Platforms That Ban Erotica

Writers arrive at this question after a rejection, and the rejection is rarely explained. The useful move is to separate four different kinds of no, because they call for different responses. A plain ban means find another route. A ban on an undefined category means you cannot know in advance. A conditional yes means do the paperwork properly. And a quiet yes that comes with no promotion means bring your own readers. Everything below is what the platforms publish, under the sourcing rule in our section for writers.

Banned in plain words

Gumroad is the clearest. Its prohibited products page lists sexually oriented or pornographic content and names adult books inside that list, and its pricing FAQ repeats that obscene or adult content is not permitted. There is no gap to interpret and no label that fixes it. FanFiction.Net's guidelines, which carry a 2008 date, say the site does not accept explicit content and that entry titles and summaries must be rated for all ages; FictionPress, its sister site for original work, applies the same rule. Dorian, which otherwise publishes one of the better creator deals in this niche, says in its community guidelines that suggestive and mature themes are welcome where rated while explicit sexual content is not.

Tapas belongs here too, although it is usually described as permissive. Its content guidelines, last modified in March 2022, say that any and all content intended for sexual gratification is not allowed and that a novel's purpose should not be solely erotic, and artwork with nudity or sexual acts is barred from the apps including covers. Archive of Our Own is a different kind of no: explicit fanworks are allowed, but its content policy bars commercial promotion and solicitation, so there is no route to being paid there at all. And Apple runs a targeted exclusion inside an otherwise open store: its digital narration programme page says Ideal genres include fiction and romance. Erotica is not accepted.

Banned without a definition, which is the real problem

Four of the largest publishing routes ban a word they never define, while their own storefronts carry the thing the word describes. This is not a contradiction we can resolve, and no page we read resolves it either.

Google Play Books is a variation on the same theme, and its wording is the oddest in the set. Its publisher content policies allow sexually explicit content and nudity where there is educational, artistic, historical or documentary value, require the mature-audiences flag, and ban pornographic content without defining it. No page we read says whether an erotic novel meets that value test, and the policy also bars sexually explicit text in a title, subtitle or description, which is a metadata rule many erotica titles would fail on their covers alone.

The asymmetry in all six rows is the thing to take away. The discretion belongs entirely to the platform. Amazon's terms say it decides what it accepts in its sole discretion and that it will not owe royalties on a book it decides breached the guidelines, and may recover royalties already paid. Kobo's rejection guide warns that failure to follow the content policy may result in account closure. Barnes & Noble reserves the right to decide compliance in its sole discretion and calls its own list non-exhaustive. Nothing in any of these records says a given book is safe, and this page does not pretend otherwise.

Allowed, on condition that you label it

The platforms that accept erotica mostly do it the same way: a declaration from the writer and a gate in front of the reader. Patreon allows written erotica on Adult/18+ pages restricted to paying members who have attested they are over 18, and names non-visual written and audio depictions of sexual activity among what is permitted there. Ream requires explicit stories to be labelled Mature, with readers opting in and confirming they are of legal age, and publishes a list of permitted and prohibited themes rather than a single sentence. Substack allows erotic literature outright while barring porn and sexually exploitative content. Medium allows erotic writing and bars pornographic images and video. Draft2Digital accepts many kinds of erotic content on condition that it is classified through its Erotica Certification System, and warns that misleading it about the nature of the content can close the account.

The free sites have the most specific rules of all, because explicit fiction is the product rather than an exception to it. Literotica requires authors to certify they are 18 or over and bars works generated by AI systems. Chyoa runs on six rules, the first being a minimum character age of 18. Outfox Stories says explicit sexual content is welcome within its written guidelines and gives every chat a content rating, with mature material requiring a strictly adult cast. Wattpad is the narrow case: explicit scenes between consenting adults are allowed in stories rated Mature, while content made primarily for arousal is banned, so where a given story falls is its judgement and not a rule you can apply yourself.

Allowed, and then quietly unpromoted

This is the category writers discover last and resent most, because nothing was refused. The work is live and nobody can find it.

• Amazon: books flagged for sexually explicit images or title language will not surface in general product searches, and cannot enter Kindle Deals or Prime Reading, whose eligibility rules require a title that Is not erotic.
• Smashwords: erotica stays out of home page merchandising and search results until a registered reader affirmatively asks to see it, which is the default on every new account.
• Substack: its guidelines say it may hide or remove explicit content from its discovery features, including search.
• Tapas: its creators site says it cannot promote or host independent series containing mature content, citing rules set by app stores and partners, and recommends publishing mature scenes elsewhere.
• Kobo: its content policy says adult material identified in the metadata may be put behind an interstitial.
• Apple Books: a book flagged as containing explicit content cannot be viewed or downloaded by customers with parental restrictions enabled.
• Draft2Digital: erotica titles are not distributed to Bookshop.org or to library systems through OverDrive, cloudLibrary, Hoopla or BorrowBox.

Put together, those seven lines explain why the free-serial pipeline persists in this niche. Discovery is the thing erotica writers are least likely to be given, so the audience has to come from somewhere else, which is the argument running through our list of platforms for writers.

The app stores sit above all of it

Several of the contradictions above are inherited rather than chosen. Apple's review guidelines ban overtly sexual or pornographic material as the point of an app, and say apps with user-generated content that end up being used primarily for pornographic content may be removed without notice. They also require icons and screenshots to suit a 4+ rating whatever the app's own rating, which is why erotica apps have such tame store images. Google's inappropriate content policy bans apps that contain or promote sexual content, with one exception that reading platforms rely on: a book or video catalogue app may carry titles with sexual content where those titles are a minor fraction of the catalogue, the app does not actively promote them, and access is restricted. Tapas citing rules set by app stores is that exception in action.

The practical consequence for a writer is that an app's content rule may be stricter than its website's, and stricter than the policy you read when you signed up. Our guide to why erotica apps disappear from the App Store covers the same rules from the reader's side.

If your story was refused

Three things are worth checking in order, and all three are published. First, whether the route bans the category outright, in which case no appeal or relabelling helps. Second, whether you classified the work the way that route requires, since several of these platforms treat misclassification as the offence rather than the content; how to publish erotica lists each declaration. Third, whether the refusal came from the platform or from the money, because several platforms defer to their payment processor and Stripe's prohibited list names literature designed for sexual gratification. That last one is the subject of payment processors and erotica.