A heads up about a Lit Story rejection reason I didn't know was possible.

[MediocreAuthor]

The third chapter of The Price of Embezzlement got rejected because it still had unresolved editors notes from the Google Docs review.

Having other people leave comments and suggestions on Google Docs is a FANTASTIC way to edit stories, but if you decide to upload the docx file directly to Lit, make sure you resolve all comments first.

In a way @Duleigh did me a great service, because I forgot to add an author's note, and this rejection was the chance I needed to do that.

BUT the funniest part is that the comments that I left in, which got the story rejected, were just 3 spots where Duleigh added a "" emoji to highlight humorous parts of the story, and one spot where he said "Hey, that part is really realistic".

Regardless, sir, I appreciate your hard work (and the work of all my beta-readers. But now I know to remove everything before publication.

 

[Bamagan]

 

[Duleigh]

I was rejected for an emoji

I am going to put that on My Big List of Accomplishments

 

[MediocreAuthor]

A clarification for those who don't use Google Docs:

Comments are not inside the text of the story, but they highlight sections and go off to the side, outside the margin. But apparently they will get your story rejected.

 

[SimonDoom]

It actually could be a funny idea for a "meta" story to draft it with "notes" from various editors included, commenting on the story's alleged deficiencies and the obvious depravity, incompetence, and immorality of the author.

 

[onehitwanda]

It actually could be a funny idea for a "meta" story to draft it with "notes" from various editors included, commenting on the story's alleged deficiencies and the obvious depravity, incompetence, and immorality of the author.

this is warped, and hilarious. You are now required to write it.

Edit: This has strong The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O noises about it.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

It actually could be a funny idea for a "meta" story to draft it with "notes" from various editors included, commenting on the story's alleged deficiencies and the obvious depravity, incompetence, and immorality of the author.

Actually, the book Princess Bride book is kinda like that too, right? The author includes notes on how he shortened a much longer, less interesting (made-up) book into the story that the Princess Bride became, I think (I've never read the book, I'm just going off what I've heard)

 

[alohadave]

Actually, the book Princess Bride book is kinda like that too, right? The author includes notes on how he shortened a much longer, less interesting (made-up) book into the story that the Princess Bride became, I think (I've never read the book, I'm just going off what I've heard)

You should read it. Look for the 25th anniversary edition with the first chapter from Buttercup's Baby.

I'm just a little embarrassed to say how long I looked for the S Morgenstern version.

Goldman wrote both the book and the screenplay, so there is a ton of dialog that is exactly the same in both.

 

[AchtungNight]

Cary Elwes’ memoir on making Princess Bride is awesome too.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Here's the reason that the story was rejected. I thought I had lost this message when I resubmitted, but here it is.

 

[SimonDoom]

Actually, the book Princess Bride book is kinda like that too, right? The author includes notes on how he shortened a much longer, less interesting (made-up) book into the story that the Princess Bride became, I think (I've never read the book, I'm just going off what I've heard)

I've never read it, so I didn't know that. I should read it, because I loved the movie.

The story I had in mind was Nabokov's Pale Fire, which purports to be a line by line analysis of a poem but reveals itself as a narrative by someone who's totally unreliable and probably crazy. It's one of my favorite novels because it's so nutty and so inventive. One could do something like that here.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

When the back and forth is done between my editor and me (and we still miss shit), he copies the file into a plain text note file and saves it. This strips out all the formatting, which destroys tracked changes, our comments, and other worrisome issues. Then he opens it in Word, puts the formatting back into a new file, and saves that in .doc, docx, and .rtf. That gets rid of "This part stinks, please rewrite" and "This fucking great" shit,

 

[Bramblethorn]

It actually could be a funny idea for a "meta" story to draft it with "notes" from various editors included, commenting on the story's alleged deficiencies and the obvious depravity, incompetence, and immorality of the author.

Not in a funny or sexy direction, but here's one that uses comment-tracking as a part of the story. ("Stet" is publishing jargon for "let it stand", i.e. "I reject this change suggestion.") https://firesidefiction.com/stet

Ursula Vernon (T. Kingfisher) had a great Twitter thread where she discussed her editor's comments on one of her romance novels. Most of them were variations on "when are these two characters going to hurry up and fuck already?" Sadly I can't find it just now because Ex-Twitter's searchability has gone to hell.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Not in a funny or sexy direction, but here's one that uses comment-tracking as a part of the story. ("Stet" is publishing jargon for "let it stand", i.e. "I reject this change suggestion.") https://firesidefiction.com/stet

Ursula Vernon (T. Kingfisher) had a great Twitter thread where she discussed her editor's comments on one of her romance novels. Most of them were variations on "when are these two characters going to hurry up and fuck already?" Sadly I can't find it just now because Ex-Twitter's searchability has gone to hell.

X marks the social site formally known as Twitter. XXX marks the members of that site that post nasty stuff.

 

[Duleigh]

When the back and forth is done between my editor and me (and we still miss shit), he copies the file into a plain text note file and saves it. This strips out all the formatting, which destroys tracked changes, our comments, and other worrisome issues. Then he opens it in Word, puts the formatting back into a new file, and saves that in .doc, docx, and .rtf. That gets rid of "This part stinks, please rewrite" and "This fucking great" shit,

There's a quicker way of doing that.... I believe copying the entire document then paste it into a blank document as Text Only will take care of any formatting.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

There's a quicker way of doing that.... I believe copying the entire document then paste it into a blank document as Text Only will take care of any formatting.

It strips everything but the story text away. I've never seen a comment in one of my stories between us. All the hidden stuff vanishes like the morning mist in the summer sun. Or so I think. But maybe he goes through and dismisses all of the comments.

 

[Duleigh]

It strips everything but the story text away. I've never seen a comment in one of my stories between us. All the hidden stuff vanishes like the morning mist in the summer sun. Or so I think. But maybe he goes through and dismisses all of the comments.

What he's doing bleaches the document, he's putting it in an ancient program that just handles letters and numbers, kind of like sifting out the impurities. What I said will do the same thing, but what he does guarentees it with an outside application.

I just do it the easy way and don't use comments. If I need to highlight text I put in XXXX then as part of editing search for XXXX

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Not in a funny or sexy direction, but here's one that uses comment-tracking as a part of the story. ("Stet" is publishing jargon for "let it stand", i.e. "I reject this change suggestion.") https://firesidefiction.com/stet

+1 to this being a great example of the technique

Also +1 to not funny or sexy.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

That is a new one on me. Emoticons in a story will get it rejected, though.

 

[Duleigh]

That is a new one on me. Emoticons in a story will get it rejected, though.

My submission for Lit25, Lit Happens, has two emojies. Check it out, they're in there.

 

[YDB95]

Here's the reason that the story was rejected. I thought I had lost this message when I resubmitted, but here it is.
View attachment 2289680

That's a good thing! One of my stories has an editor's note I forgot to delete (it wasn't in a comment, it was directly in the text). I wish I'd used comments that time!

 

[MillieDynamite]

Oh, I always go through after my editor has done the final edit with comments turned on. They are never there when he is happy with it. So I check to make sure he didn't change something I wanted a specific way.

And still, there is always an error one or the other of us finds after it goes live.