How long should I wait for editors?

[Lying Eyes]

Well I sent my story to several editors. One of them sent the work back to me 5 days later. She did a very good job fixing tecnical errors and adding nice little touches that helped the flow of the story without changing my vision. Now it seems to me ready to go to be submited but 8 days later I have not recieved a reply from the other editors who had agreed to take a look at it. How much longer should I wait? I guess I could email them to hurry up but I dont want to be rude. Is their some kind of etiquette when dealing with editors? I dont want to pester them since they were kind enough to volunteer their free time to help me.

 

[pussicat]

Yeah I sent my story off to an editor and its been a week and a half and I'm still waiting... Don't think I am mad or anything, its fine as they are doing me a huge favor and taking time out of thier life to do it I am just so impatent lol. It sucks waiting


But I think I would wait two weeks for someone and no longer, unless they e-mailed me letting me know. You could send them a very nice e-mail saying you are just checking to see how the story/editing is comming along. If they don't e-mail you back then I would just go ahead and submit it. If someone already edited it then it should be fine though.

 

[hiddenself]

People, I wish you bothered to find out how things work in the system that you are trying to use -- there must be a million other threads on exactly this same issue. Too lazy to search?

The bottom line: the VE system is occasionally unreliable. If you haven't heard back, a PM to the MIA editor (to verify that they got your message) is definitely not bad manners.

 

[snooper]

Well, I try for twenty-four hours, but I only accept a second story on forty-eight and I usually offer wait listing for a third.

Some of the better VEs are too kind hearted for their own good, and are inundated with stories and then get bogged down.

 

[yaspis]

VE's would probably have more time to actual problems within the text itself if writers only bothered to learn some grammar - or at least read the fsking manual on "how to use the spell-checker". To me that would mean a lot of less sweat, curses and frustration and more time to the story and - surprise, surprise - that wonderful free time I've heard so much about lately.

So, please, sweet people, get aquinted with spell-checking and please, please look through your story for obvious mistakes in your spelling. It's very frustrating to correct 48 "i's"/piece of text to "I".

 

[HawaiiBill]

Throw no stones . . .

With "time to actual problems," "get aquinted" and "read the fsking manual" as examples from your note above, you may want to be mellow and forgiving of those who didn't ask to be writers but felt called to the task by inspiration. Wanting their ideas, experiences and concepts, we're happy to have their stories -- including serious problems with mechanics.

 

[Lying Eyes]

I finally submited my first story. This is my good/bad experience with editors. Ask politely 5 editors for help, wait 72 hours and I am disapointed that no one responds back. After a prolongued wait I am suprised to suddenly see in my email that 4 of the editors respond and agree. One says that she will take 5 days to do it and 2 more days if I need to work on it again. She is good with her word and the edited story is done exactly 5 days later. I am pleasantly suprised at the profesional job she has done. She says that her changes were minor. Minor or not I believe the changes are done quite well. I dont need to send her a revised draft since I got everything I needed from her the first time.

Now I wait for the other editors. I dont think I need them but since this is my first story I would be more then happy to read their advice and criticism. 9 days later and nothing, 3 editors are M.I.A. So I politely email them and asked them if I they got a chance to read it. I asked them if they are too busy to let me know. Or if they just hate it then I would still be happy to hear their criticism so just email me and tell me why it sucks. One editor returns my email and apoligizes for not responding sooner. She tells me that the story I sent her was truncated due to email space and she could send me the half edited story back to me if I want. Now I am baffled at this remark, I check my sent folder and check and see that the complete story was sent to her. Considering that it is only about 1500 words and that she has a yahoo email account like I do I am suspicious, sounds like an excuse rather then the truth. Never the less I send her the edited version and just ask her to give me her opinion on it. After a few more days she responds and gives me some nice compliments. Whatever the reason for her delay it does not matter any more. She is forgiven, her encouragement is all I needed.

Now what about the other two editors who agreed to look at it? They seemed to have vanished without a trace. No reply, nothing, not even an email to say "you suck" or "leave me alone." I am confused, why would they agree to volunteer to help me and then ignore me?

So in the end I found one great editor that I am happy to have found. And no I am not telling you who she is becuse I am afraid you will steal her away from me. She's mine all mine! Seems from my experience that good profesional editors are a rare breed.

 

[HawaiiBill]

Literotica as a microcosm

Well, slicknhb, you may come to the same conclusion I hold, that Literotica is a mirror of the real world. The more I paw through the diverse offerings of this realm, it is increasingly evident there is no imposition of "right" to be found. "Wrong," in other words, is scattered freely in the mix.

Some volunteer editors don't keep their word, you have discovered. Writers, you would find at the other end of the transaction, are often woefully ill-prepared for their challenge. Hmm.

If there is no "Supreme Being" behind the curtain of Literotica, there doesn't seem to be a "Wizard of Oz," either. If it exists, the 'purpose of Literotica' is veiled.

I submit we're better off. Given freedom to fail makes the choice to 'do it right' much more precious.

In the real world where stories are bought and sold, you might deal with capriciousness in editors who do you much worse. They, too, might take 'forever' to read your copy and then turn it down with a boilerplate rejection slip and -- worst of all -- give your idea to a writer buddy who steals you blind and gets money to do it. No kidding.

Writers in that world plagiarize on occasion or write brilliant 'first chapters' that warrant an advance never honored with finished work. It's a funny world, literature.

Enjoy yourself here because you are doing it for fun. And count yourself lucky beyond measure to find an editor you treasure because they are valuable beyond belief.

 

[yaspis]

HawaiiBill, it might be true that I was a bit too stern. Haven't had much sleep nor coffee since last week, so I guess I'm bit more cranky than usual. As a bonus, I have a bad-ass temper of a magazine editor...

That's no excuse for lashing out at writers, I know, but I've kinda gotten the impression that one of the very first things to teach a person about the English language - whether or not a native speaker - is that when referring to the first person, you use "I", always capitalized.

It saddens me to see the same writer repeating his/her mistakes over and over again, time after time. English certainly isn't my first language and there are some tedious, repeating mistakes I make myself, and I feel happy to be corrected on them.

I write too, myself. I know that once the inspiration snaps on it's easy to make mistakes and overlook them. That's why I love a good spell-checker. It's hard to be objective on a piece you just wrote, so it's nice to have something that's quite merciless about minor repetive flaws.

... And now I'm hi-jacking the thread. Sorry.

 

[hiddenself]

I've kinda gotten the impression that one of the very first things to teach a person about the English language - whether or not a native speaker - is that when referring to the first person, you use "I", always capitalized.

With the very common D/s convention: pronouns pertaining to a sub start with a lowercase letter ("i" when the sub is speaking) and those pertaining to the Dom/me always start with an uppercase letter ("You," "His/Her" etc, when the sub refers to the Dom/me, "My" when the Dom/me is addressing the sub).
Although this is standard in personal communication and board postings, it tends to be annoying in a story meant to be read by a wider audience. So, a dialogue written with this D/s convention would be fine in IMing, but will probably look weird in a story and would need to be reformatted appropriately.

 

[Lady Christabel]

Hey slick.

There is no defense for poor manners, but remember that shit happens. There are a lot of reasons why someone may not return your email and none of them have anything to do with poor manners or irresponsibility. Emails sometimes don't make it to their intended recipient, systems crash and lose anything not on backup, users accidentally delete emails, etc. On some systems, emails cannot be retrieved once deleted. I did this yesterday and I'm scrambling to find the author. I saw part of an email address before it entered the cybervoid, so I'm tossing out feelers and crossing my fingers.

What I'd like to see on Lit is a queue in each editor's profile of people who've contacted them through Lit's system. If nothing else, a date/time stamp next to the person's Lit ID. That would certainly cut down any "I didn't get it" or "I deleted it" errors. Granted, Lit can crash too, but a backup would be nice.

 

[ChiPete71]

I am one of the many volunteer editors. Although I try to respond within 1 or 2 days of receiving a request, I always advise that I am busy and it may take a little while for me to respond with all changes. It is not an easy task to work full time, work on my own stories and interests, and respond within a short amount of time to all who request it. I do the best that I can, but it is tough. I hope this helps some of you out.

 

[Lying Eyes]

Maybe I sounded a bit bitter from not getting responses from two editors whether they did so for tecnical or personal reasons. I am very grateful for the help that I recieved. And I understand that editors have their own lives so they may not have the time to work on it. But this makes me even more apreciative of the aid I did recieve. People like Lady Christabel, ChiPete71 and others that have given away their free time and volunteered their editing skill for nothing in return have my admiration. Saying thank you doesnt seem enough for the favor they have done.

 

[yaspis]

I agree with Lady C - that would be wonderful. I'd also like a time-zoned clock next to the editor's and author's profile, so that the one trying to contact the other (that got tacky) could see the time the other one's living. Time-zoning can cause some minor drama. If the sender is in quite opposite side of Tellus than the receiver - say, Australia and Iceland - the 48 hours can be very different.. This rarely causes problems, but I'd imagine that there are people around who are very demandant and stern about the 48 hours. Just from the top of my tiredly drooping head.

 

[snooper]

I agree with Lady C - that would be wonderful. I'd also like a time-zoned clock next to the editor's and author's profile, so that the one trying to contact the other (that got tacky) could see the time the other one's living. Time-zoning can cause some minor drama. If the sender is in quite opposite side of Tellus than the receiver - say, Australia and Iceland - the 48 hours can be very different.. This rarely causes problems, but I'd imagine that there are people around who are very demandant and stern about the 48 hours. Just from the top of my tiredly drooping head.

Timezones work well in some directions, badly in others. What is a bind on the 72 hours rule is the week-end. Week-ends are for sport, and editing is not a sport.