Rejected with a crappy explanation

[LOAnnie2]

Rejected, need help

I recently submitted a story which got rejected with the following reason.

*Is there excessive degradation, violence, snuff, or abuse of characters in your submission? If it is submitted as a Horror story, is it more snuff than actual horror?

It is a non-consent story, and yes, the character is left degraded. There is no snuff, relatively little violence (except of her being taken), though one could argue for the abuse.

However based on the submission guidelines, this is not a problem. I've read through them many times and none of these aspects is listed as being a candidate for rejection.

Furthermore, I can think of a lot of stories (FINC, in particular the "Texas Dildo Massacre Series") which go above and beyond in every way imaginable compared to the story I submitted.

I guess the thing that bothers me most about this is that I get rejected for something that's not even listed on the submission page.

Edit:

I did find where it was listed on the rejected page, but it still seems odd. I guess I could use an editor to help with this.

 

[PolyOkie]

wow

Wow. mine just got rejected period without saying what the problem was...

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

Wow. mine just got rejected period without saying what the problem was...

If you click on the blue Rejected in your submissions list the reason will be displayed.

 

[LOAnnie2]

So, I rewrote the story heavily and took out quite a lot. When I resubmitted it I asked for a more detailed explanation of what went beyond the scope of what's acceptable.

It got rejected again with no additional explanation given.

 

[driphoney]

So, I rewrote the story heavily and took out quite a lot. When I resubmitted it I asked for a more detailed explanation of what went beyond the scope of what's acceptable.

It got rejected again with no additional explanation given.

Are you still looking for an editor? Has anyone around Lit looked at your story? Did you look through the Active Editor's list at the top of this forum?

You said you did leave your character degraded, maybe too degraded?

Seems 'they' have to read through dozens and dozens of stories a day, so, they don't spend much time explaining things, and also seems that occasionally surprisingly bad stuff slips through the cracks (and then gets red H's??!! Go figure!)

I'd just keep hunting for an editor.

 

[LOAnnie2]

However, in the rejected sticky above, it says that you should ask for a story if it gets rejected for the same reason.

No, no one has read the story (honestly, I doubt that the story was read again before it was rejected. I added in the droll idea that she gets pleasure out of it, but apparently that wasn't enough, as well as taking out pretty much all of the abuse (save for the fact that she's getting taken against her will). If they expect people to enjoy it, why even have the word non-consent in the description?

I had no problem getting stories where the girl never enjoyed it through with my previous account, so still a bit annoyed.

EDIT:

I've rewritten and cut out aspects again. I changed the ending completely, which changes the tone of the story, as well as covers the fact that the victim isn't nearly as degraded, humiliated, and is respected in the end... third time's the charm?

 

[driphoney]

Sure, I sent you a PM. But, honestly, I'm no expert. You had another account here? Too bad this is happening to you. Frustrating!

 

[PrincessErin]

.....

 

[Guest]

The problem might also be in the tags you're assigning to the story. The only rejection I've had is when I included the term "rape" as a story tag. The word appeared nowhere else in the piece. Changed the tag and it sailed through fine. Just a thought.

 

[sr71plt]

So, I rewrote the story heavily and took out quite a lot. When I resubmitted it I asked for a more detailed explanation of what went beyond the scope of what's acceptable.

It got rejected again with no additional explanation given.

By this time it might have occurred to you that the rejection was in the form of a question. They didn't necessarily take the time to read the own story (which would be nice, yes, before rejecting it), but they were asking you to affirm you'd followed guidelines. Perhaps all you then would need to do is answer with a declaration that it didn't contain that (which worked for me once--I just pointed out where they made the wrong assumption, and the story was posted as originally written).

 

[LOAnnie2]

Gnome--
I didn't use any tags that other stories hadn't, but maybe the tags in combination with things, so I did remove a few of them.

sr71plt--
I actually never thought of it in terms of a question. If the current version of the story gets rejected, I'll probably take that path. Someone else read the latest over for me and seems to think it should get in.

I think PrincessErin was right, a lot of it has to do with first story from this account, and then probably skimmed after that.

Also, I'm thinking that tone has a lot to do with things. My two stories on my old account were both 'reluctance' stories, the first having the girl go along with even if she doesn't like it. The second one was bribery turned blackmail... This one as it stands now starts out much rougher, but I think the ending is much softer than either of my previous works.

 

[sr71plt]

Gnome--
I didn't use any tags that other stories hadn't, but maybe the tags in combination with things, so I did remove a few of them.

sr71plt--
I actually never thought of it in terms of a question. If the current version of the story gets rejected, I'll probably take that path. Someone else read the latest over for me and seems to think it should get in.

I think PrincessErin was right, a lot of it has to do with first story from this account, and then probably skimmed after that.

Also, I'm thinking that tone has a lot to do with things. My two stories on my old account were both 'reluctance' stories, the first having the girl go along with even if she doesn't like it. The second one was bribery turned blackmail... This one as it stands now starts out much rougher, but I think the ending is much softer than either of my previous works.

In my case, I likened a man to a snake (posted on Lit. as "Snaked") and got the rejection of "is there bestiality in this story?" My answer was, well, no, just read it. It's a man, not really a snake. The snake language is a literary device--and it's a horror story. And then it was posted without further question. It may be as simple a disconnect as that in your story too.

 

[LOAnnie2]

probably. I just changed the description of the story too, which may be a big part of it too.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

(which worked for me once--I just pointed out where they made the wrong assumption, and the story was posted as originally written).

How did you go about doing this?

I just picked up my first rejection - underage character. I had a feeling it might be problematic. The character concerned is a non-human shapeshifter that takes on a number of different forms during the story, but is initially seen as a young girl. There aren't any sex scenes involving the shapeshifter in the form of the young girl (because it would quite rightly be seen as a despicable excuse to sneak descriptions of underage sex through - definitely NOT what the story is about!).

I did add a note with the submission explaining this, but it got rejected anyway. No sure if I fell foul of an auto-reject off keywords in the story or if someone read it and thought it was a little too close to the knuckle anyway

 

[LOAnnie2]

How did you go about doing this?

I just picked up my first rejection - underage character. I had a feeling it might be problematic. The character concerned is a non-human shapeshifter that takes on a number of different forms during the story, but is initially seen as a young girl. There aren't any sex scenes involving the shapeshifter in the form of the young girl (because it would quite rightly be seen as a despicable excuse to sneak descriptions of underage sex through - definitely NOT what the story is about!).

I did add a note with the submission explaining this, but it got rejected anyway. No sure if I fell foul of an auto-reject off keywords in the story or if someone read it and thought it was a little too close to the knuckle anyway

It probably depends on what explanation given. If it said underage sex, probably put a note saying, "Um, there isn't any and explain it further." Technically I think there could be underage characters in the story, but they have to have absolutely nothing to do with the sex, seeing it, etc... So maybe a note of that, and asking if there's still a problem if they could email you something more detailed.

 

[sr71plt]

How did you go about doing this?

I just picked up my first rejection - underage character. I had a feeling it might be problematic. The character concerned is a non-human shapeshifter that takes on a number of different forms during the story, but is initially seen as a young girl. There aren't any sex scenes involving the shapeshifter in the form of the young girl (because it would quite rightly be seen as a despicable excuse to sneak descriptions of underage sex through - definitely NOT what the story is about!).

I did add a note with the submission explaining this, but it got rejected anyway. No sure if I fell foul of an auto-reject off keywords in the story or if someone read it and thought it was a little too close to the knuckle anyway

I did what LOAnnie2 did. I just refiled the story as originally sent and noted (politely) in the Notes section that it was straight M/F sex, no animals (snakes in this case) involved in the coupling in any way.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

... I did add a note with the submission explaining this, but it got rejected anyway. No sure if I fell foul of an auto-reject off keywords in the story or if someone read it and thought it was a little too close to the knuckle anyway

If you added a note, then it would have been seen by a human. Many of us have a theory that all rejections are hand checked.

If it isn't too essential to the story, then just up her age. Otherwise there are other sites which will take such stories on-line.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

If it isn't too essential to the story, then just up her age. Otherwise there are other sites which will take such stories on-line.

The character's age is already given in the story as in the range of several centuries. I'm not sure if upping that makes much of a difference .

Using another site is fine, but it's a middle chapter in a series. I suppose i could skip that chapter on Lit and send anybody emailing why it isn't up to the other site, but that's not exactly ideal.

Changing the story isn't easy either. I'm not sure how I can remove an underage sex scene that doesn't actually exist in the first place.

Messy, messy.

I'll have to contact them to find out which section of the story is causing the problem and possibly tone it down.

 

[Darkniciad]

The character's age is already given in the story as in the range of several centuries. I'm not sure if upping that makes much of a difference .

Using another site is fine, but it's a middle chapter in a series. I suppose i could skip that chapter on Lit and send anybody emailing why it isn't up to the other site, but that's not exactly ideal.

Changing the story isn't easy either. I'm not sure how I can remove an underage sex scene that doesn't actually exist in the first place.

Messy, messy.

I'll have to contact them to find out which section of the story is causing the problem and possibly tone it down.

Sounds like a case of a too-quick skim to me. Not hard to understand with 70+ stories getting approved a day. I think you might be okay if you resubmit with a note about the character being a centuries old shapeshifter, without changing anything.

The only rejection I've had was for HTML. Used quite a few special characters in the scene breaks and it triggered a rejection. Put in a note, resubmitted as is, and it went through fine the second time.

 

[scouries]

This whole rejection business is a subject close to my heart. Reading the above I see that not much has changed since I posted the following on my thread some 18 months ago. Which is too bad.

SCOURIES SUGGESTION #4 – Why not give a detailed reason when you Reject a Story

I’ve had about 13 out of the 58 or so stories I’ve submitted to Literotica rejected. Some have been rejected up to five times! I’m always surprised when one is rejected. I think I understand Literotica’s rules and while I may not agree with them I do try to write my stories to conform to them. When a story of mine is rejected I rush to try and find the problem and correct it. My stories have been rejected for the following reasons:

*Poor Grammar
*Underage Characters
*Snuff Scene
*Wrong Category
*Bestiality

But when one of the censors rejects a story they don’t provide very specific details – instead there is a line that asks something like ‘is there an underage character in this story?’ or ‘is this in the right category?’ or ‘does this story include bestiality?’ Shit, if you’ve read the story and decided it needs rejection why not be a little more specific?

Strangely at least nine of the thirteen stories I’ve had rejected were subsequently accepted without me making any changes at all! I just resubmit them with a note like ‘I looked for the underage character and don’t believe there are any of them in this story– I’d be happy to change something if you have some specific problem – please advise’. One of two things happens; one, usually the story is accepted without comment, or two, it’s rejected again but with again no highlighting of the exact problem.

I believe it would save me time and worry, as well as save your censors time, if they were quite specific when they reject a story. Something like, ‘Sally is only 16 years old when she has sex with Arthur in the middle of page two in your story – this is unacceptable and must be changed,’ or ‘it is not okay for Sally to have vaginal/penile intercourse with the dolphin in the second paragraph’.

I’ll then be able to immediately address the problem instead of slogging through ten thousand words trying to figure out what I’ve done wrong.

So please, for all of our sakes, talk to your censors and get them to be a bit more specific in future.

 

[sr71plt]

This whole rejection business is a subject close to my heart. Reading the above I see that not much has changed since I posted the following on my thread some 18 months ago. Which is too bad.

SCOURIES SUGGESTION #4 – Why not give a detailed reason when you Reject a Story

I’ve had about 13 out of the 58 or so stories I’ve submitted to Literotica rejected. Some have been rejected up to five times! I’m always surprised when one is rejected. I think I understand Literotica’s rules and while I may not agree with them I do try to write my stories to conform to them. When a story of mine is rejected I rush to try and find the problem and correct it. My stories have been rejected for the following reasons:

*Poor Grammar
*Underage Characters
*Snuff Scene
*Wrong Category
*Bestiality

But when one of the censors rejects a story they don’t provide very specific details – instead there is a line that asks something like ‘is there an underage character in this story?’ or ‘is this in the right category?’ or ‘does this story include bestiality?’ Shit, if you’ve read the story and decided it needs rejection why not be a little more specific?

Strangely at least nine of the thirteen stories I’ve had rejected were subsequently accepted without me making any changes at all! I just resubmit them with a note like ‘I looked for the underage character and don’t believe there are any of them in this story– I’d be happy to change something if you have some specific problem – please advise’. One of two things happens; one, usually the story is accepted without comment, or two, it’s rejected again but with again no highlighting of the exact problem.

I believe it would save me time and worry, as well as save your censors time, if they were quite specific when they reject a story. Something like, ‘Sally is only 16 years old when she has sex with Arthur in the middle of page two in your story – this is unacceptable and must be changed,’ or ‘it is not okay for Sally to have vaginal/penile intercourse with the dolphin in the second paragraph’.

I’ll then be able to immediately address the problem instead of slogging through ten thousand words trying to figure out what I’ve done wrong.

So please, for all of our sakes, talk to your censors and get them to be a bit more specific in future.

I do (genuinely) agree that the reasons for rejection need to be clearer--because there are lots of folks here who have go through extra steps of trying to get help on figuring out why their story is rejected. The submissions editors would probably need a lot of extra help if they were to do a clearer job of this, though. I suggest they take Scouries royalties here and hire another part-time submissions editor.

 

[DeeZire]

For my Limewire Girl story, I added a note saying "age verification in paragraph 4" and it got through no problem on the first submission. That might work for your story. If they're not going to be specific, perhaps they want you to be specific and show them why the story should not be rejected.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

This whole rejection business is a subject close to my heart. ... So please, for all of our sakes, talk to your censors and get them to be a bit more specific in future.

Sadly nobody here has any more access to the censors than you do. (See this thread.)

The purpose of this site is to make money for the corporation which owns it, whose name is censored if it is put in a posting (but which is a matter of public record!). You can send a PM to the owners as Laurel or Manu with suggestions, but any which would increase their costs with no benefit to them, as yours would, are unlikely to be followed.

 

[LOAnnie2]

Woo hoo! It finally made it through

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=410122

 

[Dragonlipz]

Congratulations, the first posting is always a

small thrill. I read your story, enjoyed it and look forward to seeing some more of your work. I was going to offer to help but I see that you have PrincessErin to do some editing? It always helps to have someone. I looked over my latest and noticed several small errors and wish that I'd had someone read it first. Ah well, good luck and good posting......