Finding an ebook platform with similar content policies to Lush

Over the last three years, I've been publishing a multi-part fiction story on the Lush website. I would eventually like to publish these parts as a complete novella-length ebook. The story starts when the main characters start to masturbate together regularly at the age of 16.

We follow them through the remainder of high school and to the end of university. Along the way, the narrator becomes sexually involved with her brother.

Each part of the content is has been passed by administrators, so it's within the bounds of the terms and conditions here. However, many other publishers don't have such generous boundaries. The vast majority won't accept characters under 18 and/or don't allow depictions of incest, even when marked as pure fantasy.

I think the starting age of 16 is the perfect balance between the characters having a decent level of maturity that's still marred by a residual juvenile streak; I couldn't imagine college students starting a masturbation group. Additionally, cutting out the incest element would require a substantial rewrite of the story, including omitting several chapters.

To that end, do you know of any other places that might consider this type of story, or other solutions for publishing this collection as a single work?

Self-publishing through a website? The only problem will be payment processing but I imagine there's ways around that. However, going through a big service like Smashwords or Amazon Kindle takes care of a lot of the marketing end of it so, yeah. I do get those policies, since a lot of payment processors are getting antsy about what their name gets associated with but someone must be publishing that stuff. I swear (but haven't checked) that I've even seen sibling incest novels on Hoopla, the library e-lending service, and they have to get it from somewhere. Do let us know what you find. Others might benefit.

I use Smashwords to publish my books. It’s free to upload, but there are some tricks to know before taking on Smashwords. Once you do it right the first time, though, you’re on your way. You can upload (any?) content, including erotic writings. Email their staff to ask the question first, though. My stories were not erotica, either. My books are by “Noah Hartley.” They are free to download if you want to look for yourself. Happy writing, let me know how else I/we can help. -GB

Quote by Gordon_Brail
Noah Hartley

Must look. That name actually sounds familiar but maybe I just saw it when I was checking out Smashwords myself for a project that I ended up back off on.

Thank you both for your help. The search will begin tomorrow.

Quote by JennaSide

Over the last three years, I've been publishing a multi-part fiction story on the Lush website. I would eventually like to publish these parts as a complete novella-length ebook. The story starts when the main characters start to masturbate together regularly at the age of 16.

We follow them through the remainder of high school and to the end of university. Along the way, the narrator becomes sexually involved with her brother.

Each part of the content is has been passed by administrators, so it's within the bounds of the terms and conditions here. However, many other publishers don't have such generous boundaries. The vast majority won't accept characters under 18 and/or don't allow depictions of incest, even when marked as pure fantasy.

I think the starting age of 16 is the perfect balance between the characters having a decent level of maturity that's still marred by a residual juvenile streak; I couldn't imagine college students starting a masturbation group. Additionally, cutting out the incest element would require a substantial rewrite of the story, including omitting several chapters.

To that end, do you know of any other places that might consider this type of story, or other solutions for publishing this collection as a single work?

I totally agree with you Jenna, that 16 is the perfect minimum age to discover sex when writing an erotic story. For me, it seems unrealistic to say nothing sexual happens before any story character turns 18.

In a way, I am in a similar situation. I have written three books (so far) and have published them here on Lushstories, chapter by chapter. Not ideal, but I have been told that it is not possible to publish a book on Lushstories or link to another site.

In my stories, all my main characters are 18 and older and the detailed sex is all 18+. However, my main characters all have a back story, and they do refer to historical sexual events which happened between 16 and 18. It is part of what makes them who they are at 18.

Sorry, I cannot answer your post other than say you are not alone as one day I would love to post my stories as books including the references to sex from the age of 16.

Quote by wxt55uk
I have been told that it is not possible to publish a book on Lushstories or link to another site.

Who told you that? At the moment the site doesn't have a reciprocal agreement in place to allow the stories to be published elsewhere in a book format, but there is the Novels category on the site for much longer works (still within the 10K word limit per chapter, to help keep the server happy).

As far as linking goes, you can pimp off-site links in your profile/bio/wall. Just not in stories. It's preferable of course to link to stuff on this site, but as long as you don't take the piss and spam people with external links, if you've written content elsewhere, then by all means promote it from your profile.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

Who told you that? At the moment the site doesn't have a reciprocal agreement in place to allow the stories to be published elsewhere in a book format, but there is the Novels category on the site for much longer works (still within the 10K word limit per chapter, to help keep the server happy).

As far as linking goes, you can pimp off-site links in your profile/bio/wall. Just not in stories. It's preferable of course to link to stuff on this site, but as long as you don't take the piss and spam people with external links, if you've written content elsewhere, then by all means promote it from your profile.

Thank you for clarifying WW, probably my misunderstanding/mistake (it wouldn't be the first time I got something wrong).

My longer book stories have (so far) been posted exclusively in the novel section of this site. But I do still hold the faint hope that one day it will be possible to copy the finished and posted, chapter-by-chapter books, and offer them as whole completed books as downloadable PDFs (or another format) via my profile page.