Rejection/Acceptance

[snoopercharmbrights]

Following the frequent threads on rejection reasons, I add the following observation. I cannot see any rhyme or reason in the acceptance of a story I just started to read.

It starts in first person from the husband, writing about things he cannot possibly know. Then it suddenly, in mid-paragraph, switches to first person from the wife. It has no punctuation of direct speech whatever (e.g. Fred said I dont know where it is.) and yes, it has no apostrophes whatever in the first page of either chapter. I couldn't face reading more pages.

Given the complaints of rejections for trivial errors we see on this board regularly, how does such a piece get through?

Even if it was a glitch on the first chapter, how did the second chapter get through in the same illiterate style?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Oh yeah. My inner editor was weeping blood by the time I finished chapter 1.

 

[PennLady]

I don't know. I've wondered about that myself. But nothing to do except click off, I guess. It's not my story, and the approval is out of my control, so while it's frustrating it's also not worth tons of thought.

 

[mynameisben]

Sometimes I'll peruse through a published paperback off a bookstore shelf and wince. And then I think to myself, "I could write a less idiotic metaphor with half my brain tied behind my back."

 

[sr71plt]

Reality check. If one editor is opening 65 stories a day and passing 60 through, 365 days a year, just how closely do you think she's reading most of them?

 

[lovecraft68]

Reality check. If one editor is opening 65 stories a day and passing 60 through, 365 days a year, just how closely do you think she's reading most of them?

We now interrupt this thread with a real "reality check"

This is not Pilot's real opinion but another brown nosing statement defending the owner and therefore trying to earn another E.

Reality check Pilot.

The stories drive this site. The stories bring readers to it therefore they make Lit money. The stories are the site's bread and butter.

It is not in any way shape or form to much to ask that the stories here at least be fairly respectable grammar wise.

If someone came here for the first time and that was the story they opened first it could be enough to turn that person away from the site thinking all stories are like that.

People have the right to call it out and business savvy people who care about their product would do what it takes to correct it. Perhaps taking the money generated by 4 million hits a day to hire a second pair of eyes.

Bottom line people have the right to complain so just stop sucking ass and shut the fuck up.

 

[sr71plt]

That silly little personal attack has nothing to do with the reality of the issue. For whatever reason, there's only one editor here. That's reality. Perhaps you might open 65 stories a day for a week or so and pass on 60 and take note of how fully you are able to read into the set. I didn't post that it's the way it should be. I think more editors are needed on the selection. I just described the reality.

If you can't stop whining about the site, you really should open one of your own--one devoted to your fetish of fucking and torturing your sister perhaps--or trying to cheat contest wins and then getting pissy when you're caught at it.

(So get stuffed you obnoxious little turd. )

 

[mynameisben]

Reality check. If one editor is opening 65 stories a day and passing 60 through, 365 days a year, just how closely do you think she's reading most of them?

Oh, crap. Nobody told me there was going to be any math.

 

[_Lynn_]

Oh, crap. Nobody told me there was going to be any math.

Don't look at me for help. Math and I don't get along.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Sometimes I'll peruse through a published paperback off a bookstore shelf and wince. And then I think to myself, "I could write a less idiotic metaphor with half my brain tied behind my back."

Any time I feel bad about my own writing, I remind myself that 'Eragon' got a movie deal and a spot on the NYT best-seller list.

(If anybody here liked that book, I'm sorry. Deeply sorry.)

 

[cocput]

Thank god it's not my story. I am damn sure I have never used Fred.

The site owner should use a second pair of eyes, at least for newbie stories.

Blatant errors could have been rejected in first round, instead of giving unwanted work for the poor Anonymous %$#s.

Does anyone know how much a full-time reviewer will charge?

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

Thank god it's not my story. ...

No, rest easy, it was not one of yours.

... I am damn sure I have never used Fred. ...

Only the name was changed to protect the author from public ridicule.

 

[lovecraft68]

Any time I feel bad about my own writing, I remind myself that 'Eragon' got a movie deal and a spot on the NYT best-seller list.

(If anybody here liked that book, I'm sorry. Deeply sorry.)

Not only Eragon. Supposedly-I have to go by what I'm hearing as I've never read them- Meyers Twilight books are not all that well written.

Having said that however, to me a good book/story is based on did it entertain me. If it is an engaging story I can deal with it not being "technically" well written.

I'd rather have some sloppy grammar and a good premise than technical perfection and a boring story.

E-publishing has made it so that hundreds of thousands of stories are being published that never could have before.

On the one hand that means you get some fun stuff the publishing houses would have never touched. Unfortunately you also get some absolute dogs that are a waste of money.

But I'll take the bad with the good. I get a huge laugh out of the big publishers no longer getting to decide what I get to read.

 

[lance gt]

Going by my own experiences in submitting stories and having them rejected, I don't see how it wasn't tagged immediately and sent back. Mine was rejected for spelling and after re-reading the entire 18k words, I found 3. If mine was rejected for that, how do stories like the one mentioned ever see the light of the screen?

I had to keep reminding the editor(s) in the notes section that it was written in Canadian, so accept the stupid U's and dyslexic spelling of words like centre, instead of center. That reduced the rejections greatly.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

... to me a good book/story is based on did it entertain me. If it is an engaging story I can deal with it not being "technically" well written. ...

I don't mean how well written it was, I mean that I have to reread paragraph after paragraph to decide what is text versus what is dialogue, what dialogue is spoken by whom, where sentences end, etc, etc.

Contrast:

What is this thing called love?
What is this thing called love?
What is this thing called, love?
What is this thing called love?
What is this thing called, love?
What, is this thing called love?
What, is this thing called love?
What, is this thing called love?

These complaints are not just pedantic - they matter.

 

[mynameisben]

Contrast:

What is this thing called love?
What is this thing called love?
What is this thing called, love?
What is this thing called love?
What is this thing called, love?
What, is this thing called love?
What, is this thing called love?
What, is this thing called love?

These complaints are not just pedantic - they matter.

Very interesting. I think I'll pass your little conundrum on to my good friend William Shatner and get back to you.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Not only Eragon. Supposedly-I have to go by what I'm hearing as I've never read them- Meyers Twilight books are not all that well written.

Having said that however, to me a good book/story is based on did it entertain me. If it is an engaging story I can deal with it not being "technically" well written.

Engaging story? Judge for yourself!

Eragon starts out with a princess who's about to be captured by the Forces of Evil. Just before that happens, she manages to teleport a droid^Wdragon's egg away.

Cut to Eragon, a teenager growing up with his uncle in a backwater farm. He discovers the droid^Wdragon's egg (which soon hatches) and meets up with the Old Guy From The Outskirts Of Town, who used to be part of a mystic order of knights before they were betrayed by one of their own. Old Guy teaches him how to fight with a sword, and how to use his own mystic magical powers.

Then one day he comes back to the farm to find his uncle has been murdered by Evil Goons looking for the droid^Wdragon.

...and that's about where I stopped reading.