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Readers Who Came for This
An audience already looking for LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, and points of view.
Authors at Gay Authors · since 2002
Publish Your Stories
Where Readers Are Looking for Them
Find your readers. Build your audience. Share stories that belong.
Gay Authors is a home for LGBTQ+ fiction and the people who read it chapter by chapter. Post for free, talk to the readers who finish your work, and grow from new author to Signature on the writing — not on a promotion fee.
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Why Publish on Gay Authors?
A library this size only works if readers can find the next chapter and writers can hear them. That is the job of the site.
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Built for Serialized Fiction
Post chapter by chapter. Readers follow the story, and a regular pace gets more replies than a dump of twenty chapters.
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A Real Author Presence
Your profile, your catalog, your covers. Every story can carry a cover you upload or make in the cover creator.
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Found by the Right Reader
Genres, tags, and series give a story a shelf. Promotion later puts your name on the lists people actually browse.
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Feedback You Can Answer
Comments, reviews, and story discussion. Hundreds of thousands of comments are on the archive because readers write back.
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A Home That Stayed
Founded September 13, 2002. Stories are not rented by the season, and authors are not asked to start over every time a platform folds.
Author Levels, Without the Mystery
Everyone who writes here is an author. Promising, Signature, and Classic are promoted statuses: recognition, a listing, and an agreement about how your work is hosted. They are earned. They are not for sale.
Author
Choose Author when you register, or switch later in account settings. Poets use the same door with the Poet group.
- Post your own stories in the archive
- Covers, comments, and reviews
- Forums, blogs, and the weekly wrap-up
Promising
Writers who already show ability, take help, and treat readers like a relationship. Usually a step toward Signature, not a permanent waiting room.
- 848×121 banner above your stories
- Name, bio, and banner on this page’s lists
- Updates called out in the weekly wrap-up
- Topics in the Promising Authors forums
Signature
A body of good work, a reader base here, and the habit of showing up. This is the list we send people to when they ask what to read next.
- Signature forums, and your own if the readership supports it
- Featured during Signature / Classic week
- Story banners, not only an author banner
- Buy links for published books, if you post regularly and clear the word-count bar
Classic
Signature authors who no longer post on a regular schedule, or established writers arriving with a body of work from elsewhere.
- Listed with the site’s enduring authors
- A way in that does not pretend you are starting from zero
- Request it, or apply with the catalog you already have
What Changes as You Move Up
The archive is open at every level. Promotion changes how loudly the site speaks for you.
| Author / Poet | Promising | Signature | Classic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Post your own stories | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Comments and reviews | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Authors-page listing | Full directory | Promoted | Promoted | Promoted |
| Banner above stories | — | Author banner | Author or story banners | Yes |
| Weekly wrap-up | General listings | Called out | Called out | Called out |
| Discussion space | Story & Author Discussion | Story & Author Discussion | Story & Author Discussion or Club | Story & Author Discussion or Club |
| Buy links to published books | — | — | If posting regularly | Case by case |
| How you get there | Choose it at signup | Nominated, then reviewed | Nominated, then reviewed | Request, or apply with existing work |
What You Can Publish
If it is gay fiction and it meets the posting guidelines, there is a shelf for it.
Start This Week
Register and pick Author
Free. New accounts choose a group at signup. Members change it under Account Settings. Poet is the same step if verse is the work.
Read the guide, then post
Under 250 story-reputation points, chapters sit in the moderation queue, usually checked once a day. One new chapter a day while you are in it. After you clear it, the limit relaxes to every 8 hours.
Stay for the replies
A chapter people can finish, a cover, and an answer to the first comments will do more than a silent dump. Promotion follows work that stays up.
What Promoted Status Asks Back
Promising and Signature are an agreement. Write well and more than once. Take help when it is offered. Answer your readers. If you also post elsewhere, link back and put new work up here at the same time — personal blogs excepted. Leave the stories up. Pulling work is one of the surest ways to stall a promotion.
Nominations go by private message to any Author Promotion Team member. The team reviews deliberately, so patience is part of it. Full criteria are in the help article.
Read the Authors Already Here
Signature AuthorsActive writers we point readers toward. New chapters, regularly.
Classic AuthorsBeloved catalogs no longer on a weekly schedule, and still worth the afternoon.
Promising AuthorsWriters on the way. Worth reading now, and worth telling so.
Prolific AuthorsThe catalogs with the most work on the site.
All AuthorsEveryone posting in the archive, not only the promoted lists.
Before You Talk Yourself Out of It
Do I need permission to post?
No. Guests choose Author at registration. Members switch groups in account settings. Author status is free. Promoted status is separate, and comes later. If you already hold a promoted group, such as Classic Author, you cannot change that group yourself.
What is the moderation queue, really?
New authors under 250 story-reputation points have chapters checked before the general membership can read them. Staff look for posting-guideline fit, a basic editing standard, and plagiarism. The queue is typically checked once a day. If it has been more than 24 hours, check your personal messages. This is story reputation on your author profile, not your general site reputation.
How do I become Promising or Signature?
Write well, write often, and take part in the community. Promising means visible ability, a willingness to be helped, reader engagement, and linking back if you post elsewhere. Signature means a body of quality work and a reader base already here. Ask an Author Promotion Team member by private message.
Can I also post on Wattpad, AO3, or my own site?
Yes. At Promising and Signature you agree to post new work here at the same time, personal blogs excepted, and to link back so off-site readers can find the community. We are not asking you to disappear from the rest of the internet. We are asking Gay Authors not to be the place you update last.
What will keep me from being promoted?
Not writing often or well. Removing stories from the site. Not engaging with members. Promotion follows the work that stays up and the readers you answer.
Ready to share your story with readers who are waiting?
Create your author profile and post the next chapter here. Promising and Signature come later, from the work and the readers you answer.
Posting guide: step-by-step. Guidelines: posting rules.