Rejected Story

[hakawati]

Every time I get a story rejected, it has the same message that does not really tell me why it was rejected.

I have read many stories that in my opinion, by their rejection letter, should have been rejected. I just can not figure out why mine are? Usually no grammer/spelling/punctuation errors...

What are people's experience with this?

 

[Darkniciad]

I've yet to have a rejection from Lit, but there is always the possibility that the rejection was in error. It has happened before.

Perhaps a minor change or a note at the top stating that all characters involved in sexual situations are at least 18 may do the trick. Perhaps you have a single/few spelling error(s) or transposed words in just the wrong place to catch the eye of the editors as they scan to approve so many stories each day.

Without knowing the exact reason for the rejection, it's hard to say what the problem might be. Passing the story to a volunteer editor with the reason for the rejection might point you in the right direction. Even asking for someone here on the forums to scan the story with the reason for the rejection in mind might do the trick.

Sometimes you simply can't catch your own mistakes. You know what you meant to write, and your brain will translate what's actually on the page into what you meant to put there. Word processor spell/grammar check is far from perfect either.

Try one of the two above solutions and see what happens with that rejected tale(s).

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I've had two rejections since 2001. One story was 748 words for shit sake The other was for incorrect punctuation in quotes.

Post part of the story and we can see if we can tell you what's wrong with it.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

I've had two rejections since 2001. One story was 748 words for shit sake The other was for incorrect punctuation in quotes.

Post part of the story and we can see if we can tell you what's wrong with it.

I've had two as well, my quotes were all wrong, and my second one was rejected in error, I entered a chain story, and they didn't realize that it belonged in the chain.

My advice is to send a pm to Laurel and get further explanation as to why your story was rejected.

 

[Foxee Browne]

I have had to rejections also. One was my very first submission and it was because of the quotes, a popular rejection topic. The second gave me no reason except it was too violent, but I re-submitted and it was accepted, no changes were made to the story. It was a horror story and it did involve death, perhaps that was the reason why. No specic reason was given for the rejection.

 

[xxCrystal4314xx]

I had a three part story with all parts rejected due to paragraph length... If I make the changes and resubmit, will it still take so long for it to get checked?

 

[MarshAlien]

I had a three part story with all parts rejected due to paragraph length... If I make the changes and resubmit, will it still take so long for it to get checked?

I had a story rejected because I apparently forgot to include the whole thing, leaving off in the middle of a paragraph (that was their story, anyway), and it took just as long after I resubmitted it to get the thing approved as it had to get it rejected.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

I've had a few rejections... 1 was for my dialog being crowded together (this was my second story ever written and I didn't know the way they wanted dialog spaced out - edited, resubmitted, approved), 1 was for extreme violence (posted it on a thread in a forum instead), 1 was because I put the name of a contest a series of stories had been nominated for in an author note (a no no since the name wasn't associated to Lit - oops)(( removed the name, resubmitted, approved. ))

Resubmitting will still take you about the same time as a fresh copy, sometimes more. Right now there is a contest going on so submissions are taking about a week, unless it is for the contest then you're approved almost immediately.

Good luck with your story.

 

[starrkers]

I had a three part story with all parts rejected due to paragraph length... If I make the changes and resubmit, will it still take so long for it to get checked?

I had one approved with the front half of the story missing (go figure!) I used the report feature to let them know it was screwed. Took another week for the full version to appear (sadly, it had the original approval date, so it missed being a "New" story and has struggled for views ever since).

 

[christabelll]

Believe it or not... Perchance to Dream was rejected twice as too violent - snuff!
It has under gone a lot of changes since then LOL...


As someone suggested, perhaps post a bit of it here - and or resubmit as it is

 

[christabelll]

I had a three part story with all parts rejected due to paragraph length... If I make the changes and resubmit, will it still take so long for it to get checked?

Break the paragraphs up and put EDITED in the title header... it doesn't usually take so long then...

 

[hakawati]

Break the paragraphs up and put EDITED in the title header... it doesn't usually take so long then...

Thank you for the advice

 

[CopyCarver]

I've had two rejections since 2001. One story was 748 words for shit sake The other was for incorrect punctuation in quotes.

Post part of the story and we can see if we can tell you what's wrong with it.

Ah, but you should have added "for shit sake" to one of the descriptions. It would have added emphasis and given you 751 words

 

[CopyCarver]

Break the paragraphs up and put EDITED in the title header... it doesn't usually take so long then...

I agree. Faulkner got away with paragraphs that seemed to extend all the way into the next book, but few of us are latter-day Faulkners. Overly long paragraphs, even if they are technically correct, tend to turn off readers--especially in e-publishing where small bites are especially preferable.

 

[BlackShanglan]

I look upon rejections for relatively minor formatting issues as a very positive sign, at this point. I've had two stories sent back to me, one for lines that were too long for the page and the other for paragraphs that were too lengthy. Both were later posted with E's.

The editors are our friends. They want us to look good. Place your trust in them.

 

[EveAnna]

Both of my stories were rejected first time round. The first story because I had more than one person talking in a paragraph and the second story for punctuation.

I don't mind being rejected first time, it gives me a chance to go over the story again, maybe adding bits or taking away and then giving it a good proof read for things I might have missed the first time.

 

[the_scribbler]

I'm kind of confused here myself. I don't profess to be much of a writer and I don't mean to belittle anyone else's contributions, but I've read (or rather tried to read) some stories on his site with atrocious spelling, grammar and punctuation. How is it that they have been published when it seems that some have been rejected for lengthy paragraphs?

I have two submissions and one currently pending. It has lots of dialogue but was submitted almost two weeks ago and now I'm worried about rejection due to punctuation. I guess I'll deal with that if and when it happens.

 

[cloudy]

I've only had one rejected, but it was because parts of it were in Creole, and the auto spellchecker didn't like it. I resubmitted it with a note that parts (a song, actually) was in Creole, and it went through fine.

(and went on to win in the contest...I've since pulled it for publication)

 

[CeriseNoire]

I look upon rejections for relatively minor formatting issues as a very positive sign, at this point. I've had two stories sent back to me, one for lines that were too long for the page and the other for paragraphs that were too lengthy. Both were later posted with E's.

The editors are our friends. They want us to look good. Place your trust in them.

*sniffles* I never get rejected -- they don't care about me.

In all seriousness, I just haven't submitted anything even remotely daring yet. Though I'm worried the next one I plan to submit may seem a bit violent in parts. We'll see.

ETA: OK I'm really out for the weekend now.

 

[sr71plt]

Rejections

I've had two of two hundred stories initially rejected--one because they didn't read it and made false assumptions from the title and the keywords chosen--which was part of the hook. (They ran it as originally submitted when I asked them to actually read it.) The other was slightly less than 800 words. As the hook of the story was that it was a quickie, I thought rejecting it was a little knee jerk. But I added a few words and it went through (another even shorter one got posted without objection earlier, so go figure).

On the other hand, they once ran someone else's story under my title and name (while I was on vacation on another continent--another reader had to point out that the story text didn't match the title) and three times they've posted the story to my personal listing but to neither the "new" list nor the category list until I asked them to post it (and it all three cases the story suffered greatly in readers/votes).They also ran parts of a serial out of order once even though they were submitted in order with a two-day separation in submissions. That was a little "hey what"?

So, I'd say we were even across the board. And just a couple of problems out of two hundred submissions with the number to submissions they have to juggle every day doesn't seem too bad.

I'm not too comforted, though, that they never answer my e-mails. I have to just guess whether they are going to address a problem or not.

 

[cloudy]

I'm not too comforted, though, that they never answer my e-mails. I have to just guess whether they are going to address a problem or not.

They never answer emails. You have to PM Laurel.

 

[sr71plt]

That too

Never have answered a PM I've sent either. I think Laurel might be a figment of your imagination. (Not that it matters much, of course. Just an extension of the thread.)

 

[jomar]

I had a troll story rejected with the comment that it was better suited for AH. I've since seen another similar story accepted.

My story "Horror" was also rejected with the snuff or too violent message. I changed one word and it was accepted. I think the editor was in a mood when it was rejected - don't think it was the word change.

 

[cloudy]

Never have answered a PM I've sent either. I think Laurel might be a figment of your imagination. (Not that it matters much, of course. Just an extension of the thread.)

No, she isn't. She answers PMs. She's always answered mine. So has Manu, for that matter.

 

[sr71plt]

Happy for you, cloudy. Must be the naturally curly hair.