Verification Process and Submission Rules

Once you submit your novel, you must wait for it to be approved. Around 10% of the submitted novels get rejected on average. 
Read the following to avoid getting your novel rejected. 

Fiction Approval Checks

Before getting approved on Royal Road, there is a manual check by the staff to make sure the rules are followed. Here the fiction is checked for Plagiarism, Links in the Synopsis, Fanfiction tagging, Sexual content, Political or religious content, and disturbing content. Generally, fictions are processed within 24 hours if no issues are found. If there are issues found, you will be notified and we will try to help solve the issue if possible. 

Plagiarism

Rule: Content must be submitted by the author or someone with permission from the author. Any content that is available on other sites will be verified upon submission.

Rule: In case of a translation, you must have the original author’s permission, the copyright holder’s permission, and the translator’s permission to publish it here.

We check fictions for plagiarism first. If we notice that it is not an original piece of work, it will be rejected with a message that includes steps on how to resolve the issue if you are the original author. Once a fiction is flagged for plagiarism, we do not accept it on the platform before a proof is provided. If a fiction does pass our plagiarism check but is later proven to be plagiarized, it will be removed and action will be taken against the user.

Proof can be provided in the form of a support ticket.

To prove your ownership, you can edit the description on the other sites/platforms with a message to the Royal Road staff. It can be a link to your profile page where your fiction will appear once it is approved. Or a message like: "I will be posting this story on RoyalRoad.com," or anything else under the same concept. It does not have to be a link. You can delete the note once we complete the verification process. 

Alternatively, if your email address is public on the other site(s), you can link where it is and we will confirm if it is the same as the email address you've used on Royal Road.

Once you add the verification note, reply to a support ticket and post a link/URL to where this verification occurs. The staff will then confirm the content.

Once your fiction is approved, you can delete the proof of ownership.

Note that we do not accept screenshots or image-based proofs. If you are not the author, please don't resubmit the story out of respect to the person who wrote it.

Fanfiction

Rule: Fanfiction can't add donation links, or buy internal advertisements. 
Rule: If your content is based on another author’s setting, characters, or terminology, it must be tagged as fanfiction with the appropriate credit added in the description. Unless the terminology is not specific to a certain fiction and is actually widely used, and/or the characters are mythical or historical creatures (i.e., out of copyright), in which case you can avoid using the fanfiction tag.

If a submitted fiction is judged to be a fanfiction we check if the correct tag is applied. If the fanfiction tag is not applied, it will be rejected. In the case where it is a possible edge case and we are uncertain, you will be contacted by us for more information.

Mature Content

We consider any single instance of mature content mentioned below enough of a requirement for the tag, no matter the occurrence rate throughout the fiction in question. Each tag has a description to help you gauge whether or not your content is severe enough to include it.

Sexual Content: If your fiction contains explicit sexual scenes, it should be tagged as such. In some extreme cases, this tag may be warranted even if your story is heavy with sexual tension and references.
Gore: Any explicit depiction of violence, blood, mutilation and any other imagery that is generally considered disturbing is to be considered gore.
Profanity: As soon as your fiction contains any curse/swear words in excess or particularly suggestive language.
Traumatizing Content: If the fiction in question contains ideas, depictions or themes that are considered questionable by society at large, then the piece should contain the traumatizing content tag.

Do note that descriptions (fiction and chapter titles) cannot have mature content and that even with the sexual content warning, your fiction is not allowed to focus on sexual content. If we suspect that your fiction might go down this path in the future we will contact you to ask for extra information so we can better judge the situation.

Disturbing mature content is also not allowed. This includes written scenes or images that contain descriptions of pedophilia, bestiality, sexual intercourse between minors or anyone under the age of 18, glorified sexual violence, or otherwise illegal acts.

Uploading sexual artwork or images will result in an immediate ban.

If we read your fiction and judge that even with the relevant tags applied the topics are still too extreme or unfitting for the platform it will be rejected.

Quality and language

There is no quality control over fiction. However, if it has derogatory English [writ like dis], or if it is unreadable, it will be rejected or possibly deleted right away.

We accept submissions in all languages. 

Real-World Content

Royal Road is an escapist fiction platform. 

Avoid including real-world religions or politics. If a fiction is discovered to include insults toward real-world religions, the author will be warned or even banned.
If you wish to include religion, either create your own or do it in the most respectful way possible.
Try to avoid overly controversial topics. 

Fiction Approved

If the rules and guidelines are followed you should go through submissions without problems and be published on the site in, at most, 48 hours after submission. You will get a notification about your fiction being approved, and after that, you can start uploading more chapters.

Fiction Rejected

If your fiction is rejected, you will get a message attached with the rejection about the problems found during the review. Once these are fixed, you can resubmit your work and it will get checked again. If no problems are found, it will be approved and you can start uploading more chapters.

Possible Extra Information Required

We sometimes need more information before rejecting or approving a fiction. In this case, a ticket will be opened and we will ask what we need to know. After asking these questions, we will decide on what future action might be needed.
Royal Road reserves the right to reject anything and everything regardless of the rules stated here, as we look at each story as individually. However, you are more likely to have your fiction approved if you followed all of the listed rules