Fish Tank Member Guidelines

If you’re interested in learning how The Fish Tank works, you’ve come to the right place.

First of all, The Fish Tank is a kind of writer’s group for authors of erotic, or sexually explicit, fiction. It is not a place for readers looking for porn. This is a forum for authors to discuss their erotic stories with other authors. The hope is to get constructive feedback on early drafts of stories so that the author can polish their work prior to peddling it to the public through e-zines, newsgroups, print periodicals, personal websites, or other public media.

We have guidelines for your stories and your comments on stories, but treat them as suggestions, not hard-and-fast rules. Our goal is to keep many members involved in the discussions, to keep the discussion polite and professional, and, most of all, to provide good feedback to authors. If there is a situation where the guidelines get in the way of providing good feedback, please don’t follow the rules just for the sake of following rules; give the author what he or she really needs: good story feedback.

Once you have an account, you will have a Member Home Page which will be the base from which you will do your work on The Fish Tank. You will see a list of all the active stories by other authors there. You will be expected to read the other stories, comment on them, and follow the discussions that takes place. Read the Comment Guide for more specific guidelines for commenting on stories.

After you’ve commented on five stories yourself, you will be allowed to post your own story for review. Before you post your first story, be sure to read the Story Submission Guidelines. We do not allow authors to contribute to the discussion of their own story for the first week the story is up for review, but once the week is up, we do request that you respond to the comments made by other members.

Keep in mind that we have members with a broad range of experience. Some have been giving feedback to authors for years and give great suggestions every time; others are just starting out and may struggle putting their thoughts into words. Some members are not native English speakers and haven’t mastered the nuances of the langauage. Try not to take offense when none is intended.

So, if you have a sexually explicit story you’d like help with, and you’re interested in helping other authors of erotic fiction improve their craft, come on in and join us in The Fish Tank. We look forward to hearing from you.

Further Reading

• Fish Tank Story Comment Guidelines
• Fish Tank Story Guidelines
• Terms of Service
• Privacy Policy