Editor omissions to story line

[t_girl_3]

Twice now, in my series Lynn's Alley, an editor has omitted key sentences and phrases that were key to story line, plot, character development, etc.; It's quite disconcerting, as an author, to see one's work 'butchered' in this manner.

The omission of one or two key sentences can drastically affect the readablity of a story and I'm quite flummoxed as to why this happens.

Frustrating, to say the least!

t_girl_3

 

[sr71plt]

I'm not sure I understand. A trained editor won't delete whole sentences. Might strike through them and include a note on why he/she thinks they should be deleted. But a trained editor wouldn't be physcially deleting anything from your original. You should be able to see all changes--and you are the one who should be accepting/rejecting any suggested changes and doing any suggested rewriting.

Perhaps you aren't working with a real editor at all?

 

[fieryjen]

I think you should talk to your editor about this.

If he/she insists on doing this, you might want to consider getting a new editor.

I agree with SR in that an editor should suggest changes. I'd be extremely upset if any editor I worked with did what you described, and it would be a surefire way to get me to stay away from them.

 

[cloudy]

Don't you read over what your editor has sent back to you before you submit it?

If not, the fault lies as much at your feet as it does your editor's.

 

[fieryjen]

Don't you read over what your editor has sent back to you before you submit it?

If not, the fault lies as much at your feet as it does your editor's.

I didn't gather from the initial post that the stories were actually submitted as-is (but I may be misinterpreting it). I thought it was just a complaint about the practice - and let's face it, if an editor does take away key portions of the text, it would get annoying pretty fast to compare the edited document with the original sentence for sentence every time and re-add what was taken away.

 

[cloudy]

I didn't gather from the initial post that the stories were actually submitted as-is (but I may be misinterpreting it). I thought it was just a complaint about the practice - and let's face it, if an editor does take away key portions of the text, it would get annoying pretty fast to compare the edited document with the original sentence for sentence every time and re-add what was taken away.

I agree. I just make suggestions for an author to take or not, as he or she chooses.

 

[t_girl_3]

Editor omissions...

Thanks for your input, however, since I've been writing and submitting to Lit, I've never had an editor 'suggest' or otherwise contact me about my submissions. Never, not once. I would, of course, be open to such but to reiterate, there has been no such communication between any editor and me.

t_girl

 

[sr71plt]

Still confusing here. You turn a story over to an editor, who then edits it and, without consulting you, submits it to Lit.? Clarification seems to be in order, because this certainly shouldn't happen--but it's what you seem to be saying.

Maybe you need to start at square one again and let us know what is happening from the time you write it and it gets posted on Lit.

 

[LadyCibelle]

I seldom agree with the poster before me, if ever, but this time I have to. He is dead-on on what I thought when I first read your initial post, and reading your latest is as confusing.

Maybe as he said, you should start at the beginning and explain clearly what is happening.

 

[poppy_cock]

Twice now, in my series Lynn's Alley, an editor has omitted key sentences and phrases that were key to story line, plot, character development, etc.; It's quite disconcerting, as an author, to see one's work 'butchered' in this manner.

The omission of one or two key sentences can drastically affect the readablity of a story and I'm quite flummoxed as to why this happens.

Frustrating, to say the least!

t_girl_3

OK. Having read your other post above, let's see if I'm understanding you correctly. Are you saying that you're posting your story to Lit, but somewhere between submission and your story appearing on the site, sentences/words are going missing from the finished article?

That's actually kind of odd--if that is what you're saying--cos the site editors don't do that kind of editing. Their 'editing' is purely to check that a story doesn't contain underage sex, snuff, etc., and that your spelling and punctuation aren't too horrendous. It isn't editing in the sense that words are altered or deleted.

So I'm flummoxed, that's for sure. Could it be a formatting error, I wonder? How are you submitting your stories? By cutting and pasting into the box or by attaching a Word/rtf document?

 

[fieryjen]

OK. Having read your other post above, let's see if I'm understanding you correctly. Are you saying that you're posting your story to Lit, but somewhere between submission and your story appearing on the site, sentences/words are going missing from the finished article?

That's actually kind of odd--if that is what you're saying--cos the site editors don't do that kind of editing. Their 'editing' is purely to check that a story doesn't contain underage sex, snuff, etc., and that your spelling and punctuation aren't too horrendous. It isn't editing in the sense that words are altered or deleted.

So I'm flummoxed, that's for sure. Could it be a formatting error, I wonder? How are you submitting your stories? By cutting and pasting into the box or by attaching a Word/rtf document?

I think that's what they meant, too. That was confusing!

Could it be the sentences right before or after a page break? I've seen sentences or entire paragraphs repeat before in other stories, but never noticed anything missing (which would obviously be more difficult to do if it wasn't my story).

Poppy's got the general idea, and I can't think of much to add. If in doubt, PM Laurel with your question. She might be able to help get to the bottom of this.

 

[t_girl_3]

Editor omissions...again, lol.

I'm getting the distinct feeling that I may not be working with an editor, at all and I'm now as confused as all of you kind souls trying to help me. Ok, my process is as follows with submissions:

1) Write the story using MSWord as a .txt doc.
2) Attach the doc file when I've begun the submit process on the Lit site.
3) Preview the submission in Lit and click on final submit button.
4) I view the submission to make sure it is in proper order and has the 'pending' tag.
5) A few days later, it appears in the published queque.

I 'assumed' that somewhere in that process a human editor reviewed the piece after I submitted and either ok'd it for publishing, or rejected it for whatever reason; age, snuff, etc.
The wording on Lit's site says that their robots can't review submissions that are attachments, only those using Lit's writing 'box'.

My impression was that submissions that are sent in another form, such as I do, are reviewed by an actual person.

Am I wrong in that assessment? What am I missing here? Could the missing parts of my story be nothing more than a digital hiccup in the publishing?

Nothin from Lit yet with an answer.

Thanks all,
t_girl

 

[fieryjen]

Yes, in that case, your submission should be viewed by an actual person.

Our confusion stems from the fact that you posted in the Editor's forum and used the word "Editor" in a manner that had us assume you are talking about the kind of editor who helps improve your stories before you submit them, and that this person was deleting sentences from your submission as a way of improving it. So we were just misunderstanding what you said.

One way of fixing the problem on future stories may be to chose a different way of submitting them. It might take care of it. If that doesn't work, I once again recommend PMing Laurel about the problem. She should be able to at least fix the stories already submitted, if not let you know how the problem can be prevented in the future.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

We're all aware of "identity theft".

Watching the news tonight I am now aware of "medical identity theft", where a person loses their medical card which an uncovered person uses to obtain "expensive" medical care leaving the victim with thousands of doctor/hospital bills.

Wondering now if there are "editor thieves", who trash an author in the name of another?

Just a thought.

 

[fieryjen]

We're all aware of "identity theft".

Watching the news tonight I am now aware of "medical identity theft", where a person loses their medical card which an uncovered person uses to obtain "expensive" medical care leaving the victim with thousands of doctor/hospital bills.

Wondering now if there are "editor thieves", who trash an author in the name of another?

Just a thought.

I'm sorry, I totally can't follow your reasoning with regards to this thread.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Duh????

I'm sorry, I totally can't follow your reasoning with regards to this thread.

I'm getting the distinct feeling that I may not be working with an editor, at all and I'm now as confused as all of you kind souls trying to help me. Ok, my process is as follows with submissions:

I'm getting the distinct feeling that I may not be working with an editor

 

[fieryjen]

My question was perfectly serious and not meant lightly or offensively. I have no idea what you're talking about, still not after your last post. Maybe I'm missing something.

The "Duh?" was quite hurtful however, and I don't think I deserved it.

So I'm out of this thread.




t_girl_3, I hope my last post was of some help to you. Good luck getting your submissions fixed.

 

[sr71plt]

I thought this had come down to where there was no copyeditor involved at all--that everything that happened here was in the submissions to Lit. process. The "editor" function in the submission area is selection (or rejection) only. I'm not aware that any copyediting is done in the submissions process at all.

I have no idea how material got dropped in this process, though.

 

[fieryjen]

I thought this had come down to where there was no copyeditor involved at all--that everything that happened here was in the submissions to Lit. process. The "editor" function in the submission area is selection (or rejection) only. I'm not aware that any copyediting is done in the submissions process at all.

I have no idea how material got dropped in this process, though.

Yes, that's what it boiled down to. hence me not understanding the point AS was making.



I'm back because the OP PM'd me and I'm having trouble replying - I'm getting a "This person may not be allowed to receive PM's" error, not sure why. So here is my reply:

Laurel is one of the two Literotica Webmasters. She's very likely the one who looked over your stories when you sent them in.

Her username is just that, "Laurel", so you can PM her under that and ask. Literotica has an official email address for such matters, but since a lot of spam is sent to it, emails don't have a large chance of reaching the webmasters. Sending a private message is much more effective and likely to get a answer.

Hope that helps.

 

[poppy_cock]

We're all aware of "identity theft".

Watching the news tonight I am now aware of "medical identity theft", where a person loses their medical card which an uncovered person uses to obtain "expensive" medical care leaving the victim with thousands of doctor/hospital bills.

Wondering now if there are "editor thieves", who trash an author in the name of another?

Just a thought.

Hmm, pretty random post, AS...

But I don't think that's what's happening here, having followed this thread from the beginning to the end. Cos if it was, you're suggesting that our good Laurel and Manu are 'editor thieves'. Don't think so.

Nope, my best guess is still that things are going awry with the formatting and bits and pieces are being lost with paragraph breaks, and various weirdness that can happen with HTML codes (by the way, I don't really have a clue about any of the latter beyond how to put in italics, LOL--but I do know that if you centre an asterisk or a little wavy line to indicate a scene break, the text that follows is much bigger--and I know that that's a formatting glitch).

I'm with Fieryjen--pm Laurel, maybe even insert a portion of your text that's 'gone wrong' and the corresponding original text so that she can see what might have happened.

Hope you get things sorted.

 

[LadyCibelle]

We're all aware of "identity theft".

Watching the news tonight I am now aware of "medical identity theft", where a person loses their medical card which an uncovered person uses to obtain "expensive" medical care leaving the victim with thousands of doctor/hospital bills.

Wondering now if there are "editor thieves", who trash an author in the name of another?

Just a thought.

Uh?? What? De kossé? I think I've missed a chapter in your novel, AS. WTF are you talking about?

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Many Apologies

My question was perfectly serious and not meant lightly or offensively. I have no idea what you're talking about, still not after your last post. Maybe I'm missing something.

The "Duh?" was quite hurtful however, and I don't think I deserved it.

So I'm out of this thread.




t_girl_3, I hope my last post was of some help to you. Good luck getting your submissions fixed.

You've been nothing but kind to me and I never meant to cause any ill-will, and I hereby apologize (note the 'z'). You're the best.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

I'm Not As Crazy As You Think

Uh?? What? De kossé? I think I've missed a chapter in your novel, AS. WTF are you talking about?

First off, I don't understand half of your message except the underlying meaning that you think my cock is harder than my balls... could be confused there.

Okay, getting serious. There was this person "Andy" (I think) who was supposedly an editor and writers were writing in expressing their dismay. I linked that to a report I heard on the evening news about medical "stealing". Mind you this was a few days ago.

All I was wondering "out loud" was if there may be "fake" editors.

Whatever! I do alot here, do alot of good, and you're pointing fingers?

Fuck it! I love you LadyC, but I'm only feeling pain.

 

[fieryjen]

You've been nothing but kind to me and I never meant to cause any ill-will, and I hereby apologize (note the 'z'). You're the best.

I accept that. Thank you.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

I just shared a thought and have been attacked <shaking head>. Fuck it, need to find a better way of spending my time than wasting it here.

Yeah, sure, I'm sure I'll be back, dammit!

Can't let LadyC have full rein without a thorn or two in her side!

But I am a bit pissed, for the record.