Content Considerations
Here at Authors 4 Authors Publishing, we love romance. We enjoy a wide variety of romance, from sweet to erotic.
However, with such a wide variety of content, we want to be transparent about what we can (and can't) publish for legal and economic reasons.
What legal and economic reasons?
There are very strict laws concerning what material can be distributed by publishers. For example, a very steamy romance is just that—a very steamy romance. Until an image of a naked person is on the cover or embedded in the text. Then that steamy romance becomes pornography.
Amazon, Ingram, Smashwords, and our other distributors all have rules and terms of service forbidding the publishing of pornographic materials. If they won't distribute it, we really can't publish it.
We also can't take the risk that publishing something questionable could jeopardize our ability to publish other work.
Content Guidelines
To help with the submission process, we developed content guidelines specifically surrounding erotica and romance. Some of this content may occur in other stories--that is not what these guidelines address. These guidelines specifically address a romance or erotica publication, where sexual content is a major component of the plot and storytelling structure.
While we consider all submissions, any manuscript that does not adhere to these guidelines is ineligible for publication with Authors 4 Authors Publishing.
Characters
No sexual content between underage children or an underage child and an adult. If there are any characters that are close to the age limit, there must be text specifically stating that the character is of age, or eighteen years old.
No sexual content can occur between family members. This means instances of incest, or "pseudo-incest", or other culturally taboo consensual interactions between family members.
No bestiality, or sexual content between a human and an animal, can be included. Human-like creatures, such as an alien or vampire or other creature, are acceptable. Shifters, or beings that can change from a human form to another form, may be in the story, but all graphic sexual interactions among shifter characters must take place in the human form.
Situations
Consent is absolutely mandatory for any erotic sexual situation. Extreme situations and fetishes must establish consent before, during, and persist throughout sexual activity, unless that activity is depicted as an assault, not enjoyable sexual behavior.
Scat play is prohibited.
No "snuff" erotica, where the story ends with one of the sexual participants dead, or necrophilia.
Conclusion
Erotica has a very particular place in a publisher's catalog, and we want talented romance writers represented in our organization. However, we have to keep any such works within established social and cultural norms for legal reasons--so this is not the place to challenge or push the status quo.
If you have a work that is too extreme for Authors 4 Authors, we would be glad to share information with how to self publish your work, or how to edit your work to fit within our guidelines.
What if I submit anyways?
Here's the difficult part of this scenario.
We receive a lot of submissions, and as part of our company culture and policy, take the time to read and consider each one. Submitting something that violates these guidelines, quite simply, is a huge waste of our time. It's unprofessional, it's inconsiderate, and it communicates to us that you don't value or respect us as fellow authors or professional publishers.
If you submit something that violates these guidelines without a disclaimer or note that you are willing to edit the offensive content out, not only will we be forced to reject your manuscript, we will no longer consider you for publication with us.