Submitted first story; and now I gotta wait?

[MrShovel]

It's about 1500 words about a woman describing a sexy dream to her friend. The dream involves a magic aphrodisiac necklace.

It's the first erotic fiction I've tried to write. I don't actually believe it's genius, but hey, this site is all about fantasy already, so it's fun to imagine that people will like it.

Anyhow, now I guess I gotta wait for it to be reviewed or whatever? Kinda anticlimactic

 

[water_moutina]

It's about 1500 words about a woman describing a sexy dream to her friend. The dream involves a magic aphrodisiac necklace.

It's the first erotic fiction I've tried to write. I don't actually believe it's genius, but hey, this site is all about fantasy already, so it's fun to imagine that people will like it.

Anyhow, now I guess I gotta wait for it to be reviewed or whatever? Kinda anticlimactic

Anticlimatic would be if its published, and you didn't get any views

I guess it'll be 3-4 days to. I hope yours does well

 

[MrShovel]

Haha! yes, I suppose that would be worse

Thanks for the kind words!

 

[geronimo_appleby]

It's about 1500 words about a woman describing a sexy dream to her friend. The dream involves a magic aphrodisiac necklace.

It's the first erotic fiction I've tried to write. I don't actually believe it's genius, but hey, this site is all about fantasy already, so it's fun to imagine that people will like it.

Anyhow, now I guess I gotta wait for it to be reviewed or whatever? Kinda anticlimactic

yes. you gotta wait. don't keep going back into the story in the pending pane or else you'll put it to the back of the queue. leave it alone. give it a week [possibly longer, could be sooner].

 

[LAHomedog]

They seem to be running 7-10 days right now. I'm 6 days into waiting on my latest.

 

[Javahead]

They seem to be running 7-10 days right now. I'm 6 days into waiting on my latest.

And I'm 5 days in on mine. I've heard that those of us with track records Laurel is familiar with may take less time than needed for new authors, but I honestly don't know.

I do suspect that longer stories take more time to vet - since mine's nearly 80K words, anything under a week isn''t likely to happen.

 

[water_moutina]

wow 80k is like a proper novel
How long did it take to write?

 

[TxRad]

They say anticipation is good for the soul.

Oh and by the way, new authors get closer scrutiny.

One step closer to being an author.

 

[MrPixel]

It was 4 days on one I submitted last week. I'm at 6 days on my latest, but it's sorta, kinda long... 13K words. I tried to split it, but there was just no good breakpoint near the middle.

To the OP - as @Javahead and @TxRad said, your first submission is likely to get a little more scrutiny. It may be a cool and fun short story, but the screeners don't know that until they read it, and they have a lot to read ahead of it!

 

[TxRad]

MrP, there is only one screener and that is Laurel.

 

[water_moutina]

MrP, there is only one screener and that is Laurel.

Wait wait, you're telling me one person manually reads every story!!??

 

[MrPixel]

MrP, there is only one screener and that is Laurel.

Ho-lee cow! Definitely has an iron constitution then, because (...sorry, folks...) there is an awful lot of dreck among the roses on LitE. Must also buy eyedrops by the case, too. I spend a lot of screen time - just ask my wife - but can't imagine what it takes to manage the flow here.

 

[TxRad]

Wait wait, you're telling me one person manually reads every story!!??

Only lately has she started to use a reader to check some of the stories.

She started this site as a place where she could read erotic stories and over the last twenty years It's kind of gotten out of hand. We've asked why she doesn't get help. Her reply was that she couldn't get people who would do things her way.

The same applies to the problems with modernizing the sites software. It was built piecemeal by dozens of people. None of which are still around. It's like making a steak dinner using spaghetti.

The history lesson for the day.

 

[Javahead]

wow 80k is like a proper novel
How long did it take to write?

Actual writing time? When I get motivated and avoid distractions, I can usually manage a couple of thousand words in a sitting. I’m not the most productive writer here, by far, but once I’m in the zone and focused I do OK.

Time to a complete first draft? Four or five months. Some days (and sometimes weeks) I just don’t have the time or have too many distractions to write well.

Then double that for turnaround to my volunteer editor, incorporating or rejecting suggested changes.

And finally add a couple more months when I just fiddled with polishing it and agonizing over insignificant minor tweaks that didn’t really matter except to me.

Really, if it had been a work assignment rather than a hobby I could have finished it all in two or three months, including revisions. As it was, it took about a year - I had far too much fun just fiddling with it along the way.

 

[LAHomedog]

I've heard that those of us with track records Laurel is familiar with may take less time than needed for new authors, but I honestly don't know.

--#--#--

I think that was true, but, not right now. I have 32 published stories and my latest submission is sitting on day 7 of "pending." Use to take 3-4 days.

Contest entries can take less than a day if labeled properly. There was the Winter Contest and a bunch of other stuff happening during the holidays.

 

[KeithD]

I've heard that those of us with track records Laurel is familiar with may take less time than needed for new authors, but I honestly don't know.

--#--#--

I think that was true, but, not right now. I have 32 published stories and my latest submission is sitting on day 7 of "pending." Use to take 3-4 days.

Contest entries can take less than a day if labeled properly. There was the Winter Contest and a bunch of other stuff happening during the holidays.

I think it's true. I've been here in linked accounts for fifteen years, posting at least one story a week continuously. I almost always get posted in two days, more rarely three, and any more time taken has appeared to be a rare glitch in which the story got sidelined and was posted as soon as I asked if it had fallen in the cracks. I submitted a story today. I'll see how long it takes to post.

 

[Javahead]

I think it's true. I've been here in linked accounts for fifteen years, posting at least one story a week continuously. I almost always get posted in two days, more rarely three, and any more time taken has appeared to be a rare glitch in which the story got sidelined and was posted as soon as I asked if it had fallen in the cracks. I submitted a story today. I'll see how long it takes to post.

I think you’re the canonical example of “frequent and trusted” here - if after all your posts Laurel doesn’t trust you there’s no hope for the rest of us.

 

[KeithD]

I think you’re the canonical example of “frequent and trusted” here - if after all your posts Laurel doesn’t trust you there’s no hope for the rest of us.

I still occasionally get something sent back with an "is there underage" question, but each and every one of those got posted as originally written by asking for any underage to be pointed out. So, not fully trusted for given an automatic free pass.

 

[Djmac1031]

Yeah, get used to waiting lol. Nature of the beast, here.

Best of luck with it, and welcome.

 

[Javahead]

I still occasionally get something sent back with an "is there underage" question, but each and every one of those got posted as originally written by asking for any underage to be pointed out. So, not fully trusted for given an automatic free pass.

I’ve taken to including “all characters 18 or over” or something similar in the author’s notes when I can.

What can be annoying is when it makes sense to refer to a character’s early life - no matter how clear I make those references as being long before any of the story (or any sexual behavior) I’ve needed to explain it on resubmission a couple of times.

The guidelines sometimes chafe. But I can well understand why Laurel has them.

 

[KeithD]

I’ve taken to including “all characters 18 or over” or something similar in the author’s notes when I can.

This seems silly to me for anyone who has written here for years to do. It could easily be asserted without being true and I think Laurel should have gotten a sense of who knows and follows the rules and who plays at getting around them. So, when I get challenged, I assume it's some sort of program doing it.

 

[Javahead]

This seems silly to me for anyone who has written here for years to do. It could easily be asserted without being true and I think Laurel should have gotten a sense of who knows and follows the rules and who plays at getting around them. So, when I get challenged, I assume it's some sort of program doing it.

It may well be. Mostly, it serves as a notice that yes, I’m aware of her rules.

But though I’ve been posting here for a few years my total number of submissions is far less than yours. In your case, it very likely IS a programmatic trip up, but given the thousands of authors here I’m not at all certain Laurel will recall who I am.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

I honestly don't see having a submission looked over as any different from submitting a manuscript for publication. It just comes with the territory. I do wish the responses were a little less cryptic sometimes.

 

[MrShovel]

Happy news for me when I logged in this morning... my story is published!

I'd be thrilled if y'all check it out, if this genre is your kind of thing.

Link here: https://literotica.com/s/jess-described-her-dream-to-marlowe

 

[MrPixel]

Similar here - my most recent is not up yet, but it is in the queue to go live tonight. (You recognize that from the "NEW" flag when you check your "pending" list.)

Mine took 8 days versus the usual 4, so apparently there was a logjam that was cleared.