Long time reader - first time poster, nothing after chapter 2 is publishing

[Cafanathaw]

Hi, I have been an avid fan of the site for years.

I finally decided to make a profile and contribute, and boy do I wish I had never bothered.

I have published the first two chapters of a 26 chapter story I have in progress, and I am constantly writing more chapters every week, its so much fun.

The first two chapters took me an eon to get published. They came back as are you using grammerly to write your stories ? I will be honest with you i didnt know Grammerly could write stories, I thought it checked Grammer ?? Show what I know.

I tried resubmitting, resubmitting and saying please read this, I tried dumbing it down, taking out overly descriptvie bits, puting slang in (I dont normally put slang in because I dont use it in real life, so it sounds false to me? if that makes sense), spelling mistakes in. Same answer every time. I gave up and took a lot of the bad changes out, or as many as I could find. Then someone said delete and do it again as a new item, so I did that and, no back to square one. Then someone said, if you attached it as a word document, cut it out, and post it as raw text in the form. And that is the only thing I did, text still the same, and they were both published. Hurah!

The first two chapters went down really well, lots of reads, HOT label, whatever that means, and comments saying thanks and I cant wait for future chapter, i am hooked etc.

So I though I had it clicked, then next 4 chapters I put in straight as text in the form. The first one sat there for around 17 day, the other three 10 and 5, as I was dripping them in.

I was starting to get woried. then all four got rejected. All at the same time even though they were submitted weeks apart. Same story this is AI.

I even tried to see why they see it as AI, so i took the text and put it in a couple of different systems (or the couple I know about) to ask it. The AI wouldnt even read it, it just told me I had to take out all the insest, bdsm, and illegal sex acts before it would even give me an analyis - so that begs a question as to how anyone else is getting AI to write their stories ????

Anyway, that is the background of my predicament. I have read a lot os posts on here, and what it comes down to is that you can do nothing about this, you are either lucky and it gets published, or like me you are just wasting valuable time.

So I have decided to quit attemting on this platform as its enough work writing, without this added fuss. However I feel like a shit-heel for all the people who want to know what happens next, and a lot happens. So I was going to ask all you good authors out there how I best attack this. i thought that maybe I could post the stories somewhere else, my initial though was a free membership patreon, or I dont know if there is something better out there ? And the next question is how do I direct people to the rest of the chapters. Both those who have commented that they are waiting, and those people who have read the first chapters and want the rest ?

I thought a comment, but who goes back to an old chapter and reads the comments ?

Any good ideas would be greatfully received.

However if you are just going go on about maybe your writing is not bursty enough, how I have to keep paragraphs below four lines, every third sence should be only three words long, blah blah. It's not welcome, I won't change the way I write to try and beat an arbitrary algorythm. I know I wrote my work, and thats all that matters. Any contrary comment is just offensive. And its been proven as I changed nothing and the first two chapters went through!

Hopefully I can get all these chapters to the people who want to read them. Thanks in advance

 

[PennyThompson]

They came back as are you using grammerly to write your stories ? I will be honest with you i didnt know Grammerly could write stories, I thought it checked Grammer

Grammarly will also rewrite sentences and paragraphs for flow, clarity, tone, etc., and this is mechanically no different from using an AI like ChatGPT. Whatever tools or techniques that Lit uses to screen for AI seems to often flag these tools.

(Some people seem to be able to use grammarly's basic grammar check functions without trouble, but I'm pretty confident that they are just reviewing G's suggestions and then making the changes themselves. Personally I just wouldn't risk it.)

Literally everything else in your post is irrelevant, unfortunately. Turn off grammarly, and any other writing tools you have access to. Never accept any "suggested changes" from any of your writing programs, always write the words for yourself.

If you have drafts or version histories of your stories from before you let Grammarly "fix" them, revert back to those ones!

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’m sorry for your experience. It happens to a lot of people. Sometimes it’s genuinely as they used AI, or allowed a grammar checker to prompt them with replacement text. Sometimes it’s a total false positive.

But:

1. Good grammar does not lead to rejection for AI
2. A lack of spelling mistakes does not lead to rejection for AI
3. Correct punctuation does not lead to rejection for AI

Stories with all of the above attributes get posted every day.

Adding ‘mistakes’ to a work flagged for AI is pointless. It’s a waste of time. The reason (valid or otherwise) for your rejection is elsewhere.

 

[Cafanathaw]

I’m sorry for your experience. It happens to a lot of people. Sometimes it’s genuinely as they used AI, or allowed a grammar checker to prompt them with replacement text. Sometimes it’s a total false positive.

But:

1. Good grammar does not lead to rejection for AI
2. A lack of spelling mistakes does not lead to rejection for AI
3. Correct punctuation does not lead to rejection for AI

Stories with all of the above attributes get posted every day.

Adding ‘mistakes’ to a work flagged for AI is pointless. It’s a waste of time. The reason (valid or otherwise) for your rejection is elsewhere.

Totally agree Emily,

it's more an algorithm of sentence structure, and as I pertained to burstiness, paragraph lengths, common language/ slang, and frequently reused similes and metaphors.
But as I have said in other forums, when I write a paragraph or two describing in detail how tranquil and inviting the orangery is, and how the 'afternoon tea' on silver service, and aroma of jasmine tea put the girls at ease, I am not going to throw a "ya know what I mean" to appease the algorithm. And yes I may use "the orgasm hit her like a freight train more than once" but when there are 32 mind blowing orgasms in that specific chapter you kind of run out of similes. lol.
It would be easier to follow suite and just go, "she walked in the bedsit, they sat on the sofa, and fucked" its not as interesting to read or write, but least I would have less headaches, ha ha.

The adding mistakes was just for the first two chapters, just to try and figure out what was going on, as there is no support on this site. As I said I put them back to 98% original, from memory as I stupidly didn't keep the originals. And they got accepted right away, so I just dont get it ???

So I figure its just better to try and put them somewhere else where I can control the flow of stories, as there is a massive backlog at my end now.

I did try the passing it off to their preferred editors route as well, but the ones I contacted never answered, so thats a dead end too.. But you are right about it being a waste of time.

Thanks for your feedback Emily, its always appreciated.

 

[Cafanathaw]

Grammarly will also rewrite sentences and paragraphs for flow, clarity, tone, etc., and this is mechanically no different from using an AI like ChatGPT. Whatever tools or techniques that Lit uses to screen for AI seems to often flag these tools.

(Some people seem to be able to use grammarly's basic grammar check functions without trouble, but I'm pretty confident that they are just reviewing G's suggestions and then making the changes themselves. Personally I just wouldn't risk it.)

Literally everything else in your post is irrelevant, unfortunately. Turn off grammarly, and any other writing tools you have access to. Never accept any "suggested changes" from any of your writing programs, always write the words for yourself.

If you have drafts or version histories of your stories from before you let Grammarly "fix" them, revert back to those ones!

Thanks Penny,

I didnt know that about Grammily I have never used it. I just thought it checked Grammar, which is why I have never used it. I always thought why pay for something to check your grammar when word does this anyway ??

Now I can see why people pay for that if it tells you what to say. Doh !

So no files before anything fixed anything, because I havent used any tools. Just boring old, type it all down as fast I can, and then go back through and try and make it flow, improve descriptions, change the story structure etc. And word deals with really bad grammar and spelling. thats it. I am a bit old school, I probably go through 3-4 versions. reruns of each chapter. So will write four or five in a run, so I don't get bored, then go back and refine the first few, then back to new again. Just to keep the old pecker up. I am sure there are lots of cool tools that would do this for me, but I like the process, and it helps me improve the story as I go. Which is why it's annoying when it says its 'AI', when it is clearly 'I Dave'.

The real solution I think is to post them somewhere else. Because I do feel for the publishers here, they must get hundreds per day, and they have to use some kind of tool to help them. I just feel bitter, when I read some of the stories that get through. No thats a lie I just get peeved because all I want to do is write, which is what I was doing a couple of months ago. Maybe I should just not post them at all. Who knows.

But thanks for taking some of your time to give the advice Penny, it is appreciated.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’ve written with a total lack of modern slang and been fine. I honestly don’t think adding kinda, gonna, imma is gonna help much.

 

[Cafanathaw]

I’ve written with a total lack of modern slang and been fine. I honestly don’t think adding kinda, gonna, imma is gonna help much.

Damn I just put a load of gonna in chapter 7 !!! noooooooo

 

[FrancesScott]

If it helps at all, I have published a story here written in the style of Fitzgerald and another in the style of Conan Doyle (or at least my best approximation of the authors’ writing). The text is very different to modern usage and doesn’t contain latter day contractions. Both were approved within a day.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Repetition, certain word choices, excessive use of "then," "and," "just" indicate AI usage to the checking systems. Use of long, complicated sentences, with no offsetting shorter sentences, long paragraphs with no shoter ones, and use of feel, like, seems rather than direct displays of emotions or physical reactions reads as robitic which trips the AI flag on detectors.

 

[Britva415]

Try this:

Resubmit chapter 3, without changing or trying to "fix" the content. Wen you resubmit it, write a statement in the Notes field telling the editor that you didn't use AI, you got hit for a false positive, and you're asking for a human review.

If it works, do the same for chapter 4 etc.

 

[MillieDynamite]

AIish writing, "She feels the prick slamming inside her, feeling it stretch her, where she's never been stretched before. Not AIish, "Splitting her open with his cock, thrusting inside her, stretching her further than ever."

 

[RejectReality]

There's no way of knowing what the hallucinating clanker thinks is AI, so trying to fix it is a fool's errand. You're just throwing stuff at the wall hoping something sticks if you try. All you can do is never let any review program replace any of your text with its suggestions beyond the most basic spelling and grammar. That's the only thing that absolutely improves your odds, so if you're already doing that, it's all you can do.

Once you're caught in the AI sinkhole, getting multiple rejections and repeated rejections, you're better off finding another venue for the story. The struggle isn't worth it.

The one and only thing ( beyond an attempt to resubmit as-is with a note saying, "Didn't use AI" ) I think is going to have any hope of success is combining multiple chapters to increase the word count, and thus potentially reduce the percentage of the work that the checker thinks is AI.

Your posted chapters are 3-4 Lit pages, so I don't think combining would help you. You already have a reasonable length to reduce the percentage if that was going to work.

 

[Cafanathaw]

Repetition, certain word choices, excessive use of "then," "and," "just" indicate AI usage to the checking systems. Use of long, complicated sentences, with no offsetting shorter sentences, long paragraphs with no shoter ones, and use of feel, like, seems rather than direct displays of emotions or physical reactions reads as robitic which trips the AI flag on detectors.

Yep I know the algorithm, but as I said in my first post a) if you read the chapters that have been approved after already being rejected you won't find any of that b) the next 5 chapters are the same style as the first 2 c) regardless of any algorithm, I wrote my content, so who is anyone to say I have to change the way I write to beat an algorithm.

Lastly AI has learnt how to write by reading historical work, as you change to be different from it, it will just keep learning the new presets. And I would hazard a guess that it can learn faster than we can change, moving forward.

I am just looking now to find a way to post my work elsewhere, because this is too much hit and miss.

 

[Cafanathaw]

There's no way of knowing what the hallucinating clanker thinks is AI, so trying to fix it is a fool's errand. You're just throwing stuff at the wall hoping something sticks if you try. All you can do is never let any review program replace any of your text with its suggestions beyond the most basic spelling and grammar. That's the only thing that absolutely improves your odds, so if you're already doing that, it's all you can do.

Once you're caught in the AI sinkhole, getting multiple rejections and repeated rejections, you're better off finding another venue for the story. The struggle isn't worth it.

The one and only thing ( beyond an attempt to resubmit as-is with a note saying, "Didn't use AI" ) I think is going to have any hope of success is combining multiple chapters to increase the word count, and thus potentially reduce the percentage of the work that the checker thinks is AI.

Your posted chapters are 3-4 Lit pages, so I don't think combining would help you. You already have a reasonable length to reduce the percentage if that was going to work.

As I have said, cant turn tools off because I dont use them. I have tried all the tricks posted on here, including the notes, dms to the boss, support feedback, in word, not in word. It's taken two months to get 2 chapters through, and I have 4 in pending, another 12 sat waiting to go, and another 9 WIP.

I have put them back into the queue to see if persistence works, but the chances are I have to give up, just come on here to find the best way to give up, where by people can still easily find the rest of the chapters.

 

[Cafanathaw]

Try this:

Resubmit chapter 3, without changing or trying to "fix" the content. Wen you resubmit it, write a statement in the Notes field telling the editor that you didn't use AI, you got hit for a false positive, and you're asking for a human review.

If it works, do the same for chapter 4 etc.

yeah did that already. but have resubmitted it again with different author note, clearly saying NOT AI and explaining to read 1 &2 and see they are the same. but I think they will just fail again. I mean I have had chapter 2 fail, resubmitted without any change and it passes so go figure. I think its time to change to some other platform if anyone knows of one.

 

[MillieDynamite]

The site is to say, they own the place.

Yep I know the algorithm, but as I said in my first post a) if you read the chapters that have been approved after already being rejected you won't find any of that b) the next 5 chapters are the same style as the first 2 c) regardless of any algorithm, I wrote my content, so who is anyone to say I have to change the way I write to beat an algorithm.

Lastly AI has learnt how to write by reading historical work, as you change to be different from it, it will just keep learning the new presets. And I would hazard a guess that it can learn faster than we can change, moving forward.

I am just looking now to find a way to post my work elsewhere, because this is too much hit and miss.

 

[RejectReality]

As I have said, cant turn tools off because I dont use them. I have tried all the tricks posted on here, including the notes, dms to the boss, support feedback, in word, not in word. It's taken two months to get 2 chapters through, and I have 4 in pending, another 12 sat waiting to go, and another 9 WIP.

I have put them back into the queue to see if persistence works, but the chances are I have to give up, just come on here to find the best way to give up, where by people can still easily find the rest of the chapters.

Honestly, anyone who's hooked will make the effort to find it. Just post a note on your Bio that you've given up on getting that story posted here and sought alternate venues. If you do start a free Patreon or something of that nature, and it's one of the available options on your options page, enter it into the appropriate section ( make sure to read the instructions for Patreon in particular, because that one's a little finicky ) and people will follow the breadcrumbs.

 

[MillieDynamite]

All anyone can do is point you to what throws flags; you have to make the changes to get to pass. If you're not will to do that, it'll never go through.

And @RejectedREality, it's a violation of site rules to publish teasers to drive people to other sites, pay or otherwise, and his telling them they can continue the story elsewhere will get him banned. You can only have a link that's allowed by the site on your profile and only one of those they provide for you to paste in; no other references to other websites are allowed PERIOD!

 

[Britva415]

Don't bother putting in any effort to change your work until you try this:

Resubmit chapter 3, without changing or trying to "fix" the content. Wen you resubmit it, write a statement in the Notes field telling the editor that you didn't use AI, you got hit for a false positive, and you're asking for a human review.

When it's a true false positive, sometimes this works. If it does, do the same for chapter 4 etc.

 

[Cafanathaw]

The site is to say, they own the place.

No as I have clearly said in the original post, I am posting here for options to find another site to post my work to.

...but you didn't read that,

nor did you read the last sentence that outlined I don't want tips on how to rewrite all my content. I have had those tips rammed down my throat in all the other posts I put up here when I couldn't get the first posts accepted. In fact I have had those same tips many times from you in the past month.

I appreciated the tips previously, even though they were people telling me what was wrong with my writing, even though they had not had a chance to read any of my writing. Ironically I didn't have to change anything and a few resubmits later it was passed, so I guess there was nothing wrong with my writing ?

But if it makes you feel better, you just keep giving me advice that I haven't asked for, don't want and don't need.

As for everyone else, I reiterate, does anyone know a good place to put all the chapters, and more importantly find a way to let the people who enjoyed the first parts know where they can get the rest of the story. Oh and I would prefer it if they could get the rest of the story without any cost to them.. thank you

 

[MillieDynamite]

@Britva415 he did that.

 

[PennyThompson]

No as I have clearly said in the original post, I am posting here for options to find another site to post my work to.

A thread discussing the pros and cons of alternatives to Lit

 

[MillieDynamite]

I don't know how to make this clearer; it is their site, and they will not post it, no matter if you provide them with a sworn affidavit or your best pinky swear. Not in forum, as that's a violation of the rules. You can IM someone and they can tell you.

No as I have clearly said in the original post, I am posting here for options to find another site to post my work to.

...but you didn't read that,

nor did you read the last sentence that outlined I don't want tips on how to rewrite all my content. I have had those tips rammed down my throat in all the other posts I put up here when I couldn't get the first posts accepted. In fact I have had those same tips many times from you in the past month.

I appreciated the tips previously, even though they were people telling me what was wrong with my writing, even though they had not had a chance to read any of my writing. Ironically I didn't have to change anything and a few resubmits later it was passed, so I guess there was nothing wrong with my writing ?

But if it makes you feel better, you just keep giving me advice that I haven't asked for, don't want and don't need.

As for everyone else, I reiterate, does anyone know a good place to put all the chapters, and more importantly find a way to let the people who enjoyed the first parts know where they can get the rest of the story. Oh and I would prefer it if they could get the rest of the story without any cost to them.. thank you

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, then there's that as well.

A thread discussing the pros and cons of alternatives to Lit

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Hi, I have been an avid fan of the site for years.

I finally decided to make a profile and contribute, and boy do I wish I had never bothered.

I have published the first two chapters of a 26 chapter story I have in progress, and I am constantly writing more chapters every week, its so much fun.

The first two chapters took me an eon to get published. They came back as are you using grammerly to write your stories ? I will be honest with you i didnt know Grammerly could write stories, I thought it checked Grammer ?? Show what I know.

I tried resubmitting, resubmitting and saying please read this, I tried dumbing it down, taking out overly descriptvie bits, puting slang in (I dont normally put slang in because I dont use it in real life, so it sounds false to me? if that makes sense), spelling mistakes in. Same answer every time. I gave up and took a lot of the bad changes out, or as many as I could find. Then someone said delete and do it again as a new item, so I did that and, no back to square one. Then someone said, if you attached it as a word document, cut it out, and post it as raw text in the form. And that is the only thing I did, text still the same, and they were both published. Hurah!

The first two chapters went down really well, lots of reads, HOT label, whatever that means, and comments saying thanks and I cant wait for future chapter, i am hooked etc.

So I though I had it clicked, then next 4 chapters I put in straight as text in the form. The first one sat there for around 17 day, the other three 10 and 5, as I was dripping them in.

I was starting to get woried. then all four got rejected. All at the same time even though they were submitted weeks apart. Same story this is AI.

I even tried to see why they see it as AI, so i took the text and put it in a couple of different systems (or the couple I know about) to ask it. The AI wouldnt even read it, it just told me I had to take out all the insest, bdsm, and illegal sex acts before it would even give me an analyis - so that begs a question as to how anyone else is getting AI to write their stories ????

Anyway, that is the background of my predicament. I have read a lot os posts on here, and what it comes down to is that you can do nothing about this, you are either lucky and it gets published, or like me you are just wasting valuable time.

So I have decided to quit attemting on this platform as its enough work writing, without this added fuss. However I feel like a shit-heel for all the people who want to know what happens next, and a lot happens. So I was going to ask all you good authors out there how I best attack this. i thought that maybe I could post the stories somewhere else, my initial though was a free membership patreon, or I dont know if there is something better out there ? And the next question is how do I direct people to the rest of the chapters. Both those who have commented that they are waiting, and those people who have read the first chapters and want the rest ?

I thought a comment, but who goes back to an old chapter and reads the comments ?

Any good ideas would be greatfully received.

However if you are just going go on about maybe your writing is not bursty enough, how I have to keep paragraphs below four lines, every third sence should be only three words long, blah blah. It's not welcome, I won't change the way I write to try and beat an arbitrary algorythm. I know I wrote my work, and thats all that matters. Any contrary comment is just offensive. And its been proven as I changed nothing and the first two chapters went through!

Hopefully I can get all these chapters to the people who want to read them. Thanks in advance

I started this thread a while back to try to collect advice on this. I think it's got some good advice and some decent discussion. Others will disagree and did so in the thread, bu it's a start and might have a nugget you can use. Good luck