First two submissions refused...

[ErosArtist]

...for the same reasons - and I'm confused.

Here's the stated reason for the rejection:

Please fix the punctuation of your dialogue. The convention is that you include periods, commas, exclamation points, or question marks inside the quotes.

Here are dialog samples, cut from each of the stories:

Story 1:
“I’m feeling like a poached egg.” I said.
Without looking, he said “Excellent. I love poached eggs. You know what they say about poached eggs.”

Story 2:
“So what do we do?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest. “Wait for somebody to come along?”

I'm confused on this, as the dialog conforms to the stated style. Of course, I may have overlooked something a proof. If that's the case, I've not seen it yet.

Otherwise, I suppose I'm missing something.

Volunteer editor help please?

Thanks!

 

[sr71plt]

Your first two examples aren't punctuated correctly (but not really in terms of why there's a problem that was given in the rejection statement.)

In the first, it should be a comma rather than a period in this construction: . . . poached egg," I said.

In the second, a comma is missing. It should read: . . . looking, he said, "Excellent . . .

So, we'd have to see a lot more of what is in the texts of your stories, but this might, at least, point to a general problem with rendering of dialog. Of course there might be problems with using British style too, which puts some of the punction outside the quote marks, in contrast to the American style, which almost never does. Can't tell with just seeing a sample.

 

[ErosArtist]

Your first two examples aren't punctuated correctly (but not really in terms of why there's a problem that was given in the rejection statement.)

In the first, it should be a comma rather than a period in this construction: . . . poached egg," I said.

In the second, a comma is missing. It should read: . . . looking, he said, "Excellent . . .

So, we'd have to see a lot more of what is in the texts of your stories, but this might, at least, point to a general problem with rendering of dialog. Of course there might be problems with using British style too, which puts some of the punction outside the quote marks, in contrast to the American style, which almost never does. Can't tell with just seeing a sample.

Thank you - and I understand the samples are limiting. Perhaps the punctuation errors themselves are what triggered the rejection.

I don't think the rejection has anything to do with American vs. British style, of which mine is American.

Are you an editor?

 

[sr71plt]

Thank you - and I understand the samples are limiting. Perhaps the punctuation errors themselves are what triggered the rejection.

I don't think the rejection has anything to do with American vs. British style, of which mine is American.

Are you an editor?

I'm not a Lit. volunteer editor. I do edit for some who post to Lit. I'm mostly writing and publishing myself, though, in terms of erotica. I edit for mainstream book publishers.

How long are these stories? If they are short and you can wait up to a week to get the last of them back, you could PM me and I'd give you an e-mail address to send them to as Word attachments (or in the body of the e-mail if you don't have word). I'd just fix the dialogue punctuation, though--which seems to be the only thing Lit. is asking for.

 

[ErosArtist]

I'm not a Lit. volunteer editor. I do edit for some who post to Lit. I'm mostly writing and publishing myself, though, in terms of erotica. I edit for mainstream book publishers.

How long are these stories? If they are short and you can wait up to a week to get the last of them back, you could PM me and I'd give you an e-mail address to send them to as Word attachments (or in the body of the e-mail if you don't have word). I'd just fix the dialogue punctuation, though--which seems to be the only thing Lit. is asking for.

Word counts are 3,830 and 5,352.

I appreciate your offer. let me know if you;re interested. A week's timetable is fine

Thanks!

 

[sr71plt]

Word counts are 3,830 and 5,352.

I appreciate your offer. let me know if you;re interested. A week's timetable is fine

Thanks!

Sorry for the late reply--was out partying. Those word counts are fine if you just want me to look at/fix the dialogue punctuation. You will need to PM me here for an e-mail address to send them to, though, as the site won't permit e-mail addresses in posts.

In you e-mail, please let me know if you know how to use Word tracking for the editorial system (a simple highlighting of suggested changes and an accept/reject toggle) or if I'll need to put suggested changes in bold. Assuming you can attach the files in Word. If not, you can just send them in the body of e-mails and I'll bold the suggested changes in what I send back.

 

[ErosArtist]

Sorry for the late reply--was out partying. Those word counts are fine if you just want me to look at/fix the dialogue punctuation. You will need to PM me here for an e-mail address to send them to, though, as the site won't permit e-mail addresses in posts.

In you e-mail, please let me know if you know how to use Word tracking for the editorial system (a simple highlighting of suggested changes and an accept/reject toggle) or if I'll need to put suggested changes in bold. Assuming you can attach the files in Word. If not, you can just send them in the body of e-mails and I'll bold the suggested changes in what I send back.

No worries - hope it was fun...

Dialog punctuation is the only thing the rejection noticed identified.

Word Tracking or bold is fine by me and yes, the files will be attached as .doc files.

Thanks for doing this. I'm traveling all day today, so it will be tomorrow or over the weekend when I send the PM if that's alright.

 

[sr71plt]

No worries - hope it was fun...

Dialog punctuation is the only thing the rejection noticed identified.

Word Tracking or bold is fine by me and yes, the files will be attached as .doc files.

Thanks for doing this. I'm traveling all day today, so it will be tomorrow or over the weekend when I send the PM if that's alright.

That's fine. Word tracking is the best, if you can handle it. It's the clearest and fastest for both the editor and the author.