Can someone (editor?) explain underage policy to me?

[buster352]

I have just had a story rejected. The message seems to suggest that underage relationships were involved.
The story concerns a family wedding and there are young girls present within the story, because they are attending the wedding, but there is no hint of any sexual involvement from them.

Do the stories have to have NO under 18s in any capacity at all? Do all family members need to be over 18? This does seem rather pedantic and limiting.

I can forward the story for you to read if required.

Many thanks

buster

 

[AwkwardMD]

Laurel screens stories with a script that has a number of triggers. If it finds too many instances of any given trigger, regardless of how that trigger appears, it will automatically reject the story.

Resubmit it with a note stating that no one under the age of 18 is sexually involved in any way, and you'll be fine.

 

[buster352]

Ok great. Thank you.

 

[_Lynn_]

Ok great. Thank you.

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[Bramblethorn]

I have just had a story rejected. The message seems to suggest that underage relationships were involved.
The story concerns a family wedding and there are young girls present within the story, because they are attending the wedding, but there is no hint of any sexual involvement from them.

Sounds like that would be fine under Lit rules. However, Laurel skims through stories pretty quickly and sometimes stuff gets flagged by mistake. As AwkwardMD said, if you use the Notes field to say "there are kids in this story but they're nowhere near the sex" that should go through.

 

[Ldy_Sea]

I had something similar happen. The first chapter of my Agatha Allbutt series was a high school party. NO sex was involved but everyone in the story at that time was under 18. It was background on the characters and how they interacted that was necessary background for setting up future events when they were in college.

After being rejected I did as above, and added an authors note that basically stated there was no sex in this chapter, just one erotic kiss. I also put a note in the comment field when re-subbmitting and it went through fine.