open series is a shared universe (sometimes called a sandbox) in which other authors may add to the series.
• Moderated - A moderated series will allow other authors to add to the series, but those entries must be approved by the series owner.

What are the ratings used on the site?

Because of an international readership, we use a very simple ratings system.

• All Ages - no more than mild violence and/or sexual content such as kissing
• Teen - moderate, but not graphic, violence and/or sexual content
• Adult - graphic violence and/or sex

What are the story classifications?

Stories are classified by categories, genres, and any warnings.