How do I delete a story submission that's pending?

[CherieSin]

I’ve been stuck waiting for three weeks now on a submission and it’s driving me crazy. One part of my series has just been sitting there in pending limbo, neither published nor rejected. During this time, I’ve had another story rejected three times, and two more posted without issue. It’s just this one chapter that seems completely ignored.

At this point it feels like such a waste of time. If it’s going to get rejected, I’d rather know right away than stare at the same “pending” status for weeks. I even edited the submission on the 6th hoping it would finally get noticed, but it’s been over 72 hours since then and still nothing. I can’t even move forward with the rest of the series without at least some feedback on this part.

Is there something wrong with the story itself? Does the size of the submission affect how long it takes to get reviewed? Mine is around 58k words.

Do I need to contact Laurel about this if I want to get it removed? I’ve never done it before, so I don’t even know how.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Click on it as if you are changing something, and X marks the spot.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Wait, that might not be right. I think it is. There may be a trash can.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

There's a DELETE button

 

[MillieDynamite]

Thanks, @ShelbyDawn57, I just did this a week or so back, and couldn't remember. AG!!!!

View attachment 2563269

There's a DELETE button

 

[Bamagan]

I’ve been stuck waiting for three weeks now on a submission and it’s driving me crazy. One part of my series has just been sitting there in pending limbo, neither published nor rejected. During this time, I’ve had another story rejected three times, and two more posted without issue. It’s just this one chapter that seems completely ignored.

At this point it feels like such a waste of time. If it’s going to get rejected, I’d rather know right away than stare at the same “pending” status for weeks. I even edited the submission on the 6th hoping it would finally get noticed, but it’s been over 72 hours since then and still nothing. I can’t even move forward with the rest of the series without at least some feedback on this part.

Is there something wrong with the story itself? Does the size of the submission affect how long it takes to get reviewed? Mine is around 58k words.

Do I need to contact Laurel about this if I want to get it removed? I’ve never done it before, so I don’t even know how.

Whatever the cause of the original delay, you reset the clock when you edited it.

My personal pet hypothesis is that Laurel separates submissions into at least two 'bins' and maybe more: ones that are quick and easy to approve, and ones that require more effort (which could mean they returned too many hits on a grammar check, keyword check for potential underage or other forbidden content, or potential AI-written passages). The easy ones get prioritized (and most days there are around 200 new stories), while everything else waits.

Whatever your other story got rejected for, I suppose there's a reasonable chance the same would apply to the one that was languishing. If it happened to be suspected AI use, she might be having to actually read the story, or at least significant chunks of it, to decide what to do (the same may be true of other prohibited content like potential underage, where a quick scan of the paragraphs may not suffice to understand the details). A long story could conceivably be a factor in delays in such a circumstance.

Others have already showed the process for removal. You can also try messaging Laurel here in the forum (use the envelope icon). If you give a brief description of your issue, she may be able to check and see if your story 'fell into a crack' or something like that; it's been known to happen. She often doesn't respond, but if the delay was a technical issue she has been good about resolving things within a day or two.

 

[SkyBubble]

I’ve been stuck waiting for three weeks now on a submission and it’s driving me crazy. One part of my series has just been sitting there in pending limbo, neither published nor rejected. During this time, I’ve had another story rejected three times, and two more posted without issue. It’s just this one chapter that seems completely ignored.

At this point it feels like such a waste of time. If it’s going to get rejected, I’d rather know right away than stare at the same “pending” status for weeks. I even edited the submission on the 6th hoping it would finally get noticed, but it’s been over 72 hours since then and still nothing. I can’t even move forward with the rest of the series without at least some feedback on this part.

Is there something wrong with the story itself? Does the size of the submission affect how long it takes to get reviewed? Mine is around 58k words.

Do I need to contact Laurel about this if I want to get it removed? I’ve never done it before, so I don’t even know how.

I just deleted and resubmitted one with a note that had been sitting for 7 weeks.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I’ve been stuck waiting for three weeks now on a submission and it’s driving me crazy. One part of my series has just been sitting there in pending limbo, neither published nor rejected. During this time, I’ve had another story rejected three times, and two more posted without issue. It’s just this one chapter that seems completely ignored.

At this point it feels like such a waste of time. If it’s going to get rejected, I’d rather know right away than stare at the same “pending” status for weeks. I even edited the submission on the 6th hoping it would finally get noticed, but it’s been over 72 hours since then and still nothing. I can’t even move forward with the rest of the series without at least some feedback on this part.

You reset the clock by doing this, and put the story at the back of the queue.

Is there something wrong with the story itself?

Possibly - I agree with @Bamagan, their idea of a bot screening process followed by human eyes. Problem is, by resubmitting, you might still be in the bot zone, Laurel might not have seen it yet.

Does the size of the submission affect how long it takes to get reviewed? Mine is around 58k words.

No. I've seen a 400k single submission.

Do I need to contact Laurel about this if I want to get it removed? I’ve never done it before, so I don’t even know how.

Yes, but not to get it deleted, but to ask if it's fallen through the cracks. That's possible, it happens. Either that, or your story was on its way to a rejection.

What was the reason for the other rejections? Possibly the same thing is affecting this chapter.

PM Laurel, ask if the story has got stuck. She probably won't reply, but your story should either go to New, or you'll get another rejection notice.

 

[CherieSin]

Yes, but not to get it deleted, but to ask if it's fallen through the cracks. That's possible, it happens. Either that, or your story was on its way to a rejection.

What was the reason for the other rejections? Possibly the same thing is affecting this chapter.

I deleted the submission, so it doesn’t really matter anymore. I’ll give it a week before reaching out to Laurel about this part specifically if nothing happens again. I honestly think it might have just slipped through the cracks, since my other submissions (40k words) that got flagged for AI (which I don’t use) were always sent back in less than 24 hours, all 3 times. Meanwhile this one was just sitting there since 08/18. I’m really hoping it won’t get rejected and actually gets approved.

 

[SkyBubble]

Wait, that might not be right. I think it is. There may be a trash can.

The "gear" sign on the right of the screen allows you to withdraw the story. If you plan on resubmitting it, make sure you have a copy somewhere.

 

[feel_the_beast]

Whatever the cause of the original delay, you reset the clock when you edited it.

My personal pet hypothesis is that Laurel separates submissions into at least two 'bins' and maybe more: ones that are quick and easy to approve, and ones that require more effort (which could mean they returned too many hits on a grammar check, keyword check for potential underage or other forbidden content, or potential AI-written passages). The easy ones get prioritized (and most days there are around 200 new stories), while everything else waits.

Whatever your other story got rejected for, I suppose there's a reasonable chance the same would apply to the one that was languishing. If it happened to be suspected AI use, she might be having to actually read the story, or at least significant chunks of it, to decide what to do (the same may be true of other prohibited content like potential underage, where a quick scan of the paragraphs may not suffice to understand the details). A long story could conceivably be a factor in delays in such a circumstance.

Others have already showed the process for removal. You can also try messaging Laurel here in the forum (use the envelope icon). If you give a brief description of your issue, she may be able to check and see if your story 'fell into a crack' or something like that; it's been known to happen. She often doesn't respond, but if the delay was a technical issue she has been good about resolving things within a day or two.

Hope your theory about what's going on is right, and I'm not just sitting here on my hands waiting on a resolution for which nothing is being done. I have an open convo with Laurel since day 22, no response yet. Today is 24 days since it was submitted.

 

[CherieSin]

Hope your theory about what's going on is right, and I'm not just sitting here on my hands waiting on a resolution for which nothing is being done. I have an open convo with Laurel since day 22, no response yet. Today is 24 days since it was submitted.

Your comment didn't make me feel any better tbh. I messaged Laurel only like 12 hours ago. I hope we both get our stories out soon.

 

[Bamagan]

Hope your theory about what's going on is right, and I'm not just sitting here on my hands waiting on a resolution for which nothing is being done. I have an open convo with Laurel since day 22, no response yet. Today is 24 days since it was submitted.

Well, as I mentioned, she often doesn't respond directly (after all, time typing to people is time away from scrutinizing stories). If you don't see any change, I would think that probably means your story didn't fall victim to a technical glitch and is still waiting for her to have time to do whatever she needs to do.