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Authors in the moderation queue: When submitting a new story to the site, do NOT post more than the first chapter, or prologue and the first chapter. Additionally, while you remain in the moderation queue, do not post more than one new chapter or new story until the existing chapter/story is approved. The moderation queue is typically reviewed once per day. Do not use the post-dating system while you remain in the moderation queue. All other authors: When publishing a new story to the site, do NOT publish more than the first chapter, or prologue and the first chapter. For existing stories, one new chapter can be published per day. No more than two stories can be updated per day with at least 8 hours between updates. You can save as many chapters to the system as you like per day. The system will enforce publish times for chapters when you set publish times. Why the limitation you ask? We want our site's visitors to have a chance to read or sample a variety of works submitted each day by our authors. When authors submit too many stories or chapters at once these other works are sometimes lost in the process. We've found stories posted over longer periods of time attract more attention and therefore readers. Not every reader visits daily, so they are more likely to give your story a chance if each time they visit they see a new chapter in the list of recent story updates. Spacing out submissions is a win/win for both your work and your fellow authors' work.

I’ve purchased author/editor status and completed all my edits, so how do I submit my story? *Important Notes* You must submit your story before you can add the chapter content. Complete all 4 steps to add your story content first. New stories are automatically posted with Prologue (Optional) and Chapter 1 as one unit. Do NOT add additional chapters until the story is approved. System requires Story, Chapter 1 and if added, Prologue all be approved before you can set publishing time. All stories or poetry under 1k in length must be posted as part of a flash fiction collection. Do NOT add photos, links, videos, etc... in the story text box. Photos can only be added in the cover photo area, and links and videos should only be added in the story or chapter notes. These must also adhere to GA content guidelines. Gay Authors is intended to be a Story Archive that people return to read old favorites. Do NOT post stories intended to be published off GA for profit. We understand that occasionally authors unexpectedly publish some content but removing stories from the site means authors cannot post later stories in the timeline if it is a series (becomes bait & switch requiring readers to purchase eBooks to understand series timeline/plot) and will prevent authors from ever becoming a promoted author on GA. One option prior to publication could be moving a story to our Premium Content subscriber only section to limit access without deleting the story from GA. Authors interested in requesting a review and possible move to Premium should contact Cia prior to publication. Where do I submit a story? On the site menu bar, click ‘Stories’. Click on the 'Add Story' button below the story category list and just above the recent updates list of stories. Note: If you don't have this button, you have not become a site author by purchasing free author status (look at the very top of this page). Please complete that step before asking for help. This brings up a pop-up window to select the story category. Use the drop menu to select the proper category (fiction, fan-fiction, anthologies, etc...). Click outside the drop menu box to close the drop menu, if necessary, then click on the Continue box. There are 4 Steps on 4 separate tabs to complete (unless you choose FanFiction, it has 5 Steps on 5 tabs). Click on each tab near the top of the webpage to complete: Step One Title: Your title will display everywhere, check your spelling. Link Title: This will self-fill when you type in the title, don’t change it. Authors: Your name is automatically added, and you can add any co-authors. Editors: You can add your Editor(s) if they are a GA Member. Beta Readers: You can add your Beta Reader(s) if they are a GA Member. Scroll up and click on Step Two in the bar above the General Details title Step Two Description: This will tell people what your story is about in 500 characters or less. This is the same as a Book Blurb. Do not post images in this text box. This description should be for all audiences. If you copy from another site, it is recommended you use the 'paste as plain text' option below the text box that appears to remove extra formatting. Story Note: Similar to Description, but this is a personal message area to readers that will appear under the story information when the story is posted. This is also the field to use if you need to add relevant images that adhere to the site posting guidelines to the story detail page. Images should be hosted in a GA Gallery album and uploaded using the Insert Other Media option. Story Copyright: Basic copyright automatically added. Change if you have a custom copyright notice. If you post fanfiction, please adjust this automatic notice to reflect that information. Story Banner: Select browse to choose an image from your computer*. This is the story banner only promoted authors can use on a story. *Images must comply with site content guidelines. Story Cover Image: Select browse to choose an image from your computer. This is an image that will appear below the chapter listing. Please limit your image to a reasonable size and follow the signature guidelines in regards to gif/animations. *Images must comply with site content guidelines. Scroll up and click on Step Three in the bar above the Details title Step Three Genre: Set Sub-Genre. Choose 1-3 for contemporary stories and no more than 6 or 7 for speculative fiction. For more details, see Genre FAQ: https://gayauthors.org/faq/stories-archive/author-questions/how-do-i-select-the-correct-genre-r138/ Audience Rating: Everyone = No sex, explicit violence, excessive swearing; Teen= off-screen sex, or non-explicit touching/making out, violence, swearing; Mature = Graphic sexual content, violence, other graphic content of any kind on-screen (Note: These ratings can be utilized for violent or graphic content other than sexual, but specific warnings should be included using the story/chapter note areas); Mature - Member Only = Same as mature, but only people logged into their Gay Authors account will be able to see it. Status: Complete = Done; In Process = Working On It; On Hold = Currently Not Working On. Do NOT post a new story in any of the On Hold categories. Those are utilized by an automated system that will change the story rating as needed. Scroll up and click on Step Four in the bar above the Groupings title Step Four Tags: Select up to six. These help readers find your story, so make sure they apply to the story content. If you have sensitive content requiring story warnings, you must use the applicable tags as well. For Some FanFictions, Scroll up and click on Step Five in the bar above the Tags title Step Five Custom Tags: Create / Select up to six. Custom Tags are limited to FanFictions as of 9/2023 update. These help readers find your FanFiction story, so make sure they apply to the story content. If you have sensitive content requiring story warnings, you must use the applicable tags as well. Click Save Story (Or Submit to Moderation) (only after ALL 4 or 5 Steps are complete) *After the story is saved, chapter content may be added. Your Story is Now Added to the Archive, Now What? Once your story is added, it will display a bunch of status banners at the top. Each of these banners tells you the actions that need to occur. Included picture shows a FanFiction example, which has extra fields to add. (Fandoms, Characters, Relationships) Next step: If you are a FanFiction story, your next step is to click "Setup Fandoms" and add the correct Fandom(s). Optionally: Set up Characters if there are any listed for your Fandom. You may also set up Relationships if you have characters listed. Otherwise, you are ready to add Prologue and/or Chapter 1: https://gayauthors.org/faq/authors/author-questions/how-do-i-add-a-chapter-to-an-existing-story-r29/

Does Gay Authors have minimum quality guidelines? Yes. Prior to submitting your story, please run it through a spelling/grammar checker and read it over for anything the checker missed. Stories with a multitude of spelling and grammar errors could be rejected until the errors have been fixed. If you need help polishing your story prior to posting we encourage you to review the many topics in our Writer’s Forums. Do I have to be a seasoned author to post at GA? No. GA allows both seasoned and first-time writers to submit their stories. We do not expect grammatical and structural perfection in every piece. We do expect as you post to apply the suggestions from readers and your editing team, should you gain one, to hone your skills as an author. Can I post poems or flash fiction stories on GA? Yes. However, all poems or flash fiction stories under 1k in length MUST be placed in collections. You cannot post them all as individual stories. You may create different collections, such as one for free form poetry and another for haikus, but please do not post more than 4-5 collections total. Making a collection is as simple as choosing a title like “Author Name Poems” and then submitting each poem/flash piece as a chapter. What are other tips so my story doesn't have any posting guidelines issues that would prevent it from being approved? Do not resize text size in the editor since this will eliminate a reader’s ability to re-size the text. Only chapter text should be in the chapter text box. There are other areas for chapter titles, chapter notes, and copyright information. Disclaimers or content warnings should be placed in the story or chapter notes. The text editor was chosen because of its compatibility with Word formatting. While it offers a lot of options, not all of them work as expected. Using ‘bold’ and ‘italics’ is okay. Much more than that and the formatting from the editor conflicts with the formatting for the site and you get unintended consequences. Bold and italics are for brief highlights and are NOT to be used in large amounts. This is an accessibility people for some people. *If you use Word, you can have hidden paragraph breaks that will cause double spaces between paragraphs in our editor. Complete these steps to remove that hidden break yet still see a space between paragraphs when you write in Word* Before posting into the story text box, select all your text in Word. Click the “find and replace” option. Insert ^p^p into the find field and ^p into the replace field. Then go to your paragraph/line spacing option. Using the pop up box that appears, scroll down to paragraph spacing. Set the ‘before’ option to 0 and the ‘after’ option to Auto. Then click save. You can now copy your text and paste it into the chapter text box on GA.