Current Publishing Queue?

[AfternoonStu]

Apologies if I'm off-base in posting this here, but it seems the support forum is more a place for general announcements from site administrators, rather than a place for anyone to post support questions.

I'm just curious if anyone has any insight into the current publishing queue, and if there is an unusual amount of submitted stories waiting to go live?

After a 19-year (!) hiatus, I recently found inspiration to write and submit a new story. In all that time, my writing has hopefully improved, and I'm of course eager to see how my latest offering is received by the Literotica readership. However, having submitted the story on May 11, I'm still waiting for it to move from the "pending" bracket to "published". After 11 days, it seems the waiting had overshot the projected waiting time by almost a week, and while I understand that this site depends on a few, dedicated administrators to do all the heavy lifting, I more concerned to make sure that my story hasn't hit the proverbial snag that might be holding it back.

A few things that I suspect might add to the waiting time:

• Name change. Shortly after I submitted my story, I requested a name change on Literotica, which has taken effect. Other than the username being different, my profile seems unaffected, but perhaps the name change needs to take full effect somehow before the story can be published?
• Story uploaded as RTF file. I understand that doing so requires the file to be converted before it can be published, which in turn adds to the waiting time. However, a full week for conversion seems excessive...
• Change of avatar. I uploaded a new avatar photo when I requested the name change, and the photo has not yet been approved. Perhaps this needs to go through before any new stories can be considered?

In accordance with the site FAQ, I have checked so that the story is not in the "sent back" or "draft" brackets. It sits firmly in the "pending" column.

 

[onehitwanda]

What category did you publish in? That can also make a huge difference to the speed it goes through.

 

[AfternoonStu]

What category did you publish in? That can also make a huge difference to the speed it goes through.

Fair point. It was in the "Incest/Taboo" category, which in and of itself is a delicate subject matter. Nothing remotely close to underage in my story, though!

 

[onehitwanda]

It looks like there's a lot of new stories - nearly the entire "new" list is published today so I imagine the delay is purely down to load. Reviews are done by one person as far as we know, so stories are published when she gets to them

Also, welcome back

 

[AfternoonStu]

It looks like there's a lot of new stories - nearly the entire "new" list is published today so I imagine the delay is purely down to load. Reviews are done by one person as far as we know, so stories are published when she gets to them

Yes, patience is most likely the name of the game here. With so few people - just the one, even - doing the work, I don't want to be "that person" who bitches and moans about how their story should be published this instant. Call it a careful probing to see if there is an unusual workload at the moment. With your observation of the "new" list in mind, that seems indeed to be the case.

Also, welcome back

Thanks so much! I never really left Literotica, since I've been posting and reading in the forums over the years. But as for publishing stories, I'm hoping that this is not just a temporary break in my long hiatus. I have quite a few ideas for follow-ups to the story waiting to be published, after all.

 

[Bazzle]

Shorter stories are uploaded quicker than long ones...if that helps?

 

[AfternoonStu]

Shorter stories are uploaded quicker than long ones...if that helps?

Yes, that would have an impact. This story is not overly long, roughly 6,500 words, so it shouldn't stand out as unusually cumbersome...

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Nobody really knows how the publishing process works from the administrator side, regardless of what some people in this forum might say. There are authors whose stories get published promptly and there are those who consistently wait for a week or more. Eleven days is unusually long for a story, it should have been published or rejected already. My advice is to PM Laurel and ask about your story. It usually works.

 

[AfternoonStu]

I just checked the story. Its status is still "pending", but I noticed that an editor's note has been added to the preamble. Since the story toes the line on non-consensual acts, my guess is that the editor has mulled it over, and decided to let it through, albeit with sort of a "buyer beware" sticker at the top. Since it's still in the "pending" bracket, not in "sent back", the story is hopefully slated for publication soon.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Thanks for the heads-up that there might be delays. I just submitted the last part of HOT AND FUZZY (90,000 plus in total) and so I won’t hold my breath of its only there later in the week.

Cheers, Che.

 

[NotWise]

I can imagine that changing your user name while the story is pending could cause a delay. Also, if you change any part of your submission while it's pending, then you send it to the end of the queue, and the wait starts over.

 

[AfternoonStu]

I can imagine that changing your user name while the story is pending could cause a delay. Also, if you change any part of your submission while it's pending, then you send it to the end of the queue, and the wait starts over.

I'm aware of how any edits will send your story to the end of the queue, so I've been careful to avoid even placing the cursor in the wrong field! As for the name change, I'm thinking maybe the change needs to cascade down through the whole system before the new username is fully in place, leaving any pending stories in temporary limbo until the new name is set.

Just a guess, though.

 

[NotWise]

I'm aware of how any edits will send your story to the end of the queue, so I've been careful to avoid even placing the cursor in the wrong field! As for the name change, I'm thinking maybe the change needs to cascade down through the whole system before the new username is fully in place, leaving any pending stories in temporary limbo until the new name is set.

Just a guess, though.

I'm thinking you may need to resubmit your story under your new name to get it placed correctly on Laurel's list, but it's just a guess. None of us knows much about how things tick here.

 

[AfternoonStu]

I'm thinking you may need to resubmit your story under your new name to get it placed correctly on Laurel's list, but it's just a guess. None of us knows much about how things tick here.

Maybe, but after some digging I get the feeling that the name change hasn't affected things to the degree that a re-submission in necessary. It might have caused a delay, but that's all.

 

[KeithD]

My stories almost consistently get published in two days. The most recent one, posting last week, posted in three days. I submitted a story yesterday and it's now marked for posting tomorrow.

 

[SimonDoom]

My stories typically take about 2 days, but it varies. My most recent story took 4 days from submission to publication, whereas the one before that took only 1 day. It was a Mature older woman-younger man story, so it's possible it took them a while to confirm that it had no underage content.

 

[AfternoonStu]

My stories almost consistently get published in two days. The most recent one, posting last week, posted in three days. I submitted a story yesterday and it's now marked for posting tomorrow.

So you can see that it's about to be published? Where do you find that info?

 

[AfternoonStu]

So you can see that it's about to be published? Where do you find that info?

Never mind! I just checked on my story in the "pending" section, but now the submission date (May 11) is replaced by May 23, so I guess it's lined up to be included in tomorrow's batch.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

So you can see that it's about to be published? Where do you find that info?

"Pending" tag will turn into "New" tag and a date of publishing will be shown.

 

[ronde]

Apologies if I'm off-base in posting this here, but it seems the support forum is more a place for general announcements from site administrators, rather than a place for anyone to post support questions.

I'm just curious if anyone has any insight into the current publishing queue, and if there is an unusual amount of submitted stories waiting to go live?

After a 19-year (!) hiatus, I recently found inspiration to write and submit a new story. In all that time, my writing has hopefully improved, and I'm of course eager to see how my latest offering is received by the Literotica readership. However, having submitted the story on May 11, I'm still waiting for it to move from the "pending" bracket to "published". After 11 days, it seems the waiting had overshot the projected waiting time by almost a week, and while I understand that this site depends on a few, dedicated administrators to do all the heavy lifting, I more concerned to make sure that my story hasn't hit the proverbial snag that might be holding it back.

A few things that I suspect might add to the waiting time:

• Name change. Shortly after I submitted my story, I requested a name change on Literotica, which has taken effect. Other than the username being different, my profile seems unaffected, but perhaps the name change needs to take full effect somehow before the story can be published?
• Story uploaded as RTF file. I understand that doing so requires the file to be converted before it can be published, which in turn adds to the waiting time. However, a full week for conversion seems excessive...
• Change of avatar. I uploaded a new avatar photo when I requested the name change, and the photo has not yet been approved. Perhaps this needs to go through before any new stories can be considered?

In accordance with the site FAQ, I have checked so that the story is not in the "sent back" or "draft" brackets. It sits firmly in the "pending" column.

I too had a lengthy absence from Literotica, but my new stories are published two days after I submit them.

As far as I know, Laurel is the only person approving stories for publication. She's really busy as you can imagine, but she will respond to messages. Send her a PM and politely ask what's holding up your story. If your story hasn't been rejected, there's a chance she just lost track of it.

I wouldn't depend upon Literotica to convert your story from RTF. From what I've read, Microsoft is no longer supporting RTF, so the conversion may be pretty difficult depending upon what software Literotica is using.

My experience with converting from one file type to another has not been good. Often the result has formatting that is a mess, like extra white space or missing white space, different line lengths, etc. I always write in Word, but I have written in Open Office Writer, a free clone of Word, and it does just as well.

If your name change is already in effect, the only hitch I can see is that Laurel might not recognize the name. I would imagine she takes a longer look at submissions by "new" authors than she does with known authors.

 

[AfternoonStu]

I too had a lengthy absence from Literotica, but my new stories are published two days after I submit them.

As far as I know, Laurel is the only person approving stories for publication. She's really busy as you can imagine, but she will respond to messages. Send her a PM and politely ask what's holding up your story. If your story hasn't been rejected, there's a chance she just lost track of it.

It seems the story has been approved, and is scheduled to be published today, but otherwise I might have sent Laurel a PM to see if it had hit a snag in the process. If she is maintaining this site all on her own though, I'm amazed at the pace new stories are published, and the occasional hick-up can't be held against her.

I wouldn't depend upon Literotica to convert your story from RTF. From what I've read, Microsoft is no longer supporting RTF, so the conversion may be pretty difficult depending upon what software Literotica is using.

Not sure why I uploaded in rtf format, anyway. I did utilise some simple formatting, i.e. bold and italics, but I noticed afterwards how easy that is to implement using tags. I think, maybe, that uploading a file was the better way when I last submitted a story, but that was in 2005, so...

If your name change is already in effect, the only hitch I can see is that Laurel might not recognize the name. I would imagine she takes a longer look at submissions by "new" authors than she does with known authors.

Good point.

 

[Djmac1031]

As others have suggested, PM Laurel.

I had this same issue awhile back, turns out it was a simple misunderstanding.

Hope it gets resolved soon for ya.

 

[AfternoonStu]

Hope it gets resolved soon for ya.

It did, and the story just went live. Patience was the name of the game here, as it so often is.

If anyone wants to see what all the fuss was about, please have a look at https://literotica.com/s/groomed-by-gaslight. I hope you'll enjoy it!