Romance guidelines

Gloam is a romance press. These submission and content rules apply to every story on the shelf, at every heat level.

A relationship at the center

Every story is a romance: two (or more) people, something keeping them apart, and a relationship arc that changes them. Every story ends happily ever after (HEA) or happy for now (HFN). When a story includes sex scenes, they must change something between the characters; they are never the only reason the story exists.

Honest heat labels

Every story is labeled with a heat level, and the label must be accurate:

• Sweet: closed door. Intimacy happens off the page.
• Warm: intimacy on the page, not graphic.
• Hot: explicit sex scenes on the page.

When in doubt, label higher, never lower. Content notes (tags) stay honest about what a story contains.

Adults only

Every character involved in sexual content is explicitly 18 or older. We do not publish minors, aging-up, school settings that imply underage characters, or any sexualization of people under 18. If a story mentions youth at all, it is only to establish that the characters are grown.

Consent

Encounters are consensual. Power-exchange stories are negotiated and adult. We do not publish non-consensual sexual violence presented as titillation.

What we will not carry

• Any sexual content involving minors or characters under 18
• Real-person pornography or non-consensual deepfakes
• Stories about real, identifiable people
• How-to crime, exploitation, or trafficking material

Editors may refuse or pull a piece that skirts these rules, or that is not a romance. Readers who spot a problem, including a heat label that seems wrong, can write via the contact page.