Question about when stories are published

[SimonDoom]

Do authors have any say about when stories get published? Or is that entirely Laurel's decision?

I noticed that the latest chapter in a series I'm writing has had far fewer votes than the previous chapter, despite higher scores. The previous chapter was published early morning Sunday, and it did gangbusters. This one was published early morning Wednesday, and it hasn't done as well, though it's still doing fine.

I submitted both at about the same time, and both were formatted the same and were about the same length. But it took one a week to get published and the other two days.

 

[lovecraft68]

It's usually two days from when you submit it. So if you feel one day is better than another traffic wise time it that way by submitting one at a time.

She may have pushed one further back for fairness and not have someone else have to wait while one author gets two stories.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's usually two days from when you submit it. So if you feel one day is better than another traffic wise time it that way by submitting one at a time.

She may have pushed one further back for fairness and not have someone else have to wait while one author gets two stories.

Thanks for the input. It's hard for me to make head or tail of it. I submitted ch. 3 shortly after ch. 2 was published and it took seven days to publish. I submitted ch. 4 right after ch. 3 and it took 2 days. My usual waiting time is 3-4 days, not two, but it's hard to time it when you don't have any idea how long it will take. And all my stories are around the same length -- over 2 and under 5 pages -- and in rich text format with no special formatting requests.

 

[NotWise]

Thanks for the input. It's hard for me to make head or tail of it. I submitted ch. 3 shortly after ch. 2 was published and it took seven days to publish. I submitted ch. 4 right after ch. 3 and it took 2 days. My usual waiting time is 3-4 days, not two, but it's hard to time it when you don't have any idea how long it will take. And all my stories are around the same length -- over 2 and under 5 pages -- and in rich text format with no special formatting requests.

Submitting rtf might require a little longer than plain text, I'm not sure.

My most recent story took five days to post. I think it's been more than a year since one took more than two days. I PMd Laurel about it and she said they got a little behind.

 

[SimonDoom]

Submitting rtf might require a little longer than plain text, I'm not sure.

My most recent story took five days to post. I think it's been more than a year since one took more than two days. I PMd Laurel about it and she said they got a little behind.

Thanks. The formatting thing leaves me a bit confused. I thought .rtf was a preferred format as long as no special formatting was asked for. I haven't asked for any special formatting in any of my stories, and I sometimes indicate that in the note to the site.

 

[NotWise]

Thanks. The formatting thing leaves me a bit confused. I thought .rtf was a preferred format as long as no special formatting was asked for. I haven't asked for any special formatting in any of my stories, and I sometimes indicate that in the note to the site.

You only need to use .rtf (or .doc) if you *are* using special formatting and don't want to do it with html tags in plain text. Most people seem to cut and paste their stories into the submission box.

 

[SimonDoom]

You only need to use .rtf (or .doc) if you *are* using special formatting and don't want to do it with html tags in plain text. Most people seem to cut and paste their stories into the submission box.

Thanks, but now I'm really confused!

I thought the only way to get Lit to adopt things like italics or boldface was to submit a story in plain text format with html instructions for the special format. I've chosen not to use such formats, so I decided simply to submit the stories in .rtf, thinking that I could not incorporate things like italics or boldface in stories submitted that way and expect Lit to incorporate them.

 

[NotWise]

I thought the only way to get Lit to adopt things like italics or boldface was to submit a story in plain text format with html instructions for the special format. I've chosen not to use such formats, so I decided simply to submit the stories in .rtf, thinking that I could not incorporate things like italics or boldface in stories submitted that way and expect Lit to incorporate them.

.rtf files contain formatting information like bolds and italics. If you use them then those formats are preserved in your Lit story. To the best of my knowledge, that is the only reason to use .rtf files.

 

[ElectricBlue]

.rtf files contain formatting information like bolds and italics. If you use them then those formats are preserved in your Lit story. To the best of my knowledge, that is the only reason to use .rtf files.

I've found that .txt won't load into the new portal (was OK in the old), but .rtf will load.

I don't use any formatting, so mine are always straight uploads, typically three days for me.

I suspect SimonDoom's timing was Laurel back-logged on the first story, then staggered the second a couple of days so they weren't so close together in the new list.

I recall a thread about the best days to post to maximise reads, but that might have been in the context of competitions only. Or it might have been a conspiracy theory thread, I can't remember.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I noticed that the latest chapter in a series I'm writing has had far fewer votes than the previous chapter, despite higher scores. The previous chapter was published early morning Sunday, and it did gangbusters.

That's fairly typical, I think.

I'm in Oz, so it gets too bloody confusing trying to game the best days to post. My stories always appear yesterday anyway. You guys never catch up.

 

[sr71plt]

I think you can negotiate with Laurel by a note on the story on when, after two days, it should post. My experience with story posting has been haphazard recently, though, more likely three days than two and it's taken five days with explanation.

 

[NotWise]

I've found that .txt won't load into the new portal (was OK in the old), but .rtf will load.

I've uploaded three .txt files since the switch to the new interface. There wasn't any trouble with the first two. With the last one I saved the file as ASCII text and that did not work. Once I figured out the problem it took little time for us to fix it and the fixed version went live immediately.

The old interface gave you the ability to specify what character encoding was used in the text file, and probably most writers didn't know what that means. The new one doesn't. I asked how the site was figuring that out, but it was the second of two questions in a PM, and those usually don't get answered.

At any rate, my system uses UTF-8 (as does anything not made by Microsoft, I think) and she asked that next time I upload text in UTF-8 I let her know.