Community Guidelines

Ask is where indie authors help each other publish better. It works because people are generous with real answers and honest about what they've tried. To keep it that way, everyone who posts a question or an answer agrees to these guidelines.

The whole thing in one line: be helpful, be honest, don't spam. Everything below spells that out.

Anyone can ask a question: you don't need an account, and questions asked signed-out show as Anonymous. Answering requires a free account, so every answer has a real name behind it.

Reader accounts publish reviews and notes on their own page. A review is your honest opinion of a book you have read, in your own words: no paid or swapped reviews, no reviewing your own book from a reader account, and criticise the book, not the person who wrote it. Notes are your thoughts about reading; they are still public, still yours, and still covered by everything below.

Messages between a reader and an author are private, and everything here still applies inside them. Be the reader an author is glad to hear from. An author who closes their inbox or blocks you has answered; don't look for another way in.

Whether you're signed in or anonymous, you're responsible for what you post, and these guidelines apply to you the same way.

Treat others the way you'd want to be treated when you're the one stuck and asking. Disagreement is fine. Being cruel about it is not. The following will get a post removed, and repeated behaviour will get an account suspended:

• Harassment or personal attacks: going after a person rather than engaging with what they said.
• Hate speech or slurs: anything demeaning someone for who they are (race, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, nationality, and so on) is not welcome here, full stop.
• Offensive or obscene language aimed at another member, and gratuitous profanity. A stray word in the heat of a real answer is one thing; abuse is another.
• Threats or encouraging self-harm or violence.
• Sexually explicit content or anything you couldn't post in a professional space.

This is a community of authors, and promoting your own work is allowed and encouraged, when it's part of a genuine answer. Sharing your book, your newsletter, a tool you built, or a blog post you wrote is welcome if it actually helps the person asking.

The line is spam. A post crosses it when it's:

• The same link or message posted repeatedly across many questions, especially where it isn't relevant.
• An answer that exists only to drop a link and doesn't actually answer the question.
• Affiliate links, referral codes, or paid placements dressed up as advice, without saying so.
• Off-topic advertising: anything that isn't about writing, publishing, or your work as an author.
• Posting by bots or AI agents, automated or bulk posting, or using multiple accounts to promote the same thing. A person has to post everything here.

A good test: would this still be useful if you had nothing to sell? If yes, share away. If the only point is the link, it's spam.

When a reader presses Get the book or follows a link on an author or publisher page, it should take them straight to the store or site, with nobody earning a cut on the way. So affiliate links, referral codes and commission-earning link shorteners (such as amzn.to or geni.us) are not allowed on book listings, author profiles, publisher pages, co-author and author links, or the link buttons and profile links on a reader's page. This applies to authors, readers and Business accounts alike.

If you paste a store link that carries a referral code, we quietly remove the code and keep the plain link. A link that only works through an affiliate redirect is turned away with a note asking for the store link instead. Universal book links that simply point readers to stores (such as books2read) are fine, as long as they don't add your affiliate codes.

A few things that keep Ask worth reading for the next person who searches for it:

• Ask a real question and add the detail that helps someone answer it: what you've tried, where you're stuck.
• Tag it correctly (one or two topics) so it reaches the right people.
• Answer the question that was asked. If you're not sure, it's fine to say so.
• Don't post misinformation: if you're passing on something you heard rather than know, say that.
• No duplicate or nonsense posts, and nothing generated purely to fill space.

Don't post anything that isn't yours to post, or that breaks the law:

• No copyright infringement: don't paste someone else's writing, cover art, or paid content as if it were free to share.
• No private information about other people (yours or theirs), such as addresses, phone numbers, or emails.
• No impersonation: don't post as another author or claim a book that isn't yours.
• No scams, phishing, or malicious links.

We moderate Ask. A post that breaks these guidelines can be hidden or removed, and an account that does it repeatedly, or does something serious once, can be suspended or removed. We don't take that lightly, and we aim to be fair, but keeping the space useful for everyone comes first. Spam, scam, and fake accounts are the exception: they are banned and deleted without notice.

See something that breaks the rules? Tell us at hello@indiefiction.com with a link to the post, and we'll look into it.

As the community grows we may update these guidelines. The date at the top always reflects the current version, and by continuing to post on Ask you agree to the version in force. These guidelines sit alongside our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.