Did I break it?

[Altissimus]

Question on publishing.

So as I'm sure you all know, the day before your latest publication goes live, you get a 'new' tag on your pending story and (if you submitted in a document format) you now have text in the box with HTML tags as needed.

On my latest submission I got to this point then re-submitted with some edits. It's still showing the 'new' tag and it is in pending (not drafts) but it's sitting there for days.

Did I break it?

 

[TxRad]

Nope, you went to the end of the line with the edit and had to start the vetting process over.

 

[Pureotica]

No. You didn't break anything.

As I understand it, when you resubmit or edit, for any reason, you move to the back of the line. But there is no standard wait time. All submissions need to be reviewed for content, and the site doesn't have a large staff to review them. It takes as long as it takes, and time can vary depending on volume. A few days is normal, but a week or more isn't unheard of. Right now, there is a contest, and several challenges ongoing. I'd imagine volume is high.

Your story will get through. It just needs to be approved.

 

[AlinaX]

By the way, and I don't know whether this helps but it might: Add a note to the editor apologising for the last minute edit and explain what change(s) you made.

 

[Altissimus]

By the way, and I don't know whether this helps but it might: Add a note to the editor apologising for the last minute edit and explain what change(s) you made.

Yeah I did that - though I did it through a direct message rather than in the publishing.

Nope, you went to the end of the line with the edit and had to start the vetting process over.

I know it goes to the end of the line, but it was initially ready far faster than it has been this time. I'll give it another week I guess.

 

[mirafrida]

Once I had a story get in a broken state (and I've heard others on the forum) where it showed on my pending list, but if I clicked the story itself it didn't have a banner that said pending, as it normally would. It sat like that for a couple weeks, then I PMd Laurel. She said it did not show on her pending queue. To reset it I had to make a real (trivial) edit, like add a space to the end, to get it back into draft, and then i could submit it again.

 

[Voboy]

I know it goes to the end of the line, but it was initially ready far faster than it has been this time. I'll give it another week I guess.

Perhaps the line is longer now...

You have no idea how many other stories happen to be coming in when you submit, nor where you are in line. Say the first time you submitted, it was just past midnight Pacific on a day with few submissions: you were probably near the front of the queue for that day. If your resubmission happened to go in at the tail-end of 150 other stories, well, you'll be waiting a lot longer.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Perhaps the line is longer now...

You have no idea how many other stories happen to be coming in when you submit, nor where you are in line. Say the first time you submitted, it was just past midnight Pacific on a day with few submissions: you were probably near the front of the queue for that day. If your resubmission happened to go in at the tail-end of 150 other stories, well, you'll be waiting a lot longer.

I think the longest I've waited is about two weeks for an edited version to go through. He shortest wait time was about six days. In the later, I submitted the new version the day after the original submission, and I only changed the category.

the tail-end of 150 other stories

I've seen estimates of how much Lit publishes each week. I can't recall the numbers, but Lit is a mass producer of material and it's run by two people.

 

[Altissimus]

Publishing times consistently vary by author. It's not my first rodeo. The only reason I started this thread is because it's still showing it's 'new', which usually means it'll come out the following day, and hasn't. For quite a few days.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I possess an irksome tendency to constantly tweak the story even after it has received approval. Once, following two weeks of relentless re-editing, someone abruptly blocked my editing option.

What, not your usual perfection first time? Don't let your standards slip, Tilan. Soon you'll be like the rest of us, gormless and imperfect .

 

[alohadave]

Publishing times consistently vary by author. It's not my first rodeo. The only reason I started this thread is because it's still showing it's 'new', which usually means it'll come out the following day, and hasn't. For quite a few days.

My last story was reviewed a few hours after I uploaded and had a new status, but the date was for two days later.

The only other time I've seen that is for contest/event entries that go live on a set date.

I think that Laurel manages the timing of stories to go live. Either by leaving a story in pending status until she wants it, or approving it for a certain day.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Publishing times consistently vary by author. It's not my first rodeo. The only reason I started this thread is because it's still showing it's 'new', which usually means it'll come out the following day, and hasn't. For quite a few days.

The old version will stay up during that period. Unless perhaps you make a major revision - like changing the title - know one is going to notice that you made, say, a couple of small changes. When I changed the category of one story (I had truly made a mistake), I figured that I would announce it on Story Feedback to see if anyone would care. Well, no, they didn't. I could hear the crickets chirping.

 

[AchtungNight]

I possess an irksome tendency to constantly tweak the story even after it has received approval. Once, following two weeks of relentless re-editing, someone abruptly blocked my editing option.

You’re a crazy perfectionist writer too? Heh. I’m not alone. If it helps, some sites like AO3 will always let you easily edit and re-edit your work. I’ve posted many stories there, tweaked them a bit to fix grammar and other issues, and I don’t feel as comfortable doing a similar thing here, sorry to say. I will still post here when the admins accept my work, but this other site now holds my stories’ “canon versions”, which may be more tweaked than anyone could possibly imagine or accept.

Whatever it takes to make you comfortable with your legacy. My writings are part of mine.

 

[KeithD]

This is my last placement for most stories, including for sale in the marketplace. Once it clears for posting here, that's it. I don't look at it again. It is as it's going to be. And there's no such thing as perfect copy.

 

[dmallord]

Question on publishing.

So as I'm sure you all know, the day before your latest publication goes live, you get a 'new' tag on your pending story and (if you submitted in a document format) you now have text in the box with HTML tags as needed.

On my latest submission I got to this point then re-submitted with some edits. It's still showing the 'new' tag and it is in pending (not drafts) but it's sitting there for days.

Did I break it?

Altissimus - I didn't know this process of getting a new tag on a pending story. It seems there is a way to get an alert about that, but I have never seen one or know how to 'read' that message. I have a story in the pending column for several months now. I'm guessing that it is there because it will be posted with the Mike Hammer stories due out on July 31st.

I only see the pending tag when I view my stories page, zero drafts, one pending, zero rejected. I find out when my stories are posted when the message from Lit says 'Your story has been posted.' or words to that effect.

So, how does one see when a story will post on a certain date? Anybody?

 

[Altissimus]

Altissimus - I didn't know this process of getting a new tag on a pending story.

For the avoidance of doubt this thread is a few weeks old and the story in question eventually got published. So we can skip all that stuff.

So, how does one see when a story will post on a certain date? Anybody?

What happens is that you hit 'publish', it sits in pending for a while (some days to some weeks, depending on a number of factors), then the day before it goes live it'll change to 'new', and will go live the following day.

If you want a story posted on a certain date you can request it when you submit for publication. Assuming you've selected a date far enough out (not for later that afternoon, for example...) then Lit will honour it if they can.

 

[dmallord]

For the avoidance of doubt this thread is a few weeks old and the story in question eventually got published. So we can skip all that stuff.

What happens is that you hit 'publish', it sits in pending for a while (some days to some weeks, depending on a number of factors), then the day before it goes live it'll change to 'new', and will go live the following day.

If you want a story posted on a certain date you can request it when you submit for publication. Assuming you've selected a date far enough out (not for later that afternoon, for example...) then Lit will honour it if they can.

My guess then is that I haven't logged in the day before the posts have gone up. Consequently, I've missed that 'new' status note from Lit.

Thanks for the info and prompt response. Will go looking for that story

 

[Voboy]

What happens is that you hit 'publish', it sits in pending for a while (some days to some weeks, depending on a number of factors), then the day before it goes live it'll change to 'new', and will go live the following day.

VERY frequently, it'll change to "new" quite a bit more than one day out. I've had many instances where I've submitted about a week early for contests, it's gone from "pending" to "new" in less than a day, and then it's been sitting in my PENDING folder with a nice orange NEW tag and a date, which as a rule is the date the contest starts. So it's been "new" for about five or six days, complete with a posting date.

@dmallord I do not know of a way to get a notification when that happens. For myself, when I've got something submitted, I make a point of checking on it at least once a day in case it gets rejected. That's only happened once, but I wasn't told; I caught it right away and was still able to get it approved and posted on the first day of that contest.

Those daily checks tell me when it's gone over to "new." Unlike some, I've never gone back and tweaked anything after submission. If I'm mashing SUBMIT, it's because I've decided the story's done.

 

[dmallord]

VERY frequently, it'll change to "new" quite a bit more than one day out. I've had many instances where I've submitted about a week early for contests, it's gone from "pending" to "new" in less than a day, and then it's been sitting in my PENDING folder with a nice orange NEW tag and a date, which as a rule is the date the contest starts. So it's been "new" for about five or six days, complete with a posting date.

@dmallord I do not know of a way to get a notification when that happens. For myself, when I've got something submitted, I make a point of checking on it at least once a day in case it gets rejected. That's only happened once, but I wasn't told; I caught it right away and was still able to get it approved and posted on the first day of that contest.

Those daily checks tell me when it's gone over to "new." Unlike some, I've never gone back and tweaked anything after submission. If I'm mashing SUBMIT, it's because I've decided the story's done.

And today, I've learned something new. I had never gone back and clicked on the pending label until now and saw it had a new label. [If you don't click on it, you will not see any announcement except the one after it is posted.] I had shied away from clicking on the pending tag because I read that your story goes to the back of the line again. That was an incorrect thought. It only happens if you open the story, edit and then submit it again.

Still, it was not a great loss on my part not knowing about the post tidbit. Lit did its thing, and I got a few more votes for each story. Thanks for that.

And thanks for touching base on the knowledge nugget.

My submission for the Hammer event stories should be posted sometime today, according to the Lit content announcement. Looking forward to that; the Hammer stories are always good reads.