For authors
If you wrote something that is kept here: it is yours. This page explains how your work is credited, and how to have it taken down if you'd rather it wasn't here.
Updated
How your work is credited
- Your work appears under your AO3 name, with its title, summary, tags and stats as they were on AO3.
- Work pages link back to the original on AO3, so readers can find you, leave kudos and comment.
- ao3.life tells readers plainly that every work belongs to its author, and encourages them to go back to AO3 to support you.
- Nothing is credited to anyone else. Your name in our structured data is your AO3 name, nothing more.
What readers can do with it
- Browse its page without an account.
- Read it in the browser or download the EPUB that was saved, also without an account (with per-visitor limits against bulk copying).
- Listen to it as an audiobook with computer-generated narration.
- Works rated Mature, Explicit or Not Rated, or warned Underage, stay hidden behind an age check and out of search engines.
Removing your work
Email legal@ao3.life with:
- The work: its ao3.life link, its AO3 link, or its AO3 id (the number in
archiveofourown.org/works/12345). - Proof it is yours: write from the email on your AO3 account, or add a note to your AO3 profile or the work that we can check.
- If you act for a rights holder, who you represent.
Once removed, the work disappears from search, tag pages, its own page, downloads, the reader and audio, and its address answers “Removed” so search engines drop it. Removal is not a negotiation; if it is yours and you want it gone, it goes. The short version.
While AO3 is down
AO3 has been offline since 29 October 2026 after a security incident (what happened). If you can't reach your AO3 account to prove authorship, write to us anyway with what you can, and we will tell you what else would help.