Max length for submissions?

[yukonnights]

What about publishing them at the same time, but separated, so people can see the structure right away in the repertory? Or is it just better to publish in the same text body?

Thalisea, I've published a number of multi-part stories. I think the biggest advantage to that is what Not Wise said about your story, and your name, being on the New Story List for a longer period of time. Most all activity on our stories is generated on the New Story List.

I find another advantage is that I can basically write a complete story from beginning to end. This is comforting to know that I'm not going to loose control of the story and end up with something I wouldn't be proud of. It also affords the opportunity to evaluate the story and decide where the best places are to break it into Parts. (I typically do this in the story outline phase.)

If you do decide on a multi-part approach, my preferred way to submit them for publication is all parts on the same day, one after the other. The site editor will dole them out automatically every couple/few days.

If you do decide on a multi-part approach, I don't recall seeing an explanation of how that is specifically done. 1. Each part must have the same Title plus Part X, > Title-Part One, Title-Part Two, etc. (Chapter or Part, doesn't matter). 2. The 'short description' can be different for each chapter. 3. Each chapter can have unique story tags 4. A short note to the editor indicating your intentions can't hurt.

Good luck, and welcome to the wild world of writing erotica

 

[ElectricBlue]

If you do decide on a multi-part approach, my preferred way to submit them for publication is all parts on the same day, one after the other. The site editor will dole them out automatically every couple/few days.

If you do decide on a multi-part approach, I don't recall seeing an explanation of how that is specifically done. 1. Each part must have the same Title plus Part X, > Title-Part One, Title-Part Two, etc. (Chapter or Part, doesn't matter). 2. The 'short description' can be different for each chapter. 3. Each chapter can have unique story tags 4. A short note to the editor indicating your intentions can't hurt.

Good luck, and welcome to the wild world of writing erotica

Yes, if you submit together, Laurel will schedule an automatic release, usually a day apart - although somebody recently mentioned they'd asked for a 48 hour gap, which happened. Add a note to the editor in the first one, saying how many chapters you've got.

Title - Ch.01
Title - Ch.02
Title - Ch.03

(Not alpha numbers, that will truly cock it up).

If you plan > 100 chapters, start chapter numbering with 001, otherwise you'll get completely out of sequence. Also, the default title length is 35 characters, so not much to play with. Use the sub-titles carefully!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

There's no maximum. Don't worry about it. There are stories here that are full novel length.

Well, that isn't quite true. Most databases, yes Lit. uses one, have a maximum column size. Over the years it has grown.

First is was 4,000 character. Then it was 400,000 characters. Then it jumped to 4,000,000 characters. When I left the business, computer/database coding, the maximum was 4gbytes. Now, who knows?

The other limiting factor was the size of the disk the DB resided on. Now with Terabyte sized disks...

So, actually, even if the size is still 4gig per column, it's basically unlimited. I don't think anyone on this site had even come close to 4gig with all the stories they have written.

 

[PennameWombat]

Or skip the juicy bits and read the story. That also happens .

Not exactly that, but I just received this comment (You Promised Me Geeks: UK Summer):

Lovely story, very open ended, love to see what “the American Connection” is with the White Hairs in a future story (hopefully). I also like that you don’t jam the sex in where the storyline doesn’t warrant it, nicely done Sir

Since my story had two female MCs (both Americans visiting the UK) and they disagreed as to the gustatory excellence of mushy peas, my Anonymous commenter added:

Fwiw I think mushy peas got a bad rap (unlike ESB which I love too btw), think of them as the UK version of refried beans, just don’t drown ‘em in vinegar like some I could mention!

One of the MCs loved mushy peas but let's say the other, she was rather less enthusiastic. And a bit more vocal

And yes, the White Hairs will make plenty of more appearances

 

[NotWise]

One of the MCs loved mushy peas but let's say the other, she was rather less enthusiastic. And a bit more vocal

My best friend from high school was gifted by his father for his graduation with a tour or Europe. His major takeaway from Britain was how grossed out he was by mushy peas. Mushy everything, in fact. He came away thinking that the British had no concept of how food should be cooked. Probably the French would agree.

His major takeaway from Italy was "can't you get organized?" I don't recall that he had any takeaways from France or Germany, but his dad did buy a Porsche and a Mercedes and ship them back to Arizona. I guess he couldn't buy what he wanted in Tucson.

 

[Thalisea]

Wow! Thanks for all those advice. That’s awesome to have such a vibrant community ready to help

So what I’m taking out of this is:
- There is no max character limit (except for the virtually unreachable, technical limit)
- Write the story entirely before submitting
- Submit in one entry, or in several entries a day or so apart to keep the readers interested.
- Don’t publish several part at the same time, or it will disappear in the limbo before readers could get to the next parts.
- It’s possible to submit at the same time, and the editor will span the publication themself
- Submitting in several part gives you a better grasp on the reading statistics of your story (how much people stop reading before the end and where)

I also had a question that is a bit off-topic, but since electricbluc mentioned it: what do the letters (H, N) mean next to the story entries?

 

[Thalisea]

The red 'H' means it's 'Hot'; it has a score of 4.5 or higher, with at least 10 votes.
The yellow 'N' means it's a new story; it disappears after a week.
Then there's a blue 'W', meaning 'Winner'; the story has won a contest.
And, there's a green 'E', 'Editor's Choice'; Laurel liked the story.

Thank you

 

[lovecraft68]

There is no max limit.

The only issue with a very long story is it has to maintain really good flow to stop people from losing interest.

Longest one I know off the top of my head is 43 lit pages, and its one the top stories on the site in a lot of categories like score, votes, favs,

I've done a couple that have broken 20 pages but it was because they were contest entries and had to be one offs.

But my personal opinion is you're better off breaking something that long into 3-4 chapters for the reader that does get intimidated or doesn't want to invest time in a very long one shot.

 

[Karipet]

I've had one story that was 21 lit pages on the site but about 320 pages on the Lit app. That one was about 75,000 words long. It's scored well but has had less than 10k reads.

I'm currently writing one that is even longer at about 85k right now as I get towards the end of the tale. I'm going to have to make the decision then on whether to break it up into chapters or release it all at once.

 

[GroverLang]

I've had one story that was 21 lit pages on the site but about 320 pages on the Lit app. That one was about 75,000 words long. It's scored well but has had less than 10k reads.

I'm currently writing one that is even longer at about 85k right now as I get towards the end of the tale. I'm going to have to make the decision then on whether to break it up into chapters or release it all at once.

Split it into chapters, preferably around ten/eleven thousand words. You’ll get more readers and I assume that’s what you would like.