Requesting Publication Dates

[RoyalAuthor]

You know how, when you submit a story for a contest and the contest is still a ways off, the story gets processed for the first date of that contest? Normally for non-contest stories, I submit, and then a day later or so it gets set for publication, and the release date is either the next day or a day later. Can you request a publication date in the notes to admin section? Say I wanted a story published on the anniversary of another story, or on a set date in a couple of weeks, would that be possible? Has anyone ever tried something like that?

 

[MillieDynamite]

I don't know, but it is problematic at best because it has to be cleared before it can be published, and if that date is off down the road, they may wait to check it. Then, if for any reason, it isn't cleared, you're starting over and out of time.

EDIT: I'd send an IM to @Laurel.

 

[iwatchus]

It might be possible -- she does this with author event submissions. All of the Crime and Punishment stories are being held for a release next Friday. But you are asking for extra work for her when she is already stretched thin and @MillieDynamite is right about not wanting to push it too tight. If it's okay if it appears early, you can always try, but don't rely too much on it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

You know how, when you submit a story for a contest and the contest is still a ways off, the story gets processed for the first date of that contest? Normally for non-contest stories, I submit, and then a day later or so it gets set for publication, and the release date is either the next day or a day later. Can you request a publication date in the notes to admin section? Say I wanted a story published on the anniversary of another story, or on a set date in a couple of weeks, would that be possible? Has anyone ever tried something like that?

You'd need to submit well in advance of the date you want, because you need Laurel to see the Note to the Editor.

Whilst the story is still Pending I don't think she's even looked at it yet, but once it's been processed and set to New, Laurel can set a future go-live date. I've had stories with a publication date two or three days in the future, and I know for sure she can set a clock running for a chapter release every 48 hours.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

For my last story, I requested it to be published on a certain date and it was. I just put the request in the box for notes to the admin.

 

[Britva415]

Instead of an IM/PM to Laurel about this, the request should just go into the Notes To Admin field on the publishing form when you submit the story.

She has the ability to approve the story and set a publish date in the future. People sometimes see this happen when they submit multiple stories at once to the same category: She will choose to approve them all but give them different publish dates.

I don't see why it would be any problem for her to do that upon request as opposed to doing it for a reason of her own.

Does she really not approve contest stories at all until the contest start date? Or does she in fact approve them early and just give them publishing dates to match the contest?

 

[alohadave]

Does she really not approve contest stories at all until the contest start date? Or does she in fact approve them early and just give them publishing dates to match the contest?

They are approved and set to publish on the first day of the event/contest. After the first day of the event/contest, they are published as they are approved.

So there is a large surge of stories that publishes on the first day, and the rest trickle in.

 

[iwatchus]

They are approved and set to publish on the first day of the event/contest. After the first day of the event/contest, they are published as they are approved.

So there is a large surge of stories that publishes on the first day, and the rest trickle in.

For some of the author organized events, they publish everything on the last day of the scheduled slot. Crime and Punishment is listed as 9/8-9/22. Everything I have heard about (including mine) is schedule to go live 9/22.

 

[alohadave]

For some of the author organized events, they publish everything on the last day of the scheduled slot. Crime and Punishment is listed as 9/8-9/22. Everything I have heard about (including mine) is schedule to go live 9/22.

That is unusual.

 

[iwatchus]

That is unusual.

I think it is up to the event organizer.

My memory is that this is the way the other two I have submitted for worked (Geek Pride and Virtual Convention). I could be wrong, but the date published for each matches the end of the event. I might have submitted for the convention at the end, but I know I submitted for Geek Pride early.

 

[Britva415]

So, then yeah. Approve-now-publish-later is a capability Laurel has. We've seen two different use-cases where she does exactly that.

Seems like one could just ask for that in the Notes field when submitting.

 

[ElectricBlue]

So, then yeah. Approve-now-publish-later is a capability Laurel has. We've seen two different use-cases where she does exactly that.

Seems like one could just ask for that in the Notes field when submitting.

This. Laurel schedules publication into the future all the time.

@RoyalAuthor - put your requested publication date in the Notes to Editor, but don't leave your submission to the last minute. You never know how long the process queue is at any given time (during Contests, non-contest stories often take longer), and you never know if you'll get a rejection.

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

Based on my limited experience (one instance), I think a standalone story can be scheduled up to a week in the future.

 

[Bamagan]

I do this regularly. Or I used to, when I was writing more. I requested some chapters to be released a week apart (assuming there were no issues with any of them) and she obliged.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I know for sure she can set a clock running for a chapter release every 48 hours.

I experienced similar when I used to submit individual chapters. I would submit them one right after another and she would set them to go live 24 hours apart.