This guide will walk you through everything you need to know: the history, the submission process, formatting standards, community etiquette, and how to make your work stand out. Before we discuss submission mechanics, it’s critical to understand why ASSTR matters. Launched in the mid-1990s by a group of Usenet volunteers, ASSTR was created to archive stories from the alt.sex.stories newsgroup. At a time when PayPal banned adult content and Amazon refused to list erotica, ASSTR offered a safe harbor.
Category: Romance, Science Fiction, BDSM (choose from ASSTR's category list) Keywords: first time, alien, submission, etc. Rating: X (or R, etc.) Then skip a line and begin your story. Indicate the end of the story with a line containing only #END . Use lowercase, no spaces. Convention: penname_storytitle_YYYYMMDD.txt asstr.org new authors
So write your story. Save it as plain text. Check your line breaks. Upload it. And then—wait for that email confirmation. Welcome to the archives. Last updated: October 2025. ASSTR.org remains a 501(c)(3) non-profit literary archive. Support your local text repository. This guide will walk you through everything you