Help - Long Delays?

[leejamesbryant]

Good Morning,

I'm new to publishing on the site and I'm experiencing some really significant delays. I submitted an edit more than 2 weeks ago and Part 2 of my story 8 days ago. I ended up pulling and resubmitting the edit yesterday because I want the next part of my story to take priority.

This is all very frustrating. I'm ready with Part 3 of the story but I want to give Part 2 a couple of days for comments so I can use them to improve Part 3 before I start Part 4.

Is anyone else experiencing long days recently? I publish Part 1 at the end of August and it took maybe 3 days. I understand these things take time, but it seems like these delays are excessive. Is there really only one person who does everything? How does a site become the "most popular community of adult fiction readers & authors for 20+ years" with only one person supporting it?

Thanks!

LJ

 

[Bazzle]

If you copy and paste into the box, its quicker than submitting a word document.

If there are lots of stories going into your section, they might delay it a little.

Who knows. In my experience normally the longer the wait the higher chance of it being rejected for some reason or another.

 

[ElectricBlue]

If you pulled a story out of the queue, you put it to the back of the queue - and edits are low priority, regardless. 8 - 10 days for an edit is not uncommon.

Two or three days is typical for a new story, two days is good, one day is exceptional. My last went up in two days (a day ago), and I've had a short story go up in 24 hours, but that was very unusual - but a new writer will rarely get that turn-around.

Waiting for comments to "improve" your next chapter is a mug's game. If you get one comment per thousand Views you'll be doing well, but that's not much feedback, certainly not enough to "get better" at writing. Overall, Lit readers don't give much feedback, so I wouldn't be waiting for it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Good Morning,

I'm new to publishing on the site and I'm experiencing some really significant delays. I submitted an edit more than 2 weeks ago and Part 2 of my story 8 days ago. I ended up pulling and resubmitting the edit yesterday because I want the next part of my story to take priority.

This is all very frustrating. I'm ready with Part 3 of the story but I want to give Part 2 a couple of days for comments so I can use them to improve Part 3 before I start Part 4.

Is anyone else experiencing long days recently? I publish Part 1 at the end of August and it took maybe 3 days. I understand these things take time, but it seems like these delays are excessive. Is there really only one person who does everything? How does a site become the "most popular community of adult fiction readers & authors for 20+ years" with only one person supporting it?

Thanks!

LJ

First of all, it's pretty ambitious to start with a multi-chapter series on your first time out, but if that's what you've got, good luck! There is a school of thought that a series should be completely written before submitting begins, but I've never had the patience for that.

As you are starting to learn, what you want and what's possible here are not the same thing. There has been basically one person running the show for over two decades, so that's what we have to deal with. As was said in the message above, comments can be sparse and usually are not particularly helpful. There are more votes usually, so the score might be the best indication of how the audience is receiving it. Otherwise, you are basically on your own when deciding what to write.

Edits can take a long time for everybody, like maybe three weeks perhaps. First time authors usually have to wait for full stories being published, so eight days isn't too alarming. (Part 1 in three days was surprisingly fast.) In any case, there probably isn't any connection between the two items you submitted (as said, edits go to the back of the line). So relax and be patient. None of us really knows what is going on behind the scenes.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

There is a school of thought that a series should be completely written before submitting begins, but I've never had the patience for that.

I read similar comments from time to time and it concerns me slightly that we might be confusing new writers.

Here's my take on it:

A "series" is a group of individual stories following a common plot theme or strategy, frequently with many (but not all) of the same characters. (Think of a television series such as Star Trek as an example.) While it is usually beneficial to follow the sequence order for the series, not doing so should not detract from the enjoyment of any of the individual stories. I believe I did this with my "Before They Were Stars" series and will be doing the same with my son to be published "Uncle Sugar Daddy" series.

This differs from "chapter" stories, which are the ongoing submissions of the same story in separate parts. Once readers start chapter one, they can become invested in the subsequent chapters and frequently become impatient if they have to wait too long for the next installment. This is why I recommend always completing a "chapter" story before submitting any parts of it. I have several submissions that follow this principle.

If others feel differently, please explain your reasoning. (I know that a lack of patience is the most common reason)

 

[Bazzle]

The advantage of writing it all is that you might get 3/4 way through and for example your protagonist needs glasses to read the small print.

Yet they have not worn glasses at any point in the previous chapters.

You can edit it all before publishing!

 

[leejamesbryant]

Thanks for the clarifications re: timing to post stories for new authors. That all makes sense.

Regarding the comments about looking for feedback before finalizing the next part -- I asked for feedback when I posted my first story and I got feedback that was very helpful. So I'm going to continue to do that until it doesn't happen anymore. Even just one comment can be really valuable if it's thoughtful. As a new writer on this site, I think it's important to listen to anyone who bothers to read my little, unknown story.

 

[DebandEd2022]

Good Morning,

I'm new to publishing on the site and I'm experiencing some really significant delays. I submitted an edit more than 2 weeks ago and Part 2 of my story 8 days ago. I ended up pulling and resubmitting the edit yesterday because I want the next part of my story to take priority.

This is all very frustrating. I'm ready with Part 3 of the story but I want to give Part 2 a couple of days for comments so I can use them to improve Part 3 before I start Part 4.

Is anyone else experiencing long days recently? I publish Part 1 at the end of August and it took maybe 3 days. I understand these things take time, but it seems like these delays are excessive. Is there really only one person who does everything? How does a site become the "most popular community of adult fiction readers & authors for 20+ years" with only one person supporting it?

Thanks!

LJ

I am also waiting for edits to be made to a previously submitted story. It's been 8 days since I submitted the edited version. The edits were very simple (I changed some of the names in the piece). I have submitted a couple of follow-up emails asking about the delay, but no response to those either. I guess we have no choice but to continue to wait.

Ed

 

[MillieDynamite]

Resubmissions take weeks to go up, the story is being read, voted on, and visible and they have work that takes priority over the old.

 

[DebandEd2022]

Not to belabor the point, but the edits submitted were simple substitutions of some names used in the piece. There were no other changes made. I made this clear when submitting them. Also, the FAQs indicate that such edits will typically be made in 48 hours or less. I understand that workloads will often dictate response times, but again, these were not major edits.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Not to belabor the point, but the edits submitted were simple substitutions of some names used in the piece. There were no other changes made. I made this clear when submitting them. Also, the FAQs indicate that such edits will typically be made in 48 hours or less. I understand that workloads will often dictate response times, but again, these were not major edits.

Irrelevant. Notes to them carry no weight for a time frame. It waits in the line as a resubmission and will until they go through resubs.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Not to belabor the point, but the edits submitted were simple substitutions of some names used in the piece. There were no other changes made. I made this clear when submitting them. Also, the FAQs indicate that such edits will typically be made in 48 hours or less. I understand that workloads will often dictate response times, but again, these were not major edits.

Doesn't matter: edits are typically 7 - 10 days minimum, and they've been that way since at least 2014, when I joined. All the site does is load up your new text file, they don't go through and "make the changes."

The moral always is to get your text into the best possible state before submission, not afterwards.

 

[Duleigh]

I submitted an edit more than 2 weeks ago

An edit takes FOREVER, give it 2 more weeks.