Serial Fiction Sites Comparisions

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N
1	#	Name	Link	Best Genres	ToS & Author/ Content ToS	Content Rights	Exclusivity Restrictions	Monetization	Monetization Notes	Explicit Content Restriction	Deletion of Content	Outside Link Restriction	Review/Opinion	Misc. Notes

2	1	Wattpad	LINK	Romance; YA; Paranormal; Supernatural; Fantasy	LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None, unless you sign a contract.	None, unless under contract.		Erotica is allowed. PWP is not. However, AI in the past has caused large issues with what is allowed, not, shadow-banned, etc. Queer content has been disproportionately affected.	You can delete your account or stories. They will be non-viewable. Accounts can be reactivated up to 6 months after.	Allowed. Must specify if entire story is not available on WP in story description.	Good place to post if you don't care about monetization and wish to use as a platform to redirect readers to your paid one by offering chapters for free. Personally, if used, seems best to keep making free chapters free here and encourage readers to pay for a sub elsewhere for early access. Also a good place to get your feet wet if you don't care about making money. It's best for romance genres, however. And if you write any adult content, be prepared for it to get taken down with no warning due to a questionable moderation system.	Wattpad Purge - Royal Road Wattpad Purge - Reddit
3	2	Tapas	LINK	Romance; Fantasy; Queer; Scifi; Slice of Life; Mystery	LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	Only on Early Access monetization. Ad Rev does not, and only requires to gain at least 100 subscribers.	Yes. Two types: Ad Revenue and Early Access.	Must be 18+ to participate in either program. There are other levels to these monetization programs, but these are the initial ones.	Sexual content is allowed, but no PwP. Terms are not 100% transparent. Writers report they can and do post explicit sex in their stories and use proper tags/warnings, and have been fine.	Deleted immediately. Unretrievable after.	Seems the restriction is limited to those using Tapas as a place to redirect traffic and not actually using Tapas at all, or very much, for hosting your content.	Good place to post to redirect readers. You can make sure of ad revenue if you reach 100 followers. Might not advise going exclusive with them, as some content creators have had bad experiences. It is a well-known and used site, so use with limited right and licensing allowed is advised.	Concerning Artist Issues
4	3	Radish Fiction	LINK	Romance; YA	LINK / LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	Exclusive and Nonexclusive in digital depending on monetization choice and if it's Radish frontlist, transfer, or backlist content.	Yes.	Must be exclusive to Radish, or behind a paywall on Radish and other platforms. No free episodes anywhere else that are behind a paywall on Radish.	Mature/Explicit content is allowed, but must have warnings/tags. PwP is not allowed. Using the category Late Night for explicit content, is advised.	Content must stay up 90s past the last episode. Removal will occur 15 day from the request of removal the user emails; one must be made for each story/serial. Content that users have paid for already will remain available for them and cannot be removed.	Content Policy states you cannot, but not certain in actual practice.	Radish is a platform you can only make use of after submitting a writing sample and getting approval to be an author on their platform. Monetization is possible whether transfering, frontlisting, or backlisting content, but those episodes must not be made available for free elsewhere if not free on Radish. Even free releases are expected to be released on Radish first before being released elsewhere, unless the book has already been made available elsewhere in full first. So if you wanted to use Patreon or Ream and offer subscribers early access, you would not be able to if you also wanted to release on Radish. Link To Graphic Explanation
5	4	Royal Road	LINK	Game-Lit; Action; Adventure; Fantasy; Drama	LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None.	You can ask readers to use the donation button at the top of every chapter. RR does not take a cut from donations.		Conflict between the ToS and Knowledge Base in the section on Genres and Tags.ToS states: "4.5. Inappropriate or Prohibited Content. There are certain types of content we do not permit on our Services (for legal reasons or otherwise). We do not permit content that is categorized as erotica or that involves sexual activities involving underage characters." The genre tags section of the Knwoledge Base indicates that explicit content is allowed and must be tagged with the sexual content warning tag for "Explicit sexual content, descriptive sexual scenes." Knowledge Base clarrifies a bit in Content Guidelines, under Prohibited: "Excessive sexual content is prohibited. The Sexual Content tag does not enable a fiction to have eroticism or sexual content as its primary focus. Erotic fictions are banned from the site. In general, while a fiction may include Sexual Content, it is prohibited from being the core element or a centralized driving point of a story; you must keep the Sexual Content to a minimum." Based on the above, it seems like you can post sexual content as long as it's not the primary focus on the story (PwP), or other non-con, incest, and sexual abuse/violence. But it also seems like it cannot be very explicit; which is also not entirely clear. Prohibited Content Link	Content can be deleted and removed; however, while not displayed, they will keep a copy of your content on their systems.	The Knowledge Base General Rules section prohibits this, saying, "No spam. This includes links to other sites, nonsense posts, shill posts, and repeat posts in multiple forums." However, forum posts in the last 4 years seem to indicate links in author notes are fine so long as it's not spam/troll-like in nature; and specific to your story/stories. General Rules Link	RR seems like a good place to post your serial if your focus is Isekai/Other World or Game Lit. While they do allow mature and explicit content, properly tagged, the guidelines and ToS are not fully clear. If one were to post romance genre fiction with sexual content, it would be advised to keep it romance level sexual description and not erotic/super explicit.
6	5	Fictionate	LINK	Romance; Fantasy; Scifi; Adventure; Female Protagonist	LINK / LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None.	You can create subscription tiers with paywalls, and offer some chapters free. How you price each tier and what content is available to each subscriber in a given tier is up to you.	Fictionate receives a 5% commision off subscriptions.	Sexual content is allowed, but no PwP, and it must have content warnings/tags. Self-Harm and Graphic depictions are allowed, even sexual in nature; however, it cannot be glorified or written as being condoned/promoted positively. Beastiality, necrophilia, and any sexual content with someone under 16 is not allowed.	ToS is not clear on story deletion or retention after. Accounts that are deleted remain in the system for 6 months before being permanently deleted. Posts on the forums/discussion boards are listed as anonymous, but remain up after.	Nothing in ToS about linking outside websites.	Fictionate seems like a very rough, very new, serial site. It gives off late 90s website vibes in a number of ways. The ToS does not appear well put together, but does not feel overly restrictive. This could be a good option for writers who want an alternative to Ream or Patreon for subscribers, especially erotic/romance writers. It could also be a good additional platform to post free chapters as they release as free on your main platform (I.E. Ream or Radish).
7	6	Inkitt	LINK	Romance; Paranormal; Supernatural; Mystery; Horror; Fantasy	LINK / LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None for the Author Sub Program. Source.	You can earn money with Inkitt 2 ways: A publication contract, or with their Author Subscription program. In the latter, you create sub tiers for subscribers.	No fees are charged by Inkitt for the Sub program; however, you are responsible for your own taxes--of which Inkitt reports to your local government. A credit card fee is also charged. A minimum of 5 euros must be present in your account to trigger a payment; payments are sent every 2 months.	Inkitt allows mature content to long as it's behind an mature content rating. It also prohibits anything that promotes/glorifies illegal activity, and content that describes "sexual or adult oriented themes with minors (under the age of 16)". But the guidelines do not get specific with other sexual content or what types, PwP, explicit, or otherwise. Their author subscription program specifies, however, that, "Inkitt has open content guidelines. We don't discriminate, regardless of genre, to include stories with mature content." One might assume this also extends to their author non-sub content, given their limited list of prohibited material.	Inkitt will retain a copy of your content on their systems after you delete it from their platform. But they will not display it without your permission, nor will not publish your content without your consent.	The Writing Guidelines state that the story itself cannot contain external links. However, there's nothing in the Author Notes section of the Help and Support about not telling readers they can look for your work on other platforms. Though, it doesn't appear as if you can post clickable links within in them.	Inkitt is a good place to use to offer your work for free if you have further chapters elsewhere behind a sub tier, or for their author sub program. Primarily because they don't have exclusivity restrictions, and you don't have to pay a bunch of fees. Additionally, they're very friendly to mature/explicit content. However, after reading this and this, I don't think signing a contract with them would be wise. Even if their royalties were fair, authors can arguably make more in serialization without ever using a publishing house. At the very least, they would make something when compared to how Inkitt publishes.
8	7	Penana	LINK	Romance; Horror; Paranormal; Supernatural; Fantasy	LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	There appears to be no restrictions on being exclusive to Penana, even when you monetize your work on their platform.	You can earn money in one of three different forms: 1, chapter-based paid content where the reader pays per chapters; 2, a monthly subscription for readers where they get monthly benefits and content; or 3, having readers donate. Readers pay via Pena Coins.	A platform handing fee of 30% is taken for any income authors recieve from readers before it is remitted to your income statement. Any pena coin related features use a formula you can find here. To quote: The author's share of the subscription plan is 90% of the revenue after deducting the transaction fee and sales tax (if any). The current transaction fee is 3.4% for each transaction + HK $2.35. The formula is "Revenue* (1-10% platform fee) - (100*3.4% + 2.35 credit card handling fee)" Users can withdrawal income once they reach 100 HKD, and then there will be a 5$ HKD admin fee charged for each withdrawal.	Nothing is specified on their site in the ToS or elsewhere in their Guide that can be found about prohibited content. The only section in the ToS is vague, and tends to be in very ToS in order to apply to being being hateful or bullying on a platform: "You agree that you will not under any circumstances... post any information that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory, libelous, or racially, sexually, religiously, or otherwise objectionable and offensive." It should be noted there are users who are posting explicit and sexual content on the site with smut tags. And that the filters for ratings in the search do not allow for anything above PG-13.	There does not appear to be a wait period for deletion, and the FAQ does not say anything about retaining copies for the site's records or customer use. However, in the Guide, it does state that if your content is 'paid content' it cannot be deleted to 'safeguard readers' benefits'.	There are no guidelines or rules against doing so.	Use Penana with caution, even for free. They appear to be based in Hong Kong, I.E. China. Most of the sites seen thus far in this research based in East Asian countries tend towards scamming writer's into unfair contracts or exploiting and taking ownership of their work. Additionally, there seems to be a number of fees if you plan to monetize your work on the site: 30% off the top, 3.5% transaction fee, 2.35$ HKD credit card fee, and a 1 - 10% platform fee, and then a 5$ HKD admin fee to withdrawal 200 HKD (25$ USD roughly) or more. Using Penana as a free release platform seems good, perhaps. And you don't have to worry about being exclusive if you do decide to earn money there.
9	8	Honeyfeed	LINK	Action; Adventure; Comedy; Romance; Fantasy; Slice of Life; School; Supernatural; Paranormal; Anime	LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None.	None.		The ToS only states: "As a publisher you may publish anything you want, excluding mature (“sexual abuse, racially or ethnically offensive content, graphic content related to death and/or body mutilation, animal cruelty and physical or sexual abuse related to minors”) Content, images and comments" And when you look at the tags and categories for stories, there are ones for NSFW and Ecchi. Boys Love, Girls Love, Romance, and LGBTQ+ are all there as well, which tend to get flagged on other sites for being 'mature' content. So the site seems fairly friendly to these genres and adult/explicit content.	Honeyfeed may retain records of the content you submit, but will not display make available anything you delete.	There are no guidelines or rules against doing so.	Honeyfeed is very anime story theme focused for most, if not nearly all, of it's content. It looks to be a good place if you like the theme associated with anime and the genres within it. It also appears pretty safe for explicit, erotic, and romance with sexual content type stories. You won't make money on Honeyfeed, but it is ideal for certain categories of novel for posting chapters for free after they release for free elsewhere as well. It wouldn't hurt to post your free chapters here, at any rate. They are owned by a Japanese company.
10	9	Fiction Press	LINK	Romance; Fantasy; YA; Horror; Supernatural; Humor; Scifi; Action	LINK / LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None	None.		Explicit content is not allowed, sexual or not.	Fiction Press may retain records of the content you submit, but will not display make available anything you delete.	There are no guidelines or rules against doing so.	Fiction Press is part of the Fanfiction.net family of fiction sites. They're for originally written work of all types, even poetry and short stories. People do still post adult/explicit content on the site just as they do on Fanficion.net, but it is not allowed as per their guidelines. If you plan to post non-explicit content, they are a good option for free episodes or chapters of your work. It wouldn't hurt to add them to your list.	Fanfiction.net did a purge of all explicit content several times since since their inception, contributing to the creation of adult fanfic sites for users to post their work safely.
11	10	Neovel	LINK	Fantasy; Romance; Action; Adventure; Historical	LINK / LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None, unless you sign a contract.	Three types of monetization: Freemium, Selection, and Neovela Studio. Selection operates the same as Freemium, but your content is promoted on the platform and social media.	Information about monetization here. It seems they only pay authors .022 to .065 cents per chapter purchased per reader, and that payout depends on the coin pack the reader bought. You must have at least 27 USD in your account to withdrawal income. And there are fees for withdrawal depending on if you use Paypal or IBAN, 4.4% + conversion fees, and.59 cents USD respectively. It also appears you are responsible for your own taxes, and VAT might be charged.	Explicit content is allowed, but must be tagged. PwP is not allowed. Their sexual content section of the Content Guidelines is very specific and not confusing at all. And they seem like a safe space for those who write explicit works. They also state there are restrictions on searching for these stories, which could mean they aren't promoted by the algorithm well--but this is not certain at the time of this research.	The ToS states that once you delete content it is removed from Neovel and all rights granted to them and their users immediately ends.	Nothing can be found in the ToS or Content Guidelines that is specific to linking to outside locations for author social media or other website hosting author novels/stories/etc.	Neovel is owned by a French based company. Their payout to authors appears less than stellar. Like Vella, you are making pennies on the dollar--less than 10% royalties. If you don't care about that, or want to use Neovela as a free promotion location for your free chapters.episodes as they release, is seems like a safe and solid choice. It's a great alternative to Vella, at any rate, as no exclusivity is expected at the Freemium level with partial monetization.
12	11	Moonquill	LINK	Game-Lit; Another World; Horror; Harem; Action; Adventure; Cultivation; Eastern; Queer	LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None, unless you sign a contract.	Two types of monetization: non-exclusive and exclusive if you sign a publishing contract.	Information about monetization here. Quote From Non-Exclusive Agreement: "As consideration for the non-exclusive license granted to MoonQuill under this Agreement, MoonQuill shall pay you 50% of the net revenue (excepting download fees) generated by MoonQuill’s use of the Writing, plus 50% of download fees attributable to the Writing (“Payment”). “Net Revenue” as used in this Section 3, shall mean the net proceeds MoonQuill receives from third party advertising, and user subscription agreements, for its entire Site, minus the costs incurred by MoonQuill in [maintaining and operating the Site] the sum of which shall be calculated on a monthly basis on the last day of the month. “Use of the Writing” is measured by the number of views of the Writing by all subscribers." Their Example: "[I]f during one month the Site generates $10,000 of net revenue, 15,000 total Site views, and the Writing receives 100 of the total Site views and generates $50 in download fees, then you would receive $33.33 as payment for that month (50% x [$10,000 x (100/15,000)] + $50 x 50% = $33.33)." (I suspect their math is wrong for the example. I am not a math expert by any means, but it's not tracking.)	Erotic or sexual content is allowed, but not PwP or explicit scenes describing sex with someone under the age of 16. Non-consensual sex in stories that frame it as acceptable or encouraged behavior is not allowed. It appears adult content, generally, is allowed; however, it is not if the context of it in the story is acceptable and condoned.	MoonQuill will remove chapters and submissions when you email and request they do so at social@moonquillnovels.com. Deleting content will delete all access via readers/users, unless those users downloaded it previously to their personal devices. MoonQuill may retain a copy of your content on their servers, but will not distribute it.	Nothing can be found in the ToS or Content Guidelines that is specific to linking to outside locations for author social media or other website hosting author novels/stories/etc.	MoonQuill's monetization system is vague and confusing. No idea what download fees are or how they calculate them; one would assume they are what readers/subscribers would pay to view each chapter/episode, but the site does not appear to have that--all chapters seem open to readers whether they sub or not to to the website (to avoid ads). Their example calculation is incorrect, by this researcher's own estimation and a the opinions of a few others who know more about math than they do. It's hard to tell, because the payment explanation is so confusing, if it's worth it to count them as a good income source. You aren't required to be exclusive, excluding a contract. So it's a good way to make some change on your work posting free episodes/chapters as they release while promoting those chapters or episodes that are behind paywalls on your main site. They're also very clear about adult content being allowed, which is really nice; it's a safe space, by all accounts, for explicit content so long as it's not PwP. Although, the site very much is geared towards anime toned stories and their specific genre and tropes: harem, ecchi, other works/isekai/ slice of life, etc.	Seems anime adjacent. Also lots of isekai and game lit stories.
13	12	Scribble Hub	LINK	Game-Lit; Another World; Horror; Harem; Action; Adventure; Cultivation; Eastern; Queer	LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None.	You can receive donations for your work from readers, and Scribble Hub does not take a cut from this. You keep all profits.		There appears to be none in the terms of service or Help section. And stories do have tags for ecchi, smut, mature, and harem, implying that adult and 18+ prnographic explicit content is allowed.	According to the email reply I received asking about content and account deletion: "Yes, writers can delete account or content. Writers can delete content on their own and no copies are kept on our servers once deleted. As for accounts, they would need to request it."	There appears to be none.	Scribble Hub is a good site overall to post to if you write in the isekai, game lit, anime type theme genres. Adult and explicit content is not restricted, so it seems a safe place for those writers. You can post your work for free here, or you can ask for donation. Scribble Hub won't take a cut of your income from donations. It's done through either paypal or patreon. And it appears you can redirect readers to early release chapters on other sites without issue. Update: You can delete content and they do not keep a copy on their system according to a return email they sent me.
14	13	Archive of Our Own (Original Work)	LINK	Boys Love; Girls Love; Explicit; YA; Mature; Romance; Fantasy; Angst; Poetry; Magic	LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None.	None.		AO3 allows for all content and does not care if users exposed to it do not like it. To quote the ToS: "Unless it violates some other policy, we will not remove Content for offensiveness, no matter how awful, repugnant, or badly spelled we may personally find that Content to be."	You can delete content (chapters and stories) as well as your entire account. See here about account deletion and what it does. If you delete your account you can choose to orphan stories so they remain on Ao3, but not attached to the account you want to delete.	Spam is not allowed, but nothing seems to indicate you cannot promote your own work on other sites. You can even imbed links in your chapters.	AO3 does not give any fucks about the content of your story, or if you tag it so others know what's in it. You care free to tag the work as not using any content warnings, letting users know that's not how you do things. You're not going to make money off AO3, and they are primarily a hub for fanfiction. However, there is an Original Works section, of which this listing pertains to, where you can post your free chapters as way to gain new readers on your primary platform with paywalls for earlier access to newer chapters. The researcher is uncertain how impactful this would be, but it's free and AO3 is a very reliable platform for authors of all types. It's worth considering for free releases.	Original Work Link
15	14	Vella	LINK	Romance; Erotica; YA; Historical; Scifi; Paranormal; Supernatural; Fantasy; Mystery; ACtion; Adventure	LINK / LINK Note: First link is to ToS for KDP. Vella info is at the bottom of the document.	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	You cannot make any episodes freely available in a serial format that are behind a paywall on Vella.	You can monetize via readers paying coins for each episode.	A full breakdown is linked here. The equation Vella uses is thus: (10 Tokens to unlock episode) * (Tokens bundle price/# of Tokens in bundle - taxes and fees) * (50% rev share) = Earnings per episode There is also the potential to earn a monthly bonus based on vague unexplained numbers of paid tokens, faves, follows, and the total number of Vella stories that qualified for the bonus in a given month.	Vella allows for erotic and sexual content, but it appears they have a habit of categorizing things that are neither into the erotica category unfairly and making if very difficult for authors to get their work removed from those categories.	You may delete your content from Vella; after deleting, the action cannot be undone. There is no indication if they keep your story on their servers, but once deleted it is no longer available to readers.	The author notes section under Content Guidelines states: "...avoid including any links or prompting readers to leave the reading experience." One would assume the vagueness of this language could mean you can make mention of your other platforms or websites, but not be blatant perhaps.	Vella is a great resource to promote your serial work if you plan on keeping everything after 10 chapters behind a paywall. If you want to offer chapters for free after a certain amount of time passes, Vella is not going to be for you. You can post on Vella and other serial platforms following those rules. And you are free to do with your work as you like after you remove it. You can also publish your serial in long form (a full complete novel) 30 days after the last episode is posted to Vella. It should be noted that Amazon, like Wattpad and a few other platforms, has a habit of removing content it deams 'prohibited', or placing it in categories where people cannot find it. Like putting romance into erotica, when it's obvious the work isn't erotica. Vella has also changed how it's royalties work recently, making it harder for writers to make money on the platform. They did this with no real notice, and were 'shocked' when writers edited their content to work better with the new guidelines. Vella would be a great place to post if not for their exclusivity requirements. If you were allowed to offer your content there for free, for as freemium, without paywall-exclusivity restrictions, it could be a decent one.
16	15	Inkspired	LINK	Romance; Drama; Action; Adventure; Horror	LINK / LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None.	Readers can pay once for full access to all chapters, a monthly/yearly sub, they can donate, or you can do book presales before official release.	More information here. Pre-selling your book requires membership in the Inkspired Associates Program. Fees: "For every transaction, Inkspired will charge an administration fee of 8%, 15% or 20% depending on your plan. This is an exclusive fee while you are Premium member. Otherwise, the regular administration fee is 25%."	Erotica, sexual content, and kink content is allowed so long as it is is the erotica category. Any sexually descriptive content must be with people 16 and older. PwP is only allowed in the fanfiction category. Violence, harassment, and generally illegal acts cannot be framed in a positive or encouraging manner; the content can exist, however.	Cannot find anything about the deletion process of author content.	You are not allowed to encourage readers to actively leave the platform to read your work elsewhere because it is incomplete on Inkspired. It comes off as less absolute, and more about not using your Inkspired account as an advertising/promotion platform only.	Inkspired seems like a good place to post content for free or behind a paywall of some kind. You can do this without paying for their premium services, but you will have a higher fee percent taken from reader payments if you don't. If you're free, you don't need to worry about this. They are non-exclusive, so no worries about doing monetization or posting free work and meeting requirements for your content being available elsewhere simultaneously. It is worrisome that they don't have information on deleting stories/content from their site an author has posted. This researcher has sent a question about this to them, and will update once clarification has been received. Notably, they offer a number of author services; unless you have an account with them, however, you can't see details on costs aside from the base price. Those services might be of interest to some writers, but it also might be better to use Fiverr as authors can see evaluations/reviews on those who sell their services on there to know if the service provided is of value.
17	16	Writersky	LINK	Short Story; Fantasy; Adventure; Crime; Scifi; Horror; YA	LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None.	None.		There is nothing in the ToS about restrictive content as of yet. You can add mature warnings to stories you post, and there are tags for things like erotica. Given this, it seems explicit content is allowed; however it seems one should put it behind warnings and proper tags.	You can delete stories and your account. Writersky does not keep any accounts or stories on their systems after deletion.	Nothing in the ToS indicates you cannot redirect/link readers to earlier chapter releases or other locations for your works or social media.	Writersky seems still very new and growing for writers and readers of original fiction. There is no way to make money on the site, but it would be a good place to post your free work/chapters. The only concern is a lack of information on deleting content, or if they retain your content after deletion. This researcher will update this once a response is received to the message sent asking about this to Writersky. Update: Writersky replied to my email saying they allow writers to delete content and accounts, and they do not retain anything a writer deletes on their systems.
18	17	Lutionary	LINK	Romance; Mature/Erotica; Fantasy; Scifi; Paranormal; Supernatural	LINK / LINK	Waiting on email reply.	Waiting on email reply.	Waiting on email reply.		Explicit content is allowed for sex and erotica, but not PwP. Stories should be tagged/categories/labeled for erotica/mature. Describing in detail illegal sex acts is not allowed. Sex acts depicting those under 16 is not allowed. The promotion or glorification of rape, assault, sexual slavery, or any non-consensual act is not allowed.	Cannot find anything about the deletion process of author content.	No restrictions indicated. ToS is says in the Third Party Website section that "stories, user profiles, and other posts may link to other sites."	Lutionary appears to be a site to post one's work for free, but in their ToS it does say there are licensing options. Without making an account and trying to publish, this researcher cannot tell if that means monetization, exclusivity, ect. There's also no indication about how to delete stories/content, or what stories/content is kept after deletion, and if readers have access to past content they accessed that has been deleted. This researcher has reached out to them via email and will update this information once a response is received with clarification. Explicit content is allowed with the right categorization, warning tags, etc. And outside linking to author sites/social media appears to be allowed as well; it's not explicitly prohibited and they appear aware people do it, if the ToS Third Party Websites section is any indication. Update: Emailed their contact email listed. They did not reply to any of my questions as of yet (and it's been a few months) about content ownership, exclusivity, or what their contract even looks like for working with them outside of free content a writer posts. I also dislike that it's not clear what rights the writer retains even when posting work for free.
19	18	Ream	LINK	Romance; Fantasy; Scifi; Drama; Mystery; Historical	LINK / LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None.	Ream is subscription based only with sub tiers to readers managed and created by writers, and writers have full control. Payments to writers are done via Managed or Direct Payout Plans. Ream only takes 10%, but there are other fees depending on the payment type you choose.	More information can be found here about monetization generally, and here for fees specifically. For Managed: (Pro) Ream handles sales taxes and VAT; (Pro) Ream processes payments for authors; (Con) there is a 50$ minimum payout that must be achieved to get a payout; (Con) and banks charge a payout of 2.25$ + .25% per payout. For Direct: (Con) The author handles their own sales tax and VAT; (Con) the author files taxes only if economic nexus limits are reached; (Pro) sales tax and VAT is collected from readers on top of the tier price; (Pro) and there no payout fees or minimums. Note: Once you choose either Managed or Direct, you cannot (currently) change it. You would need to make a new account. (Article: Can I Switch From Direct to Ream Manages or Vice Versa?)	Ream is the most flexible for writers in their content guidelines on this list aside from AO3, while also making consessions for 'gray' area content they acknolwedge they might have to remove should things change or circumstances call for the removal of such content. Erotica, explicit content, and sexual content are allowed. Incest and pseudoincest are allowed. Furry content is allowed, but not beastiality. Erotica/Explicit content with sex folklore/mythical creatures is allowed. Underage erotica is not allowed, with no specific mentioning of age; one assumes the age would be defined by your local laws, but if you write this content you may need to contact them for clarrification. (Some states in the US, for instance, put the age of consent at 16 and older; thus, a number of serial sites will list any sex described with those under 16 is not permitted content.) In contrast to other serial sites, not only does ream allow for incest and pseudoincest, but, they also allow for stories where: the sexual relationship is the primary driver of the plot and story (PwP ish), and rape and sexual slavery take place for the purposes of gratuitus pleasure for the reader. However, rape and sexual slayery content are considered a gray area and of gray areas, Ream states: "[W]e encourage authors to be careful of and be aware that Ream reserves the right to enforce guidelines in gray areas at the Service's sole discretion" (Source).	You can delete your account and your content entirely from Ream. But they may also keep a copy in their records, even if it is no longer accessible on their site to users in any way.	No restrictions.	Ream is an excellent option for writers to use a primary hub for their stories; especially as for-profit alternative to Vella or Radish. They don't require exclusivity, only take 10% in fees, and only take additional fees if you choose a less stressful payout option. They also pay monthly, whereas some other platforms make you wait 60+ days for the first payout to process and then pay out monthly thereafter. Not shockingly, Ream is also explicit content friendly and flexible. They allow for content other platforms won't allow at all. And they're transparent enough to acknowledge that the gray areas they allow might need adjusting if circumstances change or call for a decision to be made. They claim they are "strong advocates of erotic literature and Ream is co-founded by an erotic/steamy romance author" (Source, under "#5 Mature Content Guidelines", 3rd paragraph down).
20	19	Writers Cafe	LINK	Romance; Poetry	LINK	You own your stories. Terms allow for ads/promotion, and hosting.	None.	None.		Nothing in their ToS states that explicit content is not allowed, or anything else. Only the general and vague prohibited list in every ToS that doesn't seems to pertain to story content specifically. Additionally, there are over 18 warnings on stories before you can read; there are also stories tagged as erotica. So it appears explicit content is allowed; although, the site does not indicate directly that it is with guidelines to content.	You cannot delete your account, but you can close it. You can delete your content, but there is nothing about whether the platform keeps a record of content after it's deleted for their own records.	No restrictions.	Writer's Cafe, like other free sites for writers and readers, seems like a good option to post your free work for promotional reasons. If you plan to release free chapters over time, while allowing early access on a site like Ream, this could be a good place to also post your content. They're also not restrictive on content allowed and have no content guidelines; which makes it, at least for now, a safe haven for writers who create explicit stories/content.
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23													Genre Note
24													Genres listed as most popularly written in, and/or read may not be accurate. Not all sites list top hashtags, genres, etc. And resources are limited in some cases, even anecdotally.
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