Okay, call me perplexed.

[BiscuitHammer]

I've been submitting a chapter for an ongoing story for two weeks now, and it's been rejected three times. The explanation stated in the rejection is 'URLs or embedded links'.

But there aren't any. There never were. I edited the story to remove references to other sites at all, and it still came back, with the same reason given.

I messaged Laurel about this a few days ago, before the latest rejection, and just now following it. I don't even know how to proceed at this point, since I can't fix a problem that isn't there.

Does Laurel do all the proofing for every single story submitted? Or does she have people to assist her? I wouldn't blame her if she did, based on daily volume of submissions, but this is something of a problem for me. This is a chapter for my most popular story, and I can't move things forward if I can't address the stated issue.

I have never had this particular kind of problem before, so I'm perhaps looking for insight into what might be going wrong here. And does anyone have any productive suggestions or advice?

Thanks.

- Biscuit Hammer

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Woo, response very quickly form Laurel!

Turns out that for whatever reason, the doc she received HAS a hyperlink in a random word, no idea why. I just checked the saved document I submitted, and there's no hyperlink. So while I'm perplexed, at least I know what is wrong.

I'm gonna resubmit the chapter and pray to Sanguinius for the best...

 

[Blind_Justice]

Do you send in the .doc file? It might help to copy&paste your story into a text editor to get rid of all formatting and use the text field on the submission page. You'll obviously want to hard-code any formatting tags for italics/bold etc.

If your problem happens while using the text field... well, you've found a bug

 

[Handley_Page]

Do you send in the .doc file? It might help to copy&paste your story into a text editor to get rid of all formatting and use the text field on the submission page. You'll obviously want to hard-code any formatting tags for italics/bold etc.

If your problem happens while using the text field... well, you've found a bug

Agreed.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Do you send in the .doc file? It might help to copy&paste your story into a text editor to get rid of all formatting and use the text field on the submission page. You'll obviously want to hard-code any formatting tags for italics/bold etc.

If your problem happens while using the text field... well, you've found a bug

I always submit as a .doc when I submit. I had other sets of eyes go over it with me a few minutes ago to make sure. No hyperlinks of any sort.

So if there's a hyperlink when it gets there, then we's got us a li'l problem. Here's hoping all is well.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Sometime word will attach a hyperlink to a word or name or place.

What version of word are you using? Or are you using Open Office?

 

[TxRad]

Check your version of word and disable hyperlinks.

 

[Hypoxia]

Okay, call me perplexed.

Okay, you are perplexed. Happy?

Meanwhile, I've never posted non-vanilla texts. I write with the free Jarte editor, add a few HTML tags, spell-check with Word 2004, and paste that into the SUB window. Whatever happens is my fault, not the warez'.

 

[MetaBob]

I usually write in .RTF format, converting to .TXT before submitting, replacing smart quotes and such with plain-text equivalents. As portable and transparent as can be:

single quotes ’ ‘ '
double quotes “ ” "
ellipses … ...
hyphen — --

Note that Laurel converts hyphens to dashes.

Using MS Word just ends up pissing me off, so I don't unless I absolutely have to. Even though I've had one copy or another since I wrote my first novel using 4.0 for Mac.

 

[GroverLang]

I write in MS Word. I was advised a long time ago Laurel converts MS Word into .rtf before reading and publishing. I’m doubtful this quickens up the process but in the absence of anything telling me different, such as Laurel posting what file type she prefers, I may as well continue doing what I’m doing.

Maybe someone will bring this thread to her attention and she’ll give the definitive answer and post a sticky.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

Do you send in the .doc file? It might help to copy&paste your story into a text editor to get rid of all formatting and use the text field on the submission page. You'll obviously want to hard-code any formatting tags for italics/bold etc.

If your problem happens while using the text field... well, you've found a bug

I always cut and paste, Word can be evil

 

[MetaBob]

I write in MS Word. I was advised a long time ago Laurel converts MS Word into .rtf before reading and publishing. I’m doubtful this quickens up the process but in the absence of anything telling me different, such as Laurel posting what file type she prefers, I may as well continue doing what I’m doing.

Maybe someone will bring this thread to her attention and she’ll give the definitive answer and post a sticky.

Oh, I don't do it for Laurel, I write in the formats I write in because it works best for me and is the most portable between publishing venues. That it works for Laurel (and others) is just another testament to its portability.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Well, the chapter finally went up.

And Laurel was a big help in trying to solve it. No idea what was happening. My editor and I both went over the story about eighty times, finding no hyperlinks whatsoever. I even copied, pasted, and right-click disabled hyperlinks, just in case.

But when it got to Laurel, the hyperlink was there again. No damn idea. So she just Manu-ally edited the offending phantom link out, and then posted many chapter. Problem solved, for now.

Thanks to all concerned for the help, beeteedubs! (to quote Jeanie)

- BH

 

[GroverLang]

Oh, I don't do it for Laurel, I write in the formats I write in because it works best for me and is the most portable between publishing venues. That it works for Laurel (and others) is just another testament to its portability.

I write in MS Word because I prefer to do so. My stories are saved as MS Word. I simply convert them to .rtf (takes about ten seconds) because I was told it gets through the system quicker. Although I now doubt that is the case and I’m going back to submitting them in MS Word as I did originally.

 

[KeithD]

I write in MS Word because I prefer to do so. My stories are saved as MS Word. I simply convert them to .rtf (takes about ten seconds) because I was told it gets through the system quicker. Although I now doubt that is the case and I’m going back to submitting them in MS Word as I did originally.

Again, I don't convert my stories from Word to anything before cut-and-paste straight into the text box to submit them (with manual marking of italics) and I don't think anyone here gets quicker posting than I've had--almost always two days for over a decade and over 1,000 story submissions.