New Pinned Thread "Story Pending For More Than 72 Hours."

[Actingup]

Yeah, but that has been happening for ages, so why now specifically? And a week ago, there was that post from Lit also about story submissions.

Either they are unusually swamped with submissions and PMs about them, more so than even on those days when 400+ stories were published, or we are witnessing history here.

I'm sure that relieving some of the 'dumb reasons' pressure will make a difference. They don't need to tell us about every issue, or that somebody stood on the cat at Lit Central. They just need us to behave more nicely and follow instructions, and that will be enough to manage the workload.

 

[SkyBubble]

I feel kinda ridiculous creating this thread, but I wanted to call out something that sorta gets buried toward the bottom, for those that might miss it:

"If your story is not in your Pending Stories folder, Drafts Folder, Sent Back folder and has been pending for fewer than 15 days, please do not click on or alter the submission in any way as that will further delay its publication."​

​

It seems that the act of merely CLICKING on a pending story will shoot one's pending story back to the bottom of the review queue. Interestingly, this tracks with my experience, when I'd submitted edits for two existing stories at the same time. #1 went through as expected (~15 days), while #2 languished in pending (I'd dumbly clicked on #2, but DIDN'T SAVE an edit).

EDIT: Link to Pinned Thread: "Story Pending For More Than 72 Hours? Please Read.".

View attachment 2556129

This is posted at the bottom of that post:

*** To Clarify: Simply clicking on a pending work will not send it back to the queue. However, we have had numerous cases where an author believed that they had "only clicked" on a pending submission but in fact inadvertently saved or otherwise altered it - thereby sending it to the back of the queue. For this reason, we recommend not clicking on or otherwise opening a submission form unless you intend to make changes.

 

[SkyBubble]

I have one that's been sitting in Pending since July 22.

 

[notablerogue]

My story has been pending since August 21st. Are we just running that far behind?

 

[iwatchus]

My story has been pending since August 21st. Are we just running that far behind?

No. Have you looked at the article linked in the original post of this thread?

 

[notablerogue]

No. Have you looked at the article linked in the original post of this thread?

I have. And, have successfully published before . I have 5 stories stuck in pending.

 

[iwatchus]

I have. And, have successfully published before . I have 5 stories stuck in pending.

Drop a polite note to Laurel if you haven't already. The general queue is not backed up that far. Something is holding up your stories. Given that you have 5 in that state, my guess is something about your stories made her want to do a more thorough review. This does not mean she will reject them, just that she did not consider a slam dunk yes or no. It might be her consider further pile is getting further behind, I have no insight on that. But it also could be yours got lumped together and dropped. Just ask her politely about it. Be aware that she will not respond to the vast percentage of notes sent to her. But it frequently (but not always) shakes a story loose.

I know it is hard to be polite with her. I would be struggling with that in your shoes right now. But being pissy won't help. Good luck.

 

[Kara_ZorEl]

I've had a story pending since 8/28, and I'm wondering if the issue is that I uploaded it in .odt format rather than .rtf or .doc, it hasn't been pushed back, but I now realize I may have made a blunder. Anyone know? Should I just resubmit again?

 

[AwkwardMD]

I've had a story pending since 8/28, and I'm wondering if the issue is that I uploaded it in .odt format rather than .rtf or .doc, it hasn't been pushed back, but I now realize I may have made a blunder. Anyone know? Should I just resubmit again?

I went looking into the FAQ to see if there's a listing that shows what types of files are acceptable for upload, and I don't see a list. If it was me, I would resubmit.

 

[Buttermeeka]

Not sure what's going on with my submission. been over 4 days. What to do if it is 15 days?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've had a story pending since 8/28, and I'm wondering if the issue is that I uploaded it in .odt format rather than .rtf or .doc, it hasn't been pushed back, but I now realize I may have made a blunder. Anyone know? Should I just resubmit again?

Copy and paste into the submission form, and resubmit. That's probably your best bet.

 

[notablerogue]

Drop a polite note to Laurel if you haven't already. The general queue is not backed up that far. Something is holding up your stories. Given that you have 5 in that state, my guess is something about your stories made her want to do a more thorough review. This does not mean she will reject them, just that she did not consider a slam dunk yes or no. It might be her consider further pile is getting further behind, I have no insight on that. But it also could be yours got lumped together and dropped. Just ask her politely about it. Be aware that she will not respond to the vast percentage of notes sent to her. But it frequently (but not always) shakes a story loose.

I know it is hard to be polite with her. I would be struggling with that in your shoes right now. But being pissy won't help. Good luck.

How would I drop a polite note to Laurel? I can't find a way to message.

 

[StillStunned]

How would I drop a polite note to Laurel? I can't find a way to message.

There's an envelope at the top of your screen. Click it and select "Start new conversation".

 

[feel_the_beast]

I'm at 28 days today, and I sent Laurel a msg almost a week ago. Knowing 150+ submissions are being published every day while I sit here waiting, AND not knowing what the problem is, makes patience difficult. But at least these threads have shown me I'm in good company.

 

[Saakael]

Hello,

I also have three stories that have been waiting for publication for several days.

Strangely, the very first story I submitted back in early September is still marked as “pending,” while other, more recent ones have already been approved and published.

I’ve also noticed something odd: the submission date on some of my texts seems to change without me doing anything.

For example, I submitted a fourth story about 16 hours ago, but now it shows as “pending” for only 2 hours. The same thing has happened with two of my older stories that are still pending.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any info or recommendations?

 

[StillStunned]

One theory about the date changes is that the story has gone through an automated review process and has been marked for human review. But no-one knows for sure.

 

[DEFCOM5]

I have been waiting for a pending for while now. As it is a Chapter 2 of a story, I cannot post the next chapters. This is frustrating.
I also seen the date of my submission change without me doing anything.
At what point do we know if the story is really pending moderator review or is lost in limbo?

 

[feel_the_beast]

I put this comment on another thread on this topic, but thought I would post it here as well.
I pulled my 'lost in limbo' [36 days] story, and resubmitted unedited, with a note to admins about the delay. Within eight hours or so, it now sits in the 'Pending' folder, but the tags say 'Published' and 'New' with tomorrow's date.
So this tactic appears to have worked...for me. I guess I would recommend you try it. But no promises. Your results may vary.
Good luck.

 

[DEFCOM5]

feel_the_beast, thank you for the tip. I will wait a few more days for the moderators to get a chance to get to the story

 

[crookedletter]

Based on the top 4 out of 5 threads at the moment, I'm thinking the pinned threads are not serving their intended function -- i.e., look here before asking a redundant question.

 

[SoulVoyeur]

Hey so this and the original post are great and all... but none of them say what to do if the story is pending for MORE than 15 days. I have a story that went almost a month in August and still was pending... I resubmitted it asking if I had done anything wrong on 9/13 (Which I know restarted the clock) and it is still in the pending folder as of this morning. So what is the process if it's been pending more than 15 days?

 

[iwatchus]

The truth right now is no one knows. You are not alone and some of us stuck with you are considered established writers here. There are some hints that things may be getting better but even that is guesswork.

Good luck with your story and all your future ones. Let us know when it finally gets approved

 

[SoulVoyeur]

The truth right now is no one knows. You are not alone and some of us stuck with you are considered established writers here. There are some hints that things may be getting better but even that is guesswork.

Good luck with your story and all your future ones. Let us know when it finally gets approved

Appreciate the well wishes and reply! Im not even really complaining... I cant imagine having to read and approve everything with the volume that comes in. It's just a bit frustrating as I had just gotten back into writing and was looking forward to the much needed dopamine hit from responses lol.... and now 2 months later still waiting.

 

[ChloeTzang]

The truth right now is no one knows. You are not alone and some of us stuck with you are considered established writers here. There are some hints that things may be getting better but even that is guesswork.

Good luck with your story and all your future ones. Let us know when it finally gets approved

It seems to be a major glitch because there wasn't this problem before - but there are "pending stories" issues being raised by everyone and their mother's uncle - including me, and I have never had an issue before. I deleted, resubmitted and it went thru fine, so it;s not an issue with my story.

It's just affecting too many people and no-one is getting a response and not even a general communication that there is an issue. Laurel's post says >15 days but there are a lot of people going way past that.....