Nifty Submission Guidelines

👋 Hey there! We are actively working on a new, self-service author portal. If you are interested in being a beta tester for this feature, please reach out to us here. In the meantime, please follow the instructions below to submit your story.

Overview

Please send stories as plain text - this is the most preferred format. If you happen to submit your story with markdown formatting, it will appear exactly as-is on the classic Nifty, but will be formatted as rich-text on the new Nifty. We will also endeavor to convert HTML, MS Word, Open Document Text, RTF, and other word processor formats to text, but the formatting may not always render as expected on the site.

Plain text and markdown stories published on Nifty will include the email header, including the name and email address of the sender, unless the cover letter explicitly requests removal.

Please do not include lines at the beginning of the email submission message or the story that look like the header of an email message (Date, From, Subject).

Submitting a story to Nifty grants Nifty a license to display the story indefinitely, described below in more detail. We can cooperate with authors to develop ("workshop") a story on Nifty, e-publish it, and then archive it on Nifty, described in the Marketing section.

How to submit a story

In the meantime, please email each story submission to stories@nifty.org and please specify the title of the story and the chapter number in the Subject line of the message, not "New Story" or "Submission" or "attached". The email subject line should not be a message to the Archivist. Category suggestions that match the terminology and usage on Nifty are welcome. Please avoid common and cliche story titles, especially "First Time" or "My First…". Stories with cliche titles, crude titles, duplicative titles, grammatically incorrect titles, a long list of mutually-exclusive categories, closed categories, contradictory information, or stories that require the Archivist to read the mind of the author to determine the categorization will be delayed or ignored.

Please submit one file, part or chapter at a time, and one message at a time. Please provide a categorization recommendation appropriate for Nifty category definitions, or a short summary about the story, in the cover letter at the beginning of the body of the email message to aid with categorization. If a story contains incest (siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, cousins), specify incest, regardless of local cultural norms for the terminology. Please wait for an acknowledgment that the story or chapter was published before sending the next part. Please allow up to a week for a story to be reviewed and published before inquiring. Please allow up to 24 hours for an update to appear on the website after receiving a reply.

If there is a problem or change or question with the story or chapter, do not resend the story or chapter unless explicitly requested.

Stories that explicitly depict characters engaging in sexual activity with or playing with the genitalia of the opposite sex, even briefly, are categorized as Bisexual. If this occurs later in a multi-chapter story, the story will be recategorized.

Nifty only archives LGBT stories that conform to the guidelines for acceptable stories. Nifty reserves the right to remove a story from display if a story is later discovered not to conform to the guidelines after it initially has been published.

Nifty accepts and publishes stories in any language. All stories are published in the same categories, regardless of language.

If the story uses British English, Indian or European terminology (sports, education), please state that in the introduction.

Some stories will be eligible for the Nifty Laureate Author Award.

Please see the sections below for additional information.

Content

2023 Update: The new site has additional restrictions on the type of material that can be hosted. Stories that feature bestiality or characters younger than high-school age cannot be hosted on the new Nifty site. For more information about this change, click here.

This site archives alternative sexuality erotica, not heterosexual erotica (including heterosexual fetish erotica). Multimedia material of text with accompanying pictures or drawings will not be accepted at this time. The Archive does not compensate authors for their work and does not wish to become a gallery for material temporarily on exhibition. Nifty may not be used to publish "teaser" stories -- initial chapters of a story or purposefully incomplete stories that direct readers to another site to obtain access to the complete story or final chapters. Authors may publish chapters in advance on other websites, but may not intentionally publish incomplete stories on Nifty. Please do not abuse the generous, free resources provided by this unique venue. We respect authors and expect authors to show respect in return.

This site does not archive every story posted on USENET or submitted for inclusion in the Archive for various reasons including content (e.g., rape or coercion of minors, abusive situations involving minors, graphic violence, unwilling participants, participants who cannot exhibit good judgment, dangerous drug use, dangerous sexual acts, permanent mental or physical harm, depiction of minors being photographed for distribution, suicide or attempted suicide without consequences, adult sexual interactions with characters who appear to be less than high-school age, or works which the contributor does not have permission to contribute to Nifty).

A vocal minority of readers often advocate for more extreme activities, more taboo themes, or specific types of characters. The majority of readers on Nifty prefer romantic, consensual themes. Nifty encourages authors to maintain their own voice and vision - don't change the content and direction of a story for a small group of readers.

Nifty does not publish biographies, journals or memoirs. Nifty does not publish series that span a large number of categories and Nifty isn't intended as a collection of personal history of people's lives. Nifty may publish some relevant, stand-alone excerpts.

Please send stories or chapters that show some development of the plot and characters. Please don't send a story or first chapter that is an outline, or an incomplete scene, or a preliminary idea to judge it there is interest to continue the story or if the audience wants to read more.

Submissions always are welcome, though. Please try to ensure that a story does not already exist on this site before submitting it -- this site has original, complete, and/or correctly named versions of many story fragments available elsewhere. If the file is a revised version of material already archived on this site, please include a note making that clear and mentioning the relevant changes (even if the Archivist does not assume that the story is a duplicate, he does not wish to compare stories -- especially long, multipart stories -- for differences).

Please remember that the Archive is maintained by a single, part-time volunteer who appreciates authors using his time efficiently. If each author sends or resends a story in a format convenient for him or her, it significantly slows down submission processing and easily can overwhelm the Archive submission process.

Marketing

Nifty provides an effective platform to market and promote LGBTQ+ erotica eBooks. Nifty has a large readership that represents the target market for erotica eBook authors.

Authors can test plots and characters ("workshop") to discover which ones generate a strong, positive reaction, develop a draft of the story on Nifty, and simultaneously promote previously published eBooks. When the new story has crystallized, it can be removed temporarily from Nifty, published as an eBook, and when eBook sales tail off, re-publish the final version of the story on Nifty and promote the next published eBook. Books containing collections of stories can be serialized on Nifty to create multiple opportunities to connect with potential customers.

Authors also can include links to web pages, forums and chat rooms to promote the author's own brand identity, special material, perks, and other works. Authors may request tips and promote memberships on content creator subscription services, which may include early access to story chapters. But authors may not explicitly promote or request payment for the story itself nor for early access to future chapters of the story in the story published on Nifty.

Nifty promotes books published by its authors on the front page announcements.

License

Legal stuff: Authors retain all ownership, copyright and other interests and rights to and title to their submitted works but by submitting a work, the author grants the Nifty Archive a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, and non-cancellable license to use, modify, alter, edit copy, reproduce, display, make compilations of and distribute the work throughout our Website. (If this is unacceptable, please contact us to discuss your concern. If you wish to use Nifty for temporary marketing and promotion of your works, please make specific arrangements ahead of time.)

Authors may license their stories to other publishers, but that does not revoke the license granted to the Nifty Archive. Authors may reclaim the license granted to Nifty by replacing a story with an equivalent story appropriate for display in the Nifty Archive, or by making a donation to the Nifty Archive.

The maintainers of the Archive will respect requests for changes to stories, to attribution, and/or to email addresses in the Archive by the original author of the work. Decisions to honor requests to remove a work from public display are determined on a case-by-case basis. This does not nullify, terminate, or revoke any license granted to the Nifty Archive. Nifty is not a temporary exhibition gallery.

Only submit a story if you are the author or explicitly have permission from the author to submit the story for display on Nifty. Do not remove or replace another author's or poster's attribution from a story submission.

Submission Formatting

Please send story submissions as plain text or markdown (.txt or .md). This format allows users to read your story with their own preferred font size, style, etc. Alternative formats (but not recommended) include non-Google Docs, HTML, MS Word Document, Open Document Format, or RTF. Please use UTF-8 character set encoding for stories that used extended character sets.

Please do not send PDF's, as they may not render as expected on the new site.

Please properly format and spell-check each submission. A story should not be a single, long paragraph and paragraphs should be separated by blank lines. Dialogue changes of speaker and transitions between exposition and dialogue should start a new paragraph.

Submission Process

Submissions may be either attached to an email message or included in the body of the email message. Web-based email systems often allow larger attachments than the main message size limitation, so one can attach large files. Compression is neither required nor recommended unless the person submitting is unable to send large files. Please do not send PKZIP, BinHex, MacOS "pages" or Mac "sit" format archives; please attach the file directly.

Please send only one email message containing one story or part of a story as a submission. Do not send any more stories or another part until the current submission is processed. After you receive a response, please wait at least two days until sending the next submission containing one story or part of a story. Nifty receives many submissions each day and we need to distribute our attention among all authors, so we ask that authors help us and each other by not overwhelming us with submissions and monopolizing our time focussing on one author. If there is some reason that you need to send multiple parts in rapid succession or in a single message, please contact Nifty ahead of time to make special arrangements.

The Nifty Archive will try to respect requests for anonymity through no attribution or through a pseudonym, but should be stated explicitly in an email cover letter prepended to each submission; otherwise, the email header will be included with the story by default. (HTML submissions are self-contained and no email header is displayed.) If you want the name in the email header removed or changed, explicitly request that. If you want the email address removed or changed, explicitly request that. Asking for a pseudonym does not mean that the email address will be removed.

Please do not send the cover letter as a separate email message because it may not be delivered at the same time as the submission itself. A cover letter is not required -- it is the method for communicating requests and questions to the Archivist. Authors can recommend categories in the cover letter, but the decision on categories is at the discretion of the Nifty Archive.

If accepted, a response will state where the submission was categorized. Please allow up to one week for processing a submission under normal circumstances. If you do not receive a response by then and have not seen the story appear in the "What's New" listing, then please check if the submission was not received.

Please check the Announcements on the homepage and other prominent locations on the Archive for announcement before inquiring about delays. If you are worried about the status of a submission, please send a short note asking about the submission, do not resubmit the story.

Story additions, removals and changes may take a few hours to appear on Nifty after a response is sent.

If the story appears in the Archive and the submitter does not receive a reply, then the reply most likely was lost or the reply address is not accepting email from the Nifty Archive mail system.

Celebrities and Slash Fiction

Stories involving celebrities must include a disclaimer that the story is fiction and is not intended to imply anything about the true sexuality of the celebrities mentioned or any personal knowledge about their private lives. This disclaimer should not make any mention of owning or not owning a celebrity.

Stories about celebrities may not include stalking, threats against celebrities, or the death of celebrities or their friends or family members as a plot device.

Stories involving fictional characters from television shows, movies, books, comic strips, etc. must include a copyright and trademark statement for the production company or publisher (not the television network on which a TV show appears, unless the network is the production company).

Author's Checklist

1. Submission from author or from someone with permission from author to publish the story on Nifty.
2. Spelling checked.
3. Story formatted into paragraphs.
4. Dialogue formatted as individual paragraphs which start with each new speaker.
5. Paragraphs separated by a blank line, possibly indented.
6. Disclaimers and copyright / trademark information.
7. Story saved as plain text or non-Google Docs HTML.
8. Story uses UTF-8 encoding for extended character sets.
9. Author does not claim to be a minor in introduction before story.
10. Story does not involve characters younger than high-school age.
11. Story does not involve kidnapping or blackmail without later consent -- the "attacker" and the "victim" both voluntarily enjoying the "scene".
12. Characters participate willingly and can consent.
13. Story does not end with murder or suicide.
14. Story does not direct readers to other sites for the complete version of the story.
15. Title of story in Subject line of email message, including chapter / part / installment number if a continuation of a series and series title if different from the story title, e.g., "Dorm Encounters part 1" or "College Life: Dorm Encounters chapter 1".
16. Story category recommendation appropriate for Nifty category definitions and policies.
17. Requests about name or email address change or removal explicitly stated in cover letter at the top of the message containing the submission.
18. No other story submissions waiting for replies.

Please email each submission to stories@nifty.org and please specify the title of the story and the chapter number in the Subject line of the message.

Please allow a few hours for a new story or story update to appear after receiving a reply. One may need to explicitly reload the page to refresh stale, cached content displayed by the web browser.