The Spirit of DawnScribe
DawnScribe was created to give web novel authors and artists a dedicated, respectful home for their work. We believe in creative freedom — dark themes, complex characters, and morally difficult stories are a legitimate and valuable part of fiction. What we do not tolerate is real harm directed at real people.
When in doubt, ask yourself: am I creating, or am I hurting? That is the line.
Creators
Post Only Your Own Work
Everything you publish must be your own original creation. Plagiarizing another author's writing or reposting another artist's work without explicit permission is a serious violation and will result in removal and a ban.
Tag Your Work Accurately
Use the correct content ratings and genre tags. Mature themes, graphic violence, and sensitive topics must be properly labelled. Mislabeling your work to reach a wider audience is a violation.
No Preview-Only Chapters
Do not post partial chapters and direct users elsewhere to read the full content. You may mention that earlier access is available elsewhere, but the complete chapter must also be posted on DawnScribe. Intentionally omitting chapters to force readers off-platform is not permitted.
Respect Your Collaborators
If you are working with another creator, honour your agreements. Do not remove or claim sole credit for work that was produced collaboratively. Disputes between collaborators should be handled privately and respectfully.
No Spam or Unsolicited Promotion
Do not use DawnScribe to spam other users with promotions, external links, or mass messages. This includes using DMs to solicit followers or advertise services unrelated to your creative work.
AI & Authenticity
DawnScribe is a platform for human creativity. We welcome the creative process in all its forms — but the work must genuinely be yours.
AI-Generated Stories Are Not Permitted
Stories written predominantly or entirely by an AI tool — with minimal human authorship — will be removed. You may use AI to assist with editing, grammar, or brainstorming, but the story, characters, plot, and voice must be substantially your own creative work.
AI-Generated Art Must Be Disclosed
Artwork generated primarily by AI tools may not be posted as original hand-crafted art. If AI was used as a significant part of your artistic process, you must disclose this in your post. Presenting AI output as entirely hand-made is deceptive to the community.
No Style Imitation via AI
Using AI tools to reproduce or closely imitate another creator's established style and presenting the result as your own original work is a violation of both these guidelines and our Terms of Service.
The test is simple: if a human's creativity is not the primary author of the work, it does not belong on DawnScribe.
Fanfiction
DawnScribe permits fanfiction — stories based on existing published works or characters — with the following rules:
Label It as Fanfiction
Fanfiction must be clearly labelled as such at the time of posting. Do not present fanfiction as wholly original work.
Fanfiction Cannot Be Monetized
You may not attach donation links, Patreon links, Ko-fi links, or any other monetization mechanism to fanfiction works. Fanfiction is not eligible for the DawnScribe Marketplace or any creator revenue-sharing program.
Tag Your Language Accurately
DawnScribe supports stories in several languages, and you choose your work's language when you publish it. Set it correctly — readers filter by language, and a mistagged work reaches the wrong audience. Be aware that our moderation coverage is strongest in English; content in other languages is still fully subject to these Guidelines, and where we cannot readily assess a report we may remove content pending review rather than leave it up.
Subject to Takedown
If a rights holder submits a valid DMCA takedown for fanfiction based on their intellectual property, DawnScribe will comply. You post fanfiction at your own legal risk.
Readers & Commenters
Critique the Work, Not the Person
You are welcome to leave honest, even critical, reviews. What is not acceptable is using reviews as a vehicle for personal attacks on the creator. Disagree with the story — never degrade the human who wrote it.
Use Spoiler Warnings
When discussing story events in comments or reviews, use spoiler warnings where appropriate so as not to ruin the experience for other readers.
Mature Content and Your Age
Some works on DawnScribe carry mature ratings. Your content filters are set from your preferences and each work's rating — they are filtering tools, not a verified age barrier. Creators are required to rate their work accurately under Section 2; if you find something rated wrongly, report it rather than relying on it.
Constructive Feedback is Welcome
Detailed, thoughtful feedback — even when critical — is valuable to creators. Comments that explain why something didn't work for you are welcomed. Comments that exist purely to demean or discourage are not.
Reviews & Ratings
The review system is one of the most valuable parts of any creative platform. Abusing it harms both creators and the community's trust.
Leave Honest Reviews
Reviews must reflect your genuine experience of the work. Do not leave fake positive reviews to boost a friend's ratings, or submit reviews for a work you have not read.
No Coordinated Review Bombing
Organizing or participating in a coordinated effort to flood a work with negative reviews in order to harm a creator — regardless of your grievance with them — is a violation. Reviews must reflect individual, genuine opinions.
No Retaliatory Reviews
Leaving a negative review in retaliation for a review someone left on your own work is not permitted. Reviews should be about the work, not the interpersonal dynamic between users.
DawnScribe monitors review patterns for signs of abuse. Reviews found to be fake, coordinated, or retaliatory will be removed and may result in account action.
Interactions & Direct Messages
The same standards of respect that apply to public content apply to private messages.
- Do not use DMs to harass, intimidate, threaten, or pressure other users.
- Do not send unsolicited explicit content, promotions, or bulk messages.
- Do not impersonate another user, creator, or member of the DawnScribe team.
- If another user has indicated they do not wish to communicate with you, respect that.
If you receive a message that makes you feel unsafe or harassed, you can report it directly without needing to respond first.
Artists & Artwork
DawnScribe is a home for original visual art. Artists on the platform are expected to uphold the following standards beyond the general creator rules:
Post Only Your Own Art
All artwork you publish must be your own original creation, or work you have explicit written permission from the creator to post. This includes digital art, illustrations, traditional art scans, character designs, cover art, and all other visual media. Reposting another artist's work — even with credit — is not permitted without their explicit consent.
Commission Art
If you commissioned an artist to create work for you, you may post it only if your commission agreement explicitly grants you the right to publish it on public platforms. When in doubt, ask the artist. Commissioners do not automatically own full publishing rights to work they paid for.
Paid commissions are never explicit. Like Characters and Banners, commissions bought with Quills may be suggestive but may not include nudity, sexual acts, or explicit content.
Disclose AI-Generated Art
If artificial intelligence tools generated the primary visual elements of your work — including characters, backgrounds, or major compositional elements — you must tag it as "Created Using AI Tools" at the time of posting. This is a platform requirement, not optional. AI-assisted tools used for minor cleanup, upscaling, or noise reduction do not require disclosure.
Your Work and AI Training
DawnScribe does not train AI models on your work, and does not sell or license your work to anyone else to do so. The licence you grant us when you post, set out in Section 5 of the Terms of Service, covers hosting, displaying and promoting your work on the platform and nothing more.
Every work also carries an AI-training opt-out flag, which is switched on by default and signals to outside parties that your work may not be used to train AI. Note also that anything published publicly can be scraped by third parties we have no control over. DawnScribe cannot guarantee outside compliance, and you remain responsible for policing unauthorized use of your work.
No Style Theft via AI
Using AI tools to closely reproduce another specific, identifiable creator's visual style and presenting the result as your own original art is not permitted — regardless of whether you disclose AI use. This is distinct from general artistic inspiration and applies when the intent is clearly to copy a specific artist's recognizable style.
Visual Content Standards — No Nudity
DawnScribe welcomes alluring, suggestive, and romantic artwork — swimsuits, lingerie, cleavage, form-fitting clothing, and suggestive poses are all permitted. However, nudity is not permitted in any artwork posted to DawnScribe. This includes exposed nipples, genitals, or any imagery that would typically require a censor bar or mosaic. This standard applies regardless of the Erotica tag on the associated story — a story's text rating and its artwork rating are evaluated separately, and artwork is always held to the no-nudity standard.
If a piece of art crosses this line, here's what happens: the artwork is removed and you'll receive a warning explaining why. This is not normally an immediate ban — it's treated as a content issue, not a conduct issue, on a first occurrence. If you believe the removal was a mistake, you may request a review through the reporting/appeals process in Section 11, and a member of the team will take a second look. Repeated violations after a warning may escalate under the standard consequences in Section 12.
Prohibited Media
The following types of media are not permitted on DawnScribe regardless of context: imagery of real people posted without their consent (with limited exception for publicly known public figures in clearly non-sexual, non-defamatory contexts); any media depicting or simulating child sexual abuse material; media that captures or documents illegal acts; and graphic imagery depicting real-world violence, gore, or self-harm.
Characters, Banners & Marketplace
Artists can make two things for DawnScribe: characters (an illustrated figure from a novel, which readers collect and talk to) and profile banners. These rules apply to everyone who makes, sells, or collects them.
Revenue terms below are defined in full in Section 13a of the Terms of Service.
Give One Before You Sell Any
Your first character goes into the free randomizer, where any reader can win it with Embers. That donation unlocks selling characters and taking character commissions. Banners work the same way, separately — a donated banner unlocks banners only, and a donated character unlocks characters only. Donated pieces stay free permanently.
Every Character Comes From a Novel
A character must belong to a published novel on DawnScribe — yours, or someone else's. If it's someone else's, that author approves it before anyone sees it, and they can decline for any reason. Banners may also be made for a novel on the same terms. When the novel isn't yours, the artist keeps 55%, the author gets 20%, and DawnScribe keeps 25%. For your own work, you keep 75%.
DawnScribe Is 18+
Every account on DawnScribe belongs to an adult: you must be at least 18 to join. Before you create characters or banners, list anything for sale, or receive any share of revenue, you'll be asked to confirm your age and accept the Creator Age & Liability Agreement before your first submission.
Your Own Work, and You Must Be Able to Prove It
Every submission must be drawn by you. No tracing, no AI-generated art, no editing someone else's picture, and no passing off art made by someone else as your own. You must upload your full-size original working file with every submission. Only you and DawnScribe staff can ever see it, and it is how we settle ownership disputes.
If a piece is reported, we hide it while we check, and ask you for that file and a work-in-progress. If we confirm the art isn't yours: it is removed from everyone who has it, buyers are refunded in Quills, your earnings from it are reversed, and your account is permanently banned. This is the one case where something already purchased is taken back.
Suggestive Is Allowed. Explicit Is Not.
Characters and banners may be suggestive — revealing outfits, flirty poses, fan service. They may not contain nudity (exposed genitals or nipples), sexual acts, or anything explicit, no matter how the novel they come from is rated. An 18+ novel does not make its art 18+.
Absolute rule: no suggestive depiction of any character who is, or appears to be, under 18 — whatever age the story gives them. Art of this kind is removed, the account is banned immediately, and it is reported to the authorities where the law requires.
What Your Character Says
Characters speak lines you write. Every line is reviewed before any reader hears it, and editing an approved line sends it back for review. Lines follow the same standards as everything else here: nothing sexual or crude, swearing only in censored form (like F#&k), no harassment, no impersonating real people, and nothing that goes beyond what the novel's author approved. Flirting and teasing are fine on a character's romance lines only — never on friendship lines, and never for a character who is, or looks, under 18.
Character Bonds: Friend or Romance
Your bond with a character grows only while it is your main character and you keep reading. When you unlock a romanceable character you choose friendship or romance once, and the choice is permanent. Characters who are, or look, under 18 are friendship-only for everyone — if you make a character that looks young, mark it as young-looking, and it will never offer romance. Characters are fiction: their lines are written by creators and checked by us, and are never a real person talking to you.
Embers and Quills Have No Cash Value
DawnScribe has two currencies. Embers are free — you earn them by reading, and spend them on crowd-unlocks and the randomizer. Quills are bought with money, and pay for characters, banners, commissions and gifts. Neither can be exchanged for cash, moved between accounts, or refunded once spent — except where we refund Quills ourselves, such as when art is removed over an ownership problem.
What You Get Stays Yours
A character you buy, win, earn or are gifted stays in your collection permanently, with every pose and line you have unlocked. If a character is retired, that only means it leaves sale and the randomizer — everyone who already has it keeps it. The sole exception is art removed over an ownership problem, where you are refunded instead.
Gifts
You can buy a character or banner as a gift. Your Quills are held, not spent, until the other person accepts. If they decline, leave it for 14 days, or you cancel, the Quills come back to you. A gift counts as a sale and pays the artist and author exactly as a purchase does.
Forfeiture on Ban
If your account is permanently terminated for a violation of the Terms of Service or these Guidelines, all Embers, Quills, virtual items, characters and unpaid earnings are forfeited.
Accurate Representation
What you show must be what people get. Don't use misleading preview images, promise poses or lines you haven't made, or present a character as belonging to a novel it has nothing to do with.