Reject due to file type

[SlutwifeInTraining]

Sorry if this isn't the place to post this. Let me know and I'll be happy to open a thread elsewhere.

When submitting a story the pages says this:

You may paste the text into the box below or you may upload a .txt, .rtf, .odt, or Word .doc, .docx file

I use LibreOffice, which uses the .odt file format, so I was pretty happy to see it listed there. I filled in all the information, uploaded the .odt file, and submitted the story (if yu have access to that sort of thing, the story ID is 809192).

It got rejected and the following reason was given:

Hi! The file you've uploaded is a .zip file. Please upload a a .txt, .rtf, or Word .doc file. Thanks!

I know I didn't upload a .zip because there's a place on that page to download the file, and it's giving me back a .odt. I notice, however, that the list of acceptable file formats in the error message doesn't match the one listed farther down the page where you upload your file. It doesn't have the .odt format.

1) Was this an oversight on the part of whoever is processing it?
2) Is .odt not actually accepted, and if so who can I talk to about getting it removed from the list?
3) What is the safest format to upload to guarantee acceptance, assuming I have a small bit of italics that I would like to keep intact? (LibreOffice can save as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, etc so I can upload anything)
4) I had assumed I'd get an E-Mail telling me if the story was accepted or rejected, but I didn't. Is that normal?

 

[PennLady]

Let me take your points in reverse order, I think.

First, Lit does not send email to the authors to let them know about, well, anything. You need to check your author page for rejection notices, etc.

Two, the best/safest way to submit a story is to copy the text from your file into the window on the submission page. To keep any italics, just use HTML italics tags, <i> and </i>. For example, you would write in the text of your story:

Mary couldn't believe he'd done <i>that</i> again.

When submitted, the word "that" will be rendered in italics.

The nice thing about submitting this way is you don't have to worry about problems with your file type.

Three, I don't know. If the site says they accept .odt files, they probably do or at least did. Why your file came up as a .zip file I don't know.

Four, I doubt it was an oversight. Sounds like there was a problem with the file.

 

[_Lynn_]

I can't answer anything about uploading, because I don't use that method. What I like about the c/p method is that you can preview the story as it will look on the site before you hit the send/submit (I forget which word it is, sorry). Therefore, I suggest trying the c/p instead of downloading for submitting a story.

You won't get an e-mail if the site rejects your story. It will show up on your submission page as rejected, is all.

 

[SlutwifeInTraining]

You guys rock! I had no idea I could do HTML in the textarea. I'm a web developer by trade, so I'd MUCH prefer to that to any other option!

Thanks so much

 

[sr71plt]

I also recommend just cutting and pasting the text into the submissions box. I've never had a problem with that.

 

[WishItsTrue_TG]

Sorry if this isn't the place to post this. Let me know and I'll be happy to open a thread elsewhere.

There are some other useful tags:

<CENTER>Story Title</Center> will center the title on it's line.

<CENTER><U>Story Title</CENTER></U> will underline the title.

<FONT COLOR="RED"> ***** </FONT COLOR="RED"> will change the color of text
Use the basic font colors

<FONT FACE="TAHOMA"> ******</FONT FACE="TAHOMA"> will change the font you're using. Open the font drop down menu on your word processor to select any font you choose. Don't use odd-ball fonts like Dracula. Only fonts installed on the reader's machine will be shown.

<FONT SIZE="4"> *****</FONT SIZE="4"> will change the size of your text. 3 is the default, 2 and 1 progressively smaller, and 4-7 progressively larger.

Open the changes with <****>. The change will run until you turn it off. </****> turns off the change and reverts to what you used before the change.

Always check the sample they give you before you SUBMIT a story. If you forget to turn off a tag, it will continue to run until turned off. For example, if you forget to turn off a <I>, your whole story could end up italicized.

Have fun.

PS. I have no idea why your file was recognized as a zip. Other people know more about this than I do. But I'll take a shot in the dark. Some word processor add a proprietary element to their files (or leave something out), which isn't recognized by other programs. It forces users to continue using their product. I use to use a fast loading word processor called C-Pad. When I uploaded a C-Pad generated .rtf to Word, Word didn't recognize the paragraph stops used by C-Pad. Word displayed lines of text that went on for thousands of words.
You program might just have something quirky about it that other programs don't recognize. If you married to that file format, try a different processor and see what happens.

Now, go and have fun.

 

[SlutwifeInTraining]

Sorry if this is nitpicky. Like I said, I do web development for a living...and I'm a little anal about it:

Actually, you really shouldn't use <font> tags anymore. You should use a paragraph or span tag (or whatever tag is semantic for what you're doing) and use CSS (even inline via style="") to adjust anything related to the font. I'm not sure if that's filtered here or not, but it's definitely the best option.

Similarly, centering should be done with CSS using text-align:center.

Also, tags should be opened and closed in nested order, so the inner-most tag should be closed first: <strong><i><u>text</u></i></strong>

Additionally, if you're using font sizes to specify a subheading or heading, you should make sure to use the h1-h6 tags. <h1> is the largest and <h6> is the smallest.

 

[WishItsTrue_TG]

Right you are.

Sorry if this is nitpicky. Like I said, I do web development for a living...and I'm a little anal about it:

I defer to you. I mentioned there are people who know more than me. And I'm definitely out of date on what's new. The only programing language I know is Basica. I really haven't kept up with changing times. TG

 

[sr71plt]

I don't think the Literotica story site accepts a whole lot of coding just because you can do it elsewhere. There's a reason for that beyond the technical capabilities. The story file here is essentially a continuously running anthology. Anthologies have basic, across-the-board, design controls so that there's a uniformity of product (to serve the need of uniformity of read). I think Literotica has basic, restrictive presentation design parameters to keep it simple and the product uniform.

So I wouldn't go zipping off on all of the neat coding you might want to do to a Literotica story. Presentation design is the purview of the publisher, not the author, and your otherwise nifty story could get sent to rejection hell. (And the Web site would be doing the readers a favor.)

 

[_Lynn_]

I'm not aware of any tags Lit uses other than the basics such as bold, italics, and center. I'm almost positive you can't change the font or color, though.

 

[PennLady]

I'm not aware of any tags Lit uses other than the basics such as bold, italics, and center. I'm almost positive you can't change the font or color, though.

You can use underline and blockquote commands in stories. I don't think I've seen the font or color codes used in stories, just here in the forums. Which is fine with me. I think authors should keep it simple both for themselves when writing and also for ease of reading.

 

[_Lynn_]

You can use underline and blockquote commands in stories. I don't think I've seen the font or color codes used in stories, just here in the forums. Which is fine with me. I think authors should keep it simple both for themselves when writing and also for ease of reading.

I rarely use any of the tags and couldn't think of any others. Thanks.

 

[sr71plt]

You can use underline and blockquote commands in stories. I don't think I've seen the font or color codes used in stories, just here in the forums. Which is fine with me. I think authors should keep it simple both for themselves when writing and also for ease of reading.

Why would you use underlining? That was a requirement of the typewriter age (which couldn't do italics), which went out in publishing in the 1980s.

Blockquotes have uses, though--but not as many as some authors seem to think.

 

[PennLady]

Why would you use underlining? That was a requirement of the typewriter age (which couldn't do italics), which went out in publishing in the 1980s.

Blockquotes have uses, though--but not as many as some authors seem to think.

I don't know why you'd use it, but it's an acceptable code that I've seen used in stories on Lit. I can't tell you which ones, but I have seen them. I don't know how or if you could search for them.

I've only used blockquotes once, in the last chapter of "Nothing Gets Through," when I was excerpting a (fictitious) newspaper article.

I can imagine, but this would be pretty specific, that if an author is say, trying to replicate a handwritten note that a character is looking at that had underlined passages, they might use underlined text to show that. But that's about all I can think of.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't know why you'd use it, but it's an acceptable code that I've seen used in stories on Lit. I can't tell you which ones, but I have seen them. I don't know how or if you could search for them.

I've only used blockquotes once, in the last chapter of "Nothing Gets Through," when I was excerpting a (fictitious) newspaper article.

I can imagine, but this would be pretty specific, that if an author is say, trying to replicate a handwritten note that a character is looking at that had underlined passages, they might use underlined text to show that. But that's about all I can think of.

What did you use underlining for? If in the text, didn't you mean italics, which you can use here? Underlining wouldn't be proper for a handwritten note--italics could be used for that if it was consistent--but CMS would say put it in double quotes if short and extract it (the block quotes) if more than five text lines or so.

For subheads maybe? I see some technical manuals doing that now, not fiction.

 

[PennLady]

What did you use underlining for? If in the text, didn't you mean italics, which you can use here? Underlining wouldn't be proper for a handwritten note--italics could be used for that if it was consistent--but CMS would say put it in double quotes if short and extract it (the block quotes) if more than five text lines or so.

For subheads maybe? I see some technical manuals doing that now, not fiction.

I have never used underlining in a story; I usually do no more than italics, and once, as I said, used blockquotes. I was only suggesting one possible reason someone *might* use underlining in a story.

And I think you misunderstood what I meant, and/or I didn't explain it well. I was envisioning the following:

An author writes a story in which a character finds a note, perhaps handwritten. The note is described as having words underlined. An author *might* try to put this in the story by doing something like this:

John saw the note on the table and puzzled, picked it up. It had been handwritten by someone in a hurry.

John,

Look for the treasure under the second tree from the right.

Jane

Not saying it's right or wrong, just *one possible* reason an author might use underlines, at least on a site like this.

 

[sr71plt]

We go back to the nature of the product here--an attempt at uniformity of presentation to keep it standard for readers. When authors use underlining when what's proper and standard on Literotica is italics (with underlining only ever having been a function because typewriters couldn't render italics) they are pulling reader attention away from the content of their story. Just trying to get that across to authors here. When authors try to use any uncommon (for the Web site standards) bells and whistles, they are pulling reader attention away from the content of their story. That's counterproductive.

The story no longer is totally the author's in format--it is being combined with lots of other stories. And the author never was/is in control of presentation design. That's always the publisher's purview--and they maintain control of that for uniformity across their product line--because their first concern is for the readers (and buyers).

 

[PennLady]

We go back to the nature of the product here--an attempt at uniformity of presentation to keep it standard for readers. When authors use underlining when what's proper and standard on Literotica is italics (with underlining only ever having been a function because typewriters couldn't render italics) they are pulling reader attention away from the content of their story. Just trying to get that across to authors here. When authors try to use any uncommon (for the Web site standards) bells and whistles, they are pulling reader attention away from the content of their story. That's counterproductive.

The story no longer is totally the author's in format--it is being combined with lots of other stories. And the author never was/is in control of presentation design. That's always the publisher's purview--and they maintain control of that for uniformity across their product line--because their first concern is for the readers (and buyers).

I'm not arguing with you. You asked why someone might use them; I gave an answer.

I see little reason for underlines, and the reason I gave was so specific it was something of a stretch. All I'm saying is that the site *permits* underlines in stories, along with a few other things like italics that we've been over. So if someone wants to use the underline command, they can. I'm not saying they should, just that they can.

 

[sr71plt]

Yep, talking at cross purposes. You're talking capability and I'm suggesting consideration of a choice.

 

[PennLady]

Yep, talking at cross purposes. You're talking capability and I'm suggesting consideration of a choice.

I was talking capability because that's where the conversation was at the time. Just because it's an option, doesn't mean it should be taken, and I wasn't advising that anyone should.

 

[LadyVer]

I was talking capability because that's where the conversation was at the time. Just because it's an option, doesn't mean it should be taken, and I wasn't advising that anyone should.

You gave a good example of why a writer would use underlining. I've had a few editing projects where characters had hand written a note or a letter and underlined words for emphasis for the recipient, which is not a rare thing for anyone to do. Most people don't naturally think of italics when trying to emphasis words on paper in a note or letter.

 

[SlutwifeInTraining]

I know this is all getting a bit off topic, but I definitely think that while the right way to emphasize in a hand written note is italics, underlining is pretty common. Having said that, it's just as possible that a character in the story could be examining a book other printed material that someone had underlines passages in.

Having said that, so far I haven't had the need to anything but the rare italics (in my submitted story or in the other two that I'm nearly done with).

 

[sr71plt]

underlining is pretty common.

Examples in print or on screen or authorities backing that notion up?

 

[SlutwifeInTraining]

Examples in print or on screen or authorities backing that notion up?

No, just experience dealing with people that have printouts, etc. They hand it to you, and they've usually underlined the important info. Assuming it wasn't already bolded or something when it was printed, underlining seems to be the go to thing to do. Grab a pen...underline what you want to draw attention to.

No real data to back that up, and I'm certainly not saying it's a recommended standard, just that it's normal. Normal people do it.

 

[sr71plt]

Well, yes, that's what you'll see in a hard-copy edit manuscript phase (but not in an electronic edit)--and not just because of the influence of the typewriter age. The editorial mark for hard-copy hand-edited italics is underlining. That's not the final print phase, though--in either print or electronic versions. There's no one transforming an edited manuscript to final presentation copy between you and Literotica posting. I can't say I've ever seen letters rendered by underlining in final fiction copy.

If you are talking about depicting underlining inside the letter by hand (which I now see is probably what you are after) there are two ways of showing that in print standard.

It the letter is run as an extract, it should be rendered in roman type, in which case, you'd depict underlining (for emphasis) with italics.

If the letter is being rendered in a run-in quote in italics, what is meant as a emphasis would be rendered back in roman (italics within an italicized phrase is rendered back in roman).

Published copy rarely renders anything originally handwritten in actual handwriting. If they do, then you, yes, could render actual underlining with an underline, because you are actually showing a facsimile of the original--but your not going to be doing that in the Literotica story file, I don't think and you'll almost never see it in print copy.