God, how hilarious...

[rakufired]

I am literally sitting here consumed with laughter, because of the rejection of a short piece that I recently submitted to Literotica. I am a published short-story author with five novels now selling online, and I had a story rejected by Literotica because of (as near as I can tell) the placement of quotation marks. This even though the whole story was run through Grammarly, and written in accordance with the New York Times writers guide and the Strunk and White Elements of Style.

I love Literotica, and have spent literally hundreds of hours enjoying stories on the site, and have attempted to read many by obviously non-english-speaking writers, with hardly any punctuation at all. This is a hoot, I think I'll call it a day.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Your pedigree sounds fine, but what caught the editor's eye? Something must have, to bounce a story back.

 

[SimonDoom]

Don't give up that easily. Just resubmit. If you've got the skills you'll find this is a good place to find readers for your erotica.

 

[KeithD]

written in accordance with the New York Times writers guide and the Strunk and White Elements of Style.

For starters, neither one of these is an authority for writing commercial fiction. The first is for nonfiction journalism and the second is for high school essays.

Without seeing some of the copy, no one here can tell you how your quotes got into trouble--or if that's the problem at all.

 

[MetaBob]

I am literally sitting here consumed with laughter, because of the rejection of a short piece that I recently submitted to Literotica. I am a published short-story author with five novels now selling online, and I had a story rejected by Literotica because of (as near as I can tell) the placement of quotation marks. This even though the whole story was run through Grammarly, and written in accordance with the New York Times writers guide and the Strunk and White Elements of Style.

I love Literotica, and have spent literally hundreds of hours enjoying stories on the site, and have attempted to read many by obviously non-english-speaking writers, with hardly any punctuation at all. This is a hoot, I think I'll call it a day.

Is the issue whether punctuation should be inside or outside the quotation marks? British and American English differ on which is correct. I prefer the British form, which seems to be that if it wasn't in the original passage, then it shouldn't be between the quotes. I say that as an American. However, this site prefers the punctuation before the closing quote -- the American form. I (mostly) play along, because it doesn't matter that much.

Shouldn't be hard to fix either way, if it's that simple. Maybe with a note on your story when you resubmit.

If it's not that simple and you actually want to be published here, please provide no more than three representative paragraphs (the maximum allowed) along with the actual rejection message you received. Someone here can almost certainly help.

Take Grammarly with a shake of salt over each shoulder, by the way. 90-95% of what it gives me is crap.

 

[KeithD]

Is the issue whether punctuation should be inside or outside the quotation marks?

Presumably not. The authorities the OP cites as following use the American style. There's apparently something else going on that's not consistently American style with the quotes. But the OP isn't giving enough for anyone here to help him/her.

 

[nobodyridesforfree]

Yes, this.

For starters, neither one of these is an authority for writing commercial fiction. The first is for nonfiction journalism and the second is for high school essays.

Without seeing some of the copy, no one here can tell you how your quotes got into trouble--or if that's the problem at all.

Exactly what you need to hear. Show us, don't tell us, please.
As a good foundation. The owl at Purdue is very beneficial, but not complete.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I am literally sitting here consumed with laughter, because of the rejection of a short piece that I recently submitted to Literotica. I am a published short-story author with five novels now selling online, and I had a story rejected by Literotica because of (as near as I can tell) the placement of quotation marks. This even though the whole story was run through Grammarly, and written in accordance with the New York Times writers guide and the Strunk and White Elements of Style.

I love Literotica, and have spent literally hundreds of hours enjoying stories on the site, and have attempted to read many by obviously non-english-speaking writers, with hardly any punctuation at all. This is a hoot, I think I'll call it a day.

I know several excellent professional authors who still have problems with some basic spelling/punctuation issues like "its" vs. "it's". This isn't a problem for them because their publisher provides an editor to fix that kind of thing, but on Literotica authors are responsible for their own copyediting. So it's quite possible for an author to be good enough for traditional publishing while still having significant issues that might cause difficulties here.

 

[Magineer]

I know several excellent professional authors who still have problems with some basic spelling/punctuation issues like "its" vs. "it's". This isn't a problem for them because their publisher provides an editor to fix that kind of thing, but on Literotica authors are responsible for their own copyediting. So it's quite possible for an author to be good enough for traditional publishing while still having significant issues that might cause difficulties here.

My highlights... yes, right, or could it just be that the final authorities "here" are the ones with the "issues"..?

 

[desecration]

This even though the whole story was run through Grammarly, and written in accordance with the New York Times writers guide and the Strunk and White Elements of Style.

I think it unwise to trust Grammarly for much, but you sound interesting otherwise. Any chance of some pointers as to where to read your work?

On other issues, all that I can say is that this website appears to have a staff of two. That's a lot of grinding relentless work that will be 24-7-365, and I can't imagine I'd get it all right.

 

[jsmiam]

It’s very easy to overlook this, I’ve done it myself more than once. The indignant OP made this post two months ago and it was their one and only post. They are off being right about everything somewhere else. And let’s be grateful for that!