Story Rejection

[leeanna19]

I really hate it when a story gets rejected and they don't tell you why. I submited my story it got rejected. The spelling has been checked as well as the grammar. I have it on two other sites with no complaints.

There was a reference to the the main character crossdressing as a child, so I took that out then resent it. I was rejected in a few hours, yet an older story I submitted has still not been reviewed?

If they use software to check, which I suspect they might. It may have picked up when in speech , is shortened Peter to Pete and David to Dave possibly?

It seems like it was rejected without being checked. I never have this problem with any other site. May have a hissy fit and get the lot removed. LOL

 

[Zeb_Carter]

There should be a reason why it was rejected. Either in a link on the story or when you click on the story when it's in the Returned tab.

 

[Lifestyle66]

...
There was a reference to the the main character crossdressing as a child, so I took that out then resent it. ...

They'll reject the story for even adults reminiscing of any sexual situation as a child. Even a round-about ref to sex for the underaged will get it rejected. Another ref in my story was when the juniors in high school enjoyed "the whole experience after Prom".

 

[TarnishedPenny]

If you are certain that the story violates no rules, then resubmit with a note to the administrator explaining why.

 

[NotWise]

My latest story was rejected as a 'derivative work' which was puzzling, the title had no similar stories already published in the category. I edited the title, and the story was rejected once again, even with a new title, which was also, not found in the story category.

I don't know what might have triggered the "derivative work" rejection, but the title probably didn't do it. Lit hosts multiple stories with identical titles. I searched Lit for "My Sister's Wedding" before I submitted my story by that name, and the search returned nothing. When the story went live, the name of the link indicated that it was actually the seventh story on Lit with exactly that name.

Edit: on second thought, if your title suggested that the story was derivative of a Disney product, then that might have done it.

 

[NotWise]

The original story name was the name of a spider, then it was changed to the name of the lead character, then I made up a name for the lead character and the story was finally approved. But it may have also had to do with my note asking for clarification on whatever 'derivative' I had somehow infringed on.

As I said tho, this hasn't happened often to me, so it was frustrating when it was very clearly not based on anyone else's work, or infringed on any titles.

Your first resort when a story is rejected for reasons you dispute, is to return the story to Laurel without changes and explain in the Notes box why it is not a violation of Lit rules.

 

[windar]

Alright, I'm already anticipating the "this is the greatest site in the known universe and Laurel doesn't have to do squat to please anyone so go put your stories elsewhere (I do)" responses. But it just seems to me that if a story is rejected based on a specific word, line or paragraph, why not return it with the offending section highlighted in red? It seems to me that that would save time and effort on everyone's part. Why go back and forth two or three times-let the writer know and then they can argue, modify or go elsewhere...Of course if it's poorly formatted and riddled with spelling errors, I'm not suggesting the editors note all the errors-only where it's a situation of an offending passage or two.

 

[KeithD]

Most likely the high number of submissions to be processed in and the decision that only one human submissions editor can be afforded requires that the first cut at submissions is always the mechanical checking program, not a human being--and unless submissions are cut somehow or more humans employed to scan submissions, this isn't going to change. If you've made changes and it's still rejected, it almost certainly means you are still only interacting with the mechanical check program. If you need a human explanation/interaction or even a human look at it, you have to put your concern in the Notes box upon refile or PM Laurel directly. Repeated filing to the mechanical checking program, trying to guess what's wrong, likely is just wheels spinning unknown to the human submissions editor.

I've had a few rejections. They've always been cleared up quickly upon getting to Laurel. In all but one case they were published as originally written.

 

[KeithD]

100% agreed.

Each time I re-submitted, I was wondering exactly how my story was a 'derivative' and it could have easily been explained with a single sentence.

But you know, their site, their rules.

Could you quote directly the rejection notice wording? I've never heard of "derivative" being given as a rejection reason. Not to say it wasn't, but I'd like to be able to add that to my knowledge of the reasons actually given.

I posted directly to the "resubmitted" issue. Until you got around the mechanical scanning and directly to the human editor (by putting something in the "Notes" box or PMing Laurel directly), you were just repeating the same "unseen by human" loop.

 

[KeithD]

It appears that the only way the Web site is going to be able to have a human editor looking at the stories in depth at the first stop in submissions is if three-fourths of us stop submitting stories--and most certainly if none of us file with the view that we can always do corrections later. Volunteers?

This isn't an apology for anyone. I think this is just a fact.

 

[leeanna19]

They'll reject the story for even adults reminiscing of any sexual situation as a child. Even a round-about ref to sex for the underaged will get it rejected. Another ref in my story was when the juniors in high school enjoyed "the whole experience after Prom".

I read that non-consensual sex stories were in violation on another thread. Yet if you search Rape on here you get 603 pages of stories?

I read some horrible stuff on here. I get the 18 and over rule, but saying everything has to be consensual is clearly not true.

None of my stories contain non-consensual sex, well possibly a little pegging in my femdom stuff.

 

[NotWise]

I read that non-consensual sex stories were in violation on another thread. Yet if you search Rape on here you get 603 pages of stories?

I read some horrible stuff on here. I get the 18 and over rule, but saying everything has to be consensual is clearly not true.

None of my stories contain non-consensual sex, well possibly a little pegging in my femdom stuff.

There's a whole category for Nonconsent and Reluctance. Why would you believe that non-consensual sex violated a rule?

 

[ElectricBlue]

The original story name was the name of a spider, then it was changed to the name of the lead character, then I made up a name for the lead character and the story was finally approved. But it may have also had to do with my note asking for clarification on whatever 'derivative' I had somehow infringed on.

As I said tho, this hasn't happened often to me, so it was frustrating when it was very clearly not based on anyone else's work, or infringed on any titles.

I'm reading into this that the original title, maybe, had something to do with Charlotte's Web, which would bump the "No Disney" rule and possibly the "no original character under eighteen" rule. I might, of course, be wrong about that.

But it goes to show that the further you go away from the someone else's copyrighted content by using your own character names and plots, the easier you make life for yourself. Being original counts, being derivative usually brings some kind of a hassle. There's a moral in here somewhere, for those that look - but it's good you finally got your story posted .

 

[Bramblethorn]

I don't know what might have triggered the "derivative work" rejection, but the title probably didn't do it. Lit hosts multiple stories with identical titles. I searched Lit for "My Sister's Wedding" before I submitted my story by that name, and the search returned nothing. When the story went live, the name of the link indicated that it was actually the seventh story on Lit with exactly that name.

Edit: on second thought, if your title suggested that the story was derivative of a Disney product, then that might have done it.

Yeah, Literotica has a specific category for fanfic which by definition is "derivative work", so I was also wondering if it was about being derivative from some specific property on the Verboten List.

I had a quick look at SilkeeSmooth's latest story. I don't know what the original title was, but the posted version doesn't read like fanfic.

A couple of things that might maybe lead a fast-skimming moderator to mistake it for derivative work:

"This story is a work of fiction, although it's inspired by a fellow Lit user." Could perhaps be interpreted as "inspired by another Lit user's stories".

"The place was nearly empty, as it had been yesterday, the same Barman moved about the place, giving her a quick smile as she found a barstool that would give her a clear view of the entrance."

Story repeatedly mentions a capitalised "Barman"... I guess that could be misread as "Batman"? I'm reaching here.

Even if it had been misread that way, I don't think either of those would usually be grounds for rejection.

OTOH, if the original title was something like "Charlotte's Web", I can see that getting rejected. It's not very clearly articulated, but Lit seems to have an aversion to hosting stories based on children's media, which is understandable.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I read that non-consensual sex stories were in violation on another thread.

If somebody wrote that, they were wrong. The site has some restrictions on what kind of NC will be accepted, but not a blanket ban.

 

[ElectricBlue]

The original title of the story in question was 'The Black Widow', of which there are no existing stories in the submitted category. It's all good though, I'm over it.

Wow, it surprises me that "Black Widow" got a story bumped. I'm not sure how many people would associate that title with any particular franchise. I certainly wouldn't. It's a pretty generic title, to me.

 

[JGittes]

Wow, it surprises me that "Black Widow" got a story bumped. I'm not sure how many people would associate that title with any particular franchise. I certainly wouldn't. It's a pretty generic title, to me.

It's a prominent MCU character and film title.

Edit: Just realized you were probably being sarcastic.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's a prominent MCU character and film title.

Edit: Just realized you were probably being sarcastic.

Ah okay. THAT Black Widow. A movie franchise character from the last five years doesn't lay claim to an absolute right over a word pair that's been around for decades... and is an actual spider species. That's bullshit, in my non Marvel universe !!

When I think Black Widow, I think of the the 1987 movie directed by Bob Rafelson, with Debra Winger, Theresa Russell, Sami Frey, Dennis Hopper.

ScarJo is sexy, but she's no match for Theresa Russell. Just sayin'

 

[leeanna19]

There's a whole category for Nonconsent and Reluctance. Why would you believe that non-consensual sex violated a rule?

I read it on another thread on this forum. I have resubmitted it after an editor has corrected a few minor grammar errors. Afer that I'm giving up. I like this site, but don't have the time to keep re-writing all the time.

My highest read story on here has nearly 25k views. Nearly half those I write get "Hot" ratings. The only reason I post is ego I suppose.

Now I don't think it's worth the effort. I have had over a dozen people suggest I put Surgeon's Lodger on Amazon. So I think I'm going to pull everything off of here now.

This is what got rejected. As you can see it is clearly a sick and perverted story.

[Please don't post more than 2-3 paragraphs of work to the forum. Stories should pass through the approval process and be displayed there. -AH Mod]

 

[NotWise]

[Sigh] I see you aren't very good at reading rules.

The forum rules prohibit posting more than 2-3 paragraphs of a story here. The moderator will probably trim or delete this post.

 

[TxRad]

[Sigh] I see you aren't very good at reading rules.

The forum rules prohibit posting more than 2-3 paragraphs of a story here. The moderator will probably trim or delete this post.

It has been reported.

 

[Lifestyle66]

The original title of the story in question was 'The Black Widow', of which there are no existing stories in the submitted category. It's all good though, I'm over it.

Surprise! The "Black Widow" is a Marvel character in the Avengers series, and now a recently released movie (under the Disney franchise).

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The original title of the story in question was 'The Black Widow', of which there are no existing stories in the submitted category. It's all good though, I'm over it.

But there is a Marvel Movie by that name. And Marvel is now owned by Disney.

 

[KeithD]

Wow, it surprises me that "Black Widow" got a story bumped. I'm not sure how many people would associate that title with any particular franchise. I certainly wouldn't. It's a pretty generic title, to me.

I don't think that title is the problem. The poster isn't being clear about the possible problem, so is probably just spinning wheels in the wrong suppositions.

 

[leeanna19]

[Sigh] I see you aren't very good at reading rules.

The forum rules prohibit posting more than 2-3 paragraphs of a story here. The moderator will probably trim or delete this post.

It doesn't matter now. I had it edited. The editor couldn't see why it was rejected. The whole thing doesn't matter now. I have deleted all my stories. The difficulty in writing trans stories is most trans people start before they are 18. So any reference to that is rejected.

So I have decided to remove what I managed to re-write and just keep posting on Bigcloset and Fictionmania.

I have 70 stories on Fictionmania. Only manged 40 on here.

If I decide to write a rape/torture/necrophilia story I'll post it here. As long as I don't mention his mother made him go to school in a dress when he was 17.

Thank you guys for the advice anyway.