my submissions are being ignored

[princeShaka]

Are you getting rejections? What do they say?

Just a rejection without an explanation. This nonsense has been going on for 7 months.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

They never give me a reason, and I respond back asking for a reason so I can correct and they always ignore.

Can you screencap the actual rejection notice? Normally they give a reason, even if it's a bad one.

 

[ElectricBlue]

And I had the first part published in the Summer and it got reviews from the readers and they took it down without explanation.

If a story is reported and taken down, it should be referred back to you, same as a rejection.

The rejection notice should contain one of about a dozen generic, standard rejection notices, usually in the form of questions. It's up to you to address the questions, make any changes (or argue your case why you shouldn't), and resubmit.

I very much doubt your story is being returned for the inter-racial content, as you seem to think. It's far more likely to be something else.

Folk keep suggesting you post the text of the rejection notice. Without that, no-one can help.

 

[ColtonWrites]

Just a rejection without an explanation. This nonsense has been going on for 7 months.

There must be SOMETHING.

 

[princeShaka]

Can you screencap the actual rejection notice? Normally they give a reason, even if it's a bad one.

This was for the story that was accepted and posted back in July. So what are Earth on they doing saying my submission when this is story that postedc and got good reviews. I had also done AI check and had made sure to get down to zero. Zero! So far beyond just primarily. I responded back to them and told them this and did not respond.

Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site . However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.

• Are you using Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Quillbot or similar software, or allowing Microsoft Word grammar check to change your words? Many modern writing packages incorporate AI. Literotica is a storytelling community centered on the sharing of human fantasies. While we do not have a policy against using tools to help with the writing process (i.e. sp, grammar check, etc.), we do ask that all work published on Literotica be created primarily by a human. If you are using a grammar check program to review your work so that you can make changes (as a spellcheck, to flag punctuation, review grammar, and/or occasionally as a thesaurus), that should be fine. If you are allowing a grammar check program to “rewrite” your words or rephrase your text, that may cross the line into AI generated text/stories (since substantial parts of the final draft may not be written by you). Please see this FAQ for more information: https://literotica.com/faq/publishing/publishing-ai NOTE: the sentence at the end of this response [[Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions.]] does not apply to stories rejected for content or AI issues. Volunteer Editors can help only with grammar, punctuation, and story mechanics issues and are not equipped to deal with AI issues. You may resubmit after you’ve made revisions.

Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions. You can find a list of Volunteer Editors here.

Please consult our Writer's Resources section and make sure you read our submission guidelines.
If you have any questions on these, please let us know.

Thanks for your time, and look forward to reading you again!

Laurel & Manu
Literotica.Com

 

[Britva415]

Changed my mind.

 

[Thesunmaid]

I feel the need to point out...as the site is set in the USA and it is coming up on the US holidays? Thanksgiving and Christmas also...there is a lot of people that have to wait as from what I know...there are only 2 to 3 people. Also they gave you a reason so..perhaps you should take the note there and try editing things.

So sorry but this appears to be on you not listening to what they said...not because they are actively deciding to ignore you..also theres aloooot of people who go why is my story not posted?! and no one realizes it can take some time.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Someone reported your story as AI-generated, or a machine algorithm picked it up for same.

I am not saying that's true. I'm saying that's the implied reason for its removal.

 

[darwin1859]

So what are Earth on they doing saying my submission when this is story that postedc and got good reviews. I had also done AI check and had made sure to get down to zero. Zero!

Your English isn't very good in your posts here. In fact, I'm not sure you understand the message you got from the site explaining why your story was taken down. The story you linked on Medium is very different in it's use of language, and it has a lot of em-dashes. And models like gpt-5 use a lot of em-dashes (more often than most human authors).

I don't know what "done AI check" means, but I think what you mean is that you used AI to help you write your story. And then you used an AI detector that you found online to repeatedly review and revise your story until your story passed without any flags.

That's against the rules. They caught you breaking the rules and took your story down. Manu's AI detector is probably a lot better than the detector that you found online. You have not removed all the "AI fingerprints" from your story like you think you have. Unless you're going to write your own story, I think you should give up trying to post here. Alternatively, you're going to have to be a lot smarter about breaking the rules.

Also, earlier in this thread, you accused Laurel and Manu of being racist. I think that's ridiculous, but I'm not a person of color, and if that's what you believe then why would you post here?

 

[TheNovelist2000]

I use a lot of em-dashes in my stories since I like to write long sentences, and they help keep things very clear. But not once has any of my stories been flagged for AI. You know why? Anyone with eyes can see that no AI in this world could come up with the level of perversion you will find in my writing. Here is a tip. Keep your stories nasty, and you will never have to deal with that AI bullshit.

 

[darwin1859]

No one know what sets off the AI checker. Some written guides (e.g., for Wikipedia, IIRC) include the em-dashes as one criteria. The other criteria are more vague, like over repetition of certain words. So they're harder to cite.

And you can download small uncensored LLMs that will write whatever you want, including the filthiest smut. So that's not actually sound reasoning. And I'm sure at least some of the works claiming to be AI false positives do have filthy parts, because most stories here have filthy parts.

Current SOTA AI will write fairly adult stories, but not the explicit sexual details. So you can have a "filthy" story that is mostly AI (with human authored explicit details) and that definitely violates Laurels's rule.

So the best tip is: don't fucking use AI. Which, BTW, creates shitty, boring stories.

 

[TheNovelist2000]

In fact, this thread made me look up Lit's AI policies, and I've come to the conclusion that Laurel simply reads and guesses them. I don't think she uses any AI tools to make the decision. If you use ChatGPT or other AI software, the prose you'll get is pretty standard. It lacks authenticity and is generally boring. It'd be like reading a textbook, whereas genuine stories would have sort of a distinct author's voice or the general voice found in most Lit stories (something like the voice you'd use to recount real events to your friends, especiallly in first person) So, if you are a non-native speaker, this is good for you. If you genuinely don't use AI, you'll inevitably make mistakes or there will inevitably be some awkward phrasing that Laurel---as a native speaker---would definitely pick up on. It will add authenticity that some native speakers would perhaps lack due to them not having developed a unique author's voice. I've seen a story so poorly written that I wanted to spank the author while reading it. He made mistakes in almost every sentence. His grammar was bollocks. Punctuation was all over the place. Yet, the story did very well, and people loved it. So, if you speak English as your second or third language, don't be convinced that you have to use AI to upgrade your English. You don't have to. Just describe everything as you would naturally do, even when you have to sacrifice accuracy sometimes b/c of your lack of good vocabulary.

 

[OddLove]

Normally I ignore posts like this because I haven't experience this issue at all. But I feel obligated to start responding to these because I feel like there's lots of people having no issues at all, but since we're all staying quiet it's giving an inaccurate perception on AH that Literotica is completely broken for everyone.

But I've had zero problems publishing. Each story I've submitted here has either been sent back for bad grammar or was approved and given a publishing date within a week or two.

Here's my process.

1. I don't use any grammar correcting programs like Grammarly. I'll just google example sentences if I'm not sure about a word or phrase.

2. I never submit more than one story at a time. If I have multiple stories I wait until the last one is fully published before submitting it.

3. Once I submit a story, I don't click on it until it has a publishing date on it.

4. I write on LibreOffice and then copy and past it over. I don't upload a document of the story.

5. I'm not using any software to translate my stories to other languages.

 

[Off_base]

There are thousands of healthy interracial relationships portrayed in stories across numerous categories on lit, so I'm doubtful that racism is a factor.

 

[ColtonWrites]

This was for the story that was accepted and posted back in July. So what are Earth on they doing saying my submission when this is story that postedc and got good reviews. I had also done AI check and had made sure to get down to zero. Zero! So far beyond just primarily. I responded back to them and told them this and did not respond.

Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site . However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.

• Are you using Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Quillbot or similar software, or allowing Microsoft Word grammar check to change your words? Many modern writing packages incorporate AI. Literotica is a storytelling community centered on the sharing of human fantasies. While we do not have a policy against using tools to help with the writing process (i.e. sp, grammar check, etc.), we do ask that all work published on Literotica be created primarily by a human. If you are using a grammar check program to review your work so that you can make changes (as a spellcheck, to flag punctuation, review grammar, and/or occasionally as a thesaurus), that should be fine. If you are allowing a grammar check program to “rewrite” your words or rephrase your text, that may cross the line into AI generated text/stories (since substantial parts of the final draft may not be written by you). Please see this FAQ for more information: https://literotica.com/faq/publishing/publishing-ai NOTE: the sentence at the end of this response [[Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions.]] does not apply to stories rejected for content or AI issues. Volunteer Editors can help only with grammar, punctuation, and story mechanics issues and are not equipped to deal with AI issues. You may resubmit after you’ve made revisions.

Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions. You can find a list of Volunteer Editors here.

Please consult our Writer's Resources section and make sure you read our submission guidelines.
If you have any questions on these, please let us know.

Thanks for your time, and look forward to reading you again!

Laurel & Manu
Literotica.Com

Thats not "for no reason". You got AI flagged. I got one of those on a story with a disabled protagonist. Doesn't mean Laurel hates disabled people.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I have published on this webpage before. For months now my submissions are being ignored.
Sending a messages does nothing.

I’m sorry to hear. No one knows precisely what is going on and the site won’t tell us, but many, many people have had the same problem, including authors who have won competitions this year, including authors who have a long track record here, including me FFS. It’s not the site singling you out for poor treatment, it can happen to anyone.

Please also disregard any advice around use of the submission textbox vs uploading a document. There are multiple examples of both working and both failing to work. The method of submission appears to be irrelevant.

As above, the best advice (based on the experience of many people here - but not informed by any site guidance) is to delete and resubmit. But… there are still instances where the resubmitted work falls into the same black hole, so this is not guaranteed to work.

PMing @Laurel had absolutely no effect for some time, but it now seems to occasionally work now, though without any actual response, so worth trying.

Please don’t believe anyone who tells you that they definitively know what is going on and how to fix it. No one knows, all I’m doing here is offering the best crowdsourced advice.

Good luck.

 

[OddLove]

Oh, one more bit of very important advice.

Disregard anyone telling you to disregard other people's advice. Some advice might seem invalid for one person while simultaneously being helpful or insightful to another person. So keep an open mind, keep trouble shooting your problems, and you might find a solution to the issue you're having.

Best of luck.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Disregard anyone telling you to disregard other people's advice.

I’ll apply your dictum to you.

My point - which is entirely valid - is any advice like: always post plain text into the text box, or always upload a document, and you will be fine is demonstrably bunk. There is no universal panacea - including deleting and resubmitting (which has at least worked for some).

But hey, I’ve only been tracking this issue and what happens to people trying different approaches for weeks and taking note of the results. Feel free to ignore this perspective and to do whatever you feel like.

 

[OddLove]

I’ll apply your dictum to you.

My point - which is entirely valid - is any advice like: always post plain text into the text box, or always upload a document, and you will be fine is demonstrably bunk. There is no universal panacea - including deleting and resubmitting (which has at least worked for some).

But hey, I’ve only been tracking this issue and what happens to people trying different approaches for weeks and taking note of the results. Feel free to ignore this perspective and to do whatever you feel like.

Oh, I agree. That's why I simply offered 'my process' and my personal experience for how I've repeatedly and successfully gotten stories published here without any setbacks.

But hey, I've only been repeatedly and successfully getting more stories published without any long delays or issues. Feel free to ignore this perspective and do whatever you feel like.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Oh, I agree. That's why I simply offered 'my process' and my personal experience for how I've repeatedly and successfully gotten stories published here without any setbacks.

But hey, I've only been repeatedly and successfully getting more stories published without any long delays or issues. Feel free to ignore this perspective and do whatever you feel like.

Your personal experience is irrelevant to those having problems. You don’t have a secret sauce, no one does. You have just been lucky.

It’s like “my grandpa smoked all his life and lived to be 98.”

Find someone else to argue with, I’m done.

 

[OddLove]

Your personal experience is irrelevant to those having problems. You don’t have a secret sauce, no one does. You have just been lucky.

It’s like “my grandpa smoked all his life and lived to be 98.”

Find someone else to argue with, I’m done.

Oh, logic parody. I love this game.

"Your experience of making a boat float is irrelevant because none of your boats are sinking."

 

[TheLobster]

All this sound and fury from the OP about the alleged rrrrrrrraaaaycism!, and in the end it turns out to be a mundane AI rejection?

2/10, would not read the thread again.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

All this sound and fury from the OP about the alleged rrrrrrrraaaaycism!, and in the end it turns out to be a mundane AI rejection?

2/10, would not read the thread again.

Damn, you're a harsh reviewer. Even the drama angle wasn't enough to boost the rating.

I look forward to your opening a reviewing thread.

 

[TheLobster]

Even the drama angle wasn't enough to boost the rating.

I was a bit confused what you meant, and so I clicked on "Show ignored content" and read said drama. I am now compelled to revise my rating.

1/10. There's a reason why I opted to hide this stuff in the first place.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Your English isn't very good in your posts here.

There is a definite language issue which could very well be the root of the problem. We've seen it before when stories don't get translated well or are written by people who didn't grow up speaking English and don't understand the nuances of it.