Frequently Asked Questions

Below are a few frequently asked questions, and some helpful advice regarding using this website and posting submissions. If you have a question not answered here, please contact us and we'll be happy to help.

How do I post my work?

To start with, sign up for an account here. You'll need to verify your email address before you can post content, so head over to your email and click the link in the email we sent you when you signed up. Now that that's out of the way, head over to your profile by clicking your name at the top right of the screen, then click "Profile". There'll be a big blue button labelled "Create New Submission". Click that, then follow the prompts through our wizard.

I posted something years back and can no longer access my account

We've been through a transition of a few backends to our website. During the process the database structure has changed considerably, making older versions of the website slightly incompatible with newer ones. Your account still exists, but "legacy" accounts that were imported from older versions of the website were deactivated, as we no longer have a tool to recover your old account as we did on the last version of this website. Contact support with your details and links to submissions that are yours and we'll get you access to your account.

How do I delete my submission?

There's 2 possible scenarios here.

The first is that you've posted submissions but no longer have access to your account. We can do one of 2 things for you here. If you wish to retain your account to post new submissions in the future, we can organize access to your account as outlined above. Or, if you no longer wish to use your account here, contact support and we'll delete your account, and all submissions associated with it, at the same time.

The second is if you have access to your account, you can login to your member's area. Navigate to your profile page, and click the trash can icon next to the submission(s) you wish to delete. This will remove them immediately from the website.

Note: this site is heavily indexed by Google and other search engines. Your submissions may still appear in search results for a period of time after they have been deleted. There's nothing we can actively do to remove these results, but they will drop off Google's search results in due course. The length of time is undetemined for this unfortunately.

I'm concerned about copyright for my work. Where do I stand?

We understand that intellectual property is important, especially in the writing world. That's why we do not claim ownership or copyright to any of your submissions. Everything submitted on this website remains in the ownership and copyright of the author that posted it. We do not put lengthy delays or restrictions on what you can post or delete. Everything is at your control within your member's area.

Someone posted one of my pieces on the website, the author it's linked to is not me!

We take copyright claims very seriously. If someone has stolen your work and posted it on this website as theirs, please contact support and we'll get the issue resolved as soon as we can. We'll obviously need to verify that the claim is genuine, that you are not the person that submitted the infringing piece onto the website, and that ownership of the piece in question can be linked back to you elsewhere, then we will act accordingly and remove the infringing piece from the website. We may also suspend the posting user's account at our discretion.

Where do I leave a comment?

At the bottom of each submission is a comment widget powered by Disqus. You can leave a comment anonymously, sign in with your Disqus account, or (and this is the preferred method) sign in to Short-Story.Net. If you are already signed into your Short-Story.Net account, you will be automatically logged into Disqus so all comments that you make will get displayed under your profile. If you aren't signed in, but are signed into your own Disqus account (or commenting anonymously), then your comment will only show in 2 places - the story itself, in the same widget you're posting in, and in the author's "Received comments" section within their profile. If you're signed into Short-Story.Net, then your comment will also be shown in your "Reviews" tab in your profile.

What is a favourite?

The Favourites part of the website serves as each individual member's own library of content. When you favourite an author or genre, existing submissions will be collated into your own personal library of content in your "Favourites" page. New submissions from your favourite authors or genres will appear in this tab, in the order that they were posted. Subject to your notification preferences, we will also send you emails when new submissions that match your favourites are posted, ensuring you're kept you to date on your favourite content!

A "Like" for a submission serves a different purpose. This shows the author that you liked their content. If you really liked a piece of work, hit that Like button to show your support! Our authors will really appreciate it!

How do I edit my bio?

Go to your "Account Settings". At the bottom of the page is an editor for you to be able to enter rich text for your Bio/About page. Click "Save" when you're finished.

Why can't I change my username?

Technically, you can. However we disallow our members from doing this themselves for SEO reasons. We still want you to be found, so if you wish to change your username (the part that appears in the URL for your profile), contact us to let us know what you wish to change it to, and we'll be happy to help. We'll also install a redirect from your old username to your new one so you can still be found via old links on Google, until they refresh their indexes and grab the new one.

I love this website! How can I help?

This website is a product of one guy's free time tinkering with web technologies and bringing you the best website possible for authors to showcase their work to the world. If you have any ideas on how I can make this site better, let me know! Much like our authors, I also love comments and feedback. And if you've got a great idea that I ultimately build, I'll find somewhere to credit you personally!

We're also looking for volunteers to help with promoting the website on social media, email newsletters to our subscribers (eventually) and maybe a few other odds and ends. If you're interested, get in touch!