Serious Error: Another author’s story substituted for mine at publication

[TakeItOrLeaveIt]

I wrote a story, ‘Paying for it,’ and submitted on the 11 February 2024. This story sat in pending for an usual length of time - even though I had a story submitted long after turned around within 24 hours. I message @Laurel but didn’t get a response.

Anyway, this morning the story went live. All well and good. Until I check it out. It seems that the story published under my account and against the title, ‘Paying for it,’ is not my story at all. It’s actually - and seemingly - an unpublished Part 2 of a story written by @Rollerchick28 called the Babysitter and the Widow.

I’ve reached out to the true author via her contact page and, for the moment, I’ve left the story live (I’ll pull it in 24 hours if unresolved). However, I am concerned regarding the whereabouts of my original story. I write directly into the text box and do not keep a backup. I’m concerned, therefore, that a number of hours work is now lost.

My advice to other authors is that you keep a backup (d’oh, an obvious thing, I know). But, more fundamentally, it seems that the site is perhaps not as reliable as one might expect.

Secondarily, I’m concerned for Rollerchick’s story - which seems to be around 10k words. I don’t want this to be lost for her. If, Rollerchick, you do pick this message up, please DM me and we’ll sort out how best to resolve it.

I’ve messaged Laurel and so hopefully she’ll respond with a plan to resolve.

Finally, I wanted to post here to protect myself against charges of plagiarism. I am a considered writer (this is a side gig), and I do take my reputation seriously. Even my fake-ass-writing-under-a-pseudonym reputation. And so I wanted to post this here for posterity and by way of reputational insurance… If there ever is such a thing.

If anyone has any suggestions, or an in with Laurel that might garner a response, I’d appreciate it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

See my reply in the other thread - I think you've done what you can. Be patient, give Laurel time to sort it out.

Glitches like this happen, not often, and always get sorted out in the end.

If you're lucky, the back-end will still have your content - but it's on you to keep a copy in future. Relying on another server is pretty silly - but if you're already a writer, you knew that, surely?

 

[mildlyaroused]

Agree in regards ElectricBlue's thoughts on having done all you can and recommending a back up in future.

On another note, copy-paste Rollerchick's story somewhere outside of Lit in case they made the same error you did. That eliminates the chance of her losing her work.

 

[TakeItOrLeaveIt]

Agree in regards ElectricBlue's thoughts on having done all you can and recommending a back up in future.

On another note, copy-paste Rollerchick's story somewhere outside of Lit in case they made the same error you did. That eliminates the chance of her losing her work.

I’ve taken a copy of Roller’s story and messaged her.

I’ve been arguing with Electric on another thread. Yep, I know that a backup would have mitigated this. Yep, with my other writing I keep multiple backups. I didn’t do so here because I don’t want reams of erotica stored locally, and associated with my online IDs. However, I know that there are ways around that and, if I do continue to write here, I’ll think of some better solution.

And thank you for the response, it’s appreciated.

 

[12oclocktales]

The exact same thing happened to me a few months ago, another author’s story was posted as written by me. I notified Laurel and it was taken down right away and the story I originally submitted put up. The only difference was I don’t know who the other author was because it carried my name.

Here’s the really weird thing: it took me a couple of days to notice the wrong story had been published, which was the second part of a two-parter, so several readers had read it by then and rated it at like 4.10 or so, even though it made no sense and had nothing to do with the category, tags, or Part 1. I thought the story would get no traction after that, but it’s coming in at 4.83 now.

 

[Devinter]

I write directly into the text box and do not keep a backup.

Please never do this again. You're stressing me out!

 

[Djmac1031]

View attachment 2319414

Please never do this again. You're stressing me out!

I hear you. Pure nightmare fuel.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

View attachment 2319414

Please never do this again. You're stressing me out!

Every time I see something this foolish it's an audible aggrovated sigh.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Serious Error: Another author’s story substituted for mine at publication​

Not anything more useful to say than what others have commented. But I feel bad for you. Hope @Laurel can sort it out for you.

And yes - to flagellate an expired equine - never rely on just the text box.

Emily

 

[TakeItOrLeaveIt]

Just to update that Laurel has kindly returned the errant story to its true author: so that is good news.

I think mine may have been lost. Which is a shame. But the world will continue to revolve and the annals of humanity will be none the poorer.

I will think about how to back up in the future... But I genuinely do not want a huge cache of smut on my local drive or associated with my online accounts. Clearly, having learnt my lesson, I'll have to think of an alternative.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Just to update that Laurel has kindly returned the errant story to its true author: so that is good news.

I think mine may have been lost. Which is a shame. But the world will continue to revolve and the annals of humanity will be none the poorer.

I will think about how to back up in the future... But I genuinely do not want a huge cache of smut on my local drive or associated with my online accounts. Clearly, having learnt my lesson, I'll have to think of an alternative.

Use a phone like I do

 

[TakeItOrLeaveIt]

Use a phone like I do

Do you mean that you back up on your phone and only on your phone? If so, do you allow it to sync to the cloud (iCloud or the equivalent)?

 

[EmilyMiller]

Do you mean that you back up on your phone and only on your phone? If so, do you allow it to sync to the cloud (iCloud or the equivalent)?

I have my Word365 replicate to OneDrive

 

[TakeItOrLeaveIt]

I have my Word365 replicate to OneDrive

My other writing is all in Scrivener - but backed up to Dropbox (so that I can write between devices). I was trying to avoid that as a solution - just because of public data breaches. But, on the balance of risk, I may go that route and just encrypt the file.

Really appreciate the suggestion.

On an unrelated note, I really enjoyed your short-form story, Walking in Beauty. I thought it was beautifully written, poetic and original.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Just to update that Laurel has kindly returned the errant story to its true author: so that is good news.

I think mine may have been lost. Which is a shame. But the world will continue to revolve and the annals of humanity will be none the poorer.

I will think about how to back up in the future... But I genuinely do not want a huge cache of smut on my local drive or associated with my online accounts. Clearly, having learnt my lesson, I'll have to think of an alternative.

You can get a 10 pack of 16G flash drives for about $25 on Amazon... Then you can keep your smut in the back of your sock drawer or buried in the back of your closet with your dad's old Playboy magazines.

 

[EmilyMiller]

On an unrelated note, I really enjoyed your short-form story, Walking in Beauty. I thought it was beautifully written, poetic and original.

That is very kind of you to say. I was experimenting with a more overtly poetic style. Not to everyone’s taste, but I’m happy you liked it.

Emily

 

[mildlyaroused]

But I genuinely do not want a huge cache of smut on my local drive or associated with my online accounts.

Why not make a burner account on Google Docs? Presumably you had to use an email to sign up for an account on this site. Unless you're using a VPN every time you log into Lit, there is no extra 'risk' to writing into Google Drive.

 

[KeithD]

The exact same thing happened to me a few months ago, another author’s story was posted as written by me. I notified Laurel and it was taken down right away and the story I originally submitted put up.

This happened to me as well once, and, when I directly contacted (via message system on this board) Laurel, she fixed it right away.

 

[MyBareTorso]

Just to update that Laurel has kindly returned the errant story to its true author: so that is good news.

I think mine may have been lost. Which is a shame. But the world will continue to revolve and the annals of humanity will be none the poorer.

I will think about how to back up in the future... But I genuinely do not want a huge cache of smut on my local drive or associated with my online accounts. Clearly, having learnt my lesson, I'll have to think of an alternative.

Go old school...a USB just for your smut?

 

[RejectReality]

While I think it's ill-advised to depend on some server you don't have control of, ( where the company's business isn't backing up files ) you could create a draft with a different title such as "BKUP My Title" once you've finalized your submission. You then keep that draft in place until you're sure the submission has gone through without issue. Once the story is live, you can delete the backup draft.

 

[intim8]

I think mine may have been lost. Which is a shame

Or an opportunity to do a better second draft.
Yeah, I know, that's not any comfort. Sorry to hear this.

 

[TakeItOrLeaveIt]

Or an opportunity to do a better second draft.
Yeah, I know, that's not any comfort. Sorry to hear this.

To be honest, that’s the way I am looking at it. I’m not going to immediately go back and re-write, but I think that there was a germ of a good idea there, and so I will return to the ‘lost’ work at some point in time.

I did follow up with Laurel to try and establish whether the work was recoverable - I’m taking, from her silence, that the answer is resolutely ‘no’.

 

[SkyBubble]

Just to update that Laurel has kindly returned the errant story to its true author: so that is good news.

I think mine may have been lost. Which is a shame. But the world will continue to revolve and the annals of humanity will be none the poorer.

I will think about how to back up in the future... But I genuinely do not want a huge cache of smut on my local drive or associated with my online accounts. Clearly, having learnt my lesson, I'll have to think of an alternative.

Thumb drives?