need an editor please

[carrie-on]

Hello! I would like to have an editor read a story for me please? Email me please and I will send you a copy of it. Thanks,Carrie

 

[Whispersecret]

Try the Editor's Forum. You may have better luck asking there.

 

[carrie-on]

Thank You very much,Whispersecret! Duh! Didn't think of that! lol

 

[Puppi]

In my personal opinion, the Editor's area of Lit doesn't "work". I don't know if Laurel needs to update who is willing and who is not, but I used to mail two females and two males asking if they would edit a story for me. I would always write a mail asking if they would, first, before I'd mail the story. And, I'd pick two females and two males (in hopes one from each gender would say "yes") so I could get the opinion from both genders. Never once did I get a response from Lit's "editors". And, after the first "batch of four" ignored me, I'd try a new set of four. Same thing.


~Puppi

 

[Whispersecret]

I'm not talking about the place where you contact editors individually. I'm talking about the bulletin board. The listing of volunteers isn't very effective. What happened to Puppi is common.

 

[Puppi]

Oops, my bad.


~Puppi

 

[carrie-on]

Thanks to both of you! I found someone to read it for me,changes have been made and it has now been submitted. Wish me luck! Carrie

 

[Axeltheswede]

Need an editor

Good luck to you, carrie-on. As a born and raised Yooper myself I appreciate your position at the end of the road.

My experience as an editor here was short and unhappy. Part of the difficulty came from writers seeking more validation than editing. By the time of the sixth unspellchecked ramble I had reached my limit.

Editors that offer their services free have my admiration. Finding one shoud be a little difficult. Maybe if writers seeking help would imagine themselves in the shoes of the editor it would help them find someone. Look for editors writing in the category you plan to post your story. Cultivate a two-way relationship first with email feedback on the editor's posted stories. Give to get and understand what you are asking an editor to do. Do your work on your story first. Send something to an editor after you have put your best effort forward.

 

[the_bragis]

Hi Carrie-on,

I agree, the editor's list isn't always the answer. It didn't work for me. I contacted five people, I heard back from only one to say she no longer edited, and then I gave up. Then recently I had an idea; one of my few really good ones actually.....

I contacted by email two authors whose work I really admired, and I begged and pleaded with them......and guess what?? They both said yes! So there are other ways.

I had already built up a communication with one of them, so that did make things a whole lot easier for me to ask...and whole lot harder for him to say no.

I agree with Axeltheswede, and I can understand his frustration. I often see responses to requests for feedback where people feel they need to justify and clarify every piece of critisism, instead of taking heed of it.

Me, I'm smart enough to know I'm not nearly as smart the ones who edit. I take every word of advice and used every single suggestion for change that is offered.

My advice is the same as Axeltheswede's. Build up a relationship with an author you really like and admire. Be very clear about what you are wanting, and what kind of stories you write. Edit your work as best you can before sending it. And above all, when you are given a good edit......use it all!

Good luck and have a great day,
Alex(fem)

 

[Puppi]

It sounds, to me, like Laurel needs to update the volunteer editors area sometime, and take out those who have left Lit, don't answer e-mails, and who (at least politely mail back) do not care to edit anymore.


~Puppi

 

[Axeltheswede]

Need an editor

Good suggestion, Puppi.

I wonder if part of the problem with contacting volunteer editors has to do with email. I don't want to get into a rant about spamming. But, it is easy to see where a query to an editor might get lost in the volume of emails we all get.

Mentioning Literotica in the subject line might help. Also, backing up a query to an editor with a PM here seems like a good idea. Another way to contact an editor, with probably a high degree of reliability, would be through the use of the feedback email to an author/editor.

 

[Weird Harold]

It sounds, to me, like Laurel needs to update the volunteer editors area sometime, and take out those who have left Lit, don't answer e-mails, and who (at least politely mail back) do not care to edit anymore.

I don't know wht the status of the project is, but there is a plan in place to bring some automation to the volunteer editor's lost and provide some feedback/rating system to help people select an editor.

Like Axel, I got seriously burnt out when I was on the list with editing and commenting on the same "errors" every time -- even though I wasn't averse to sending a story back with a request for the author to at least run a spell check and read through it once before sending it back to me. (For some reason, only about two people sent back a self-edited version for me to work with.)

 

[carrie-on]

Thanks to all of you. I appreciate all the help I have gotten,it has now been submitted,thanks!!