:sigh: my first year on Literotica...

[FreyaGersemi]

I wrote a short essay (1.5K words) summing up my first year here. It basically outlined my journey from my first story published on Literotica to my one-year anniversary. I wrote about how I wrote some stories and entered some contests and challenges and some of the things that I learned. Then wrapped it up with a tally of my work here (number of stories, total views, etcetera) and what I'm eyeing for the next year. It got rejected. Maybe because I was too proud of my accomplishments in erotic writing? I did name the story the tongue-in-cheek "Pride Before the Fall." And I did submit it in the essays category.

I just wanted to sum up the first year in a writer's journey and maybe give some people an idea what they can or cannot expect.

It was rejected as:
"This is better suited to our forum: http://forum.literotica.com/"

But then the forum rules state that you can post "less than 3 paragraphs or so" but no full stories.

I did mention that I may be looking into writing books on another site that allows authors to sell their self-published work, so maybe that was the problem? I did use the name of the site, but no links or anything other than "I may look into blah-blah" to see about monetizing some of my work. Maybe that was enough to trigger the algorithm or bot or whatever?

Oh, well. It was a fun year anyway.

 

[StillStunned]

Sorry to hear your essay was rejected, but congrats on your Literversary!

 

[THBGato]

Congrats on your Liteversary.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Congratulations on your first year and on being so productive. In one year, you've written about the same number of works as I have in the roughly five years since I finally signed up and started publishing here. At about one per week, that's impressive.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I did mention that I may be looking into writing books on another site that allows authors to sell their self-published work, so maybe that was the problem? I did use the name of the site, but no links or anything other than "I may look into blah-blah" to see about monetizing some of my work. Maybe that was enough to trigger the algorithm or bot or whatever?

Oh, well. It was a fun year anyway.

Make some judicious edits and resubmit. I had a story rejected years ago for mentioning Tumblr. I replaced that with "blog site" and the story went through (and went on to be my first real success here).

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Make some judicious edits and resubmit.

How many times can someone do that before they're thrown off Literotica? Since I don't know what they offense was, then I would change "this" to "that" and resubmit. Then if it comes back, I restore it back to how I originally had it, and change "that" to "this" and resubmit. I feel like I would just be shooting blindly with no idea what my target was. I don't want to get banned over something as silly as a little "Yay! I had a fun year!" essay.

 

[alohadave]

How many times can someone do that before they're thrown off Literotica? Since I don't know what the offense was, then I would change "this" to "that" and resubmit. Then if it comes back, I restore it back to how I originally had it, and change "that" to "this" and resubmit. I feel like I would just be shooting blindly with no idea what my target was. I don't want to get banned over something as silly as a little "Yay! I had a fun year!" essay.

With seeing it, it probably read too much like a blog post than an essay.

Others have reported similar results when they've submitted essays like yours.

Randomly changing words is unlikely to make a difference in approval.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Lots of people write posts more than 3 paragraphs long. The rule you are quoting is attempting to stop people from posting entire stories as a way around the publication system (and understood in this context to mean to kind of fiction the site runs on). Your rejection was giving you explicit permission to post its contents here.

 

[NotWise]

I don't think Laurel would give you a reason for rejecting the story that wasn't the actual reason.

One factor I can think of is that could prompt Laurel's rejections is that your essay may be aimed at an audience of other Lit authors, rather than at the Lit readers.

You can post the whole thing to AH, but you probably should serialize it instead of putting it in one TL;DNR post.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I don't think Laurel would give you a reason for rejecting the story that wasn't the actual reason.

One factor I can think of is that could prompt Laurel's rejections is that your essay may be aimed at an audience of other Lit authors, rather than at the Lit readers.

You can post the whole thing to AH, but you probably should serialize it instead of putting it in one TL;DNR post.

Character limit of 10,000 probably means 3-4 posts to fit 1.5k words

 

[AwkwardMD]

I don't think Laurel would give you a reason for rejecting the story that wasn't the actual reason..

Also, this

 

[FreyaGersemi]

With seeing it, it probably read too much like a blog post than an essay.

Probably.

Character limit of 10,000 probably means 3-4 posts to fit 1.5k words

Okay. More hassle than it's worth. Maybe it's time to start a website and a blog and all of that fun stuff. I've never done any of that, so I think I have quite a lot of research to do!

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Congratulations on your first year and on being so productive. In one year, you've written about the same number of works as I have in the roughly five years since I finally signed up and started publishing here. At about one per week, that's impressive.

Thank you, but most of my stories here are short. Most around the 7K mark. I see some writers posting 100K+ stories!!!

But, yeah, I like to work!! I can't stand just sitting around accomplishing nothing.

 

[TheLobster]

54 stories in a year?! Damn. Even if they aren’t particularly long, that’s still a scarily high number! I’m closing in on a year and I don’t think I’ll hit even half that amount.

Congratulations on such a productive year! If you haven’t been too discouraged, you should totally post that retrospective here on the forums.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Probably.

Okay. More hassle than it's worth. Maybe it's time to start a website and a blog and all of that fun stuff. I've never done any of that, so I think I have quite a lot of research to do!

Breaking 1500 words into 4 chunks of ~400 words is less work than setting up a blog. That's the AwkwardMD guarantee.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Hah! I keep waiting for someone (EB) to accuse you of being my alt.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Breaking 1500 words into 4 chunks of ~400 words is less work than setting up a blog. That's the AwkwardMD guarantee.

Yes, but setting up a website and blog and all of that would be the next step in building the Freya Gersemi Empire!

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Hah! I keep waiting for someone (EB) to accuse you of being my alt.

Someone accused me of being another popular author (I won't mention the author to protect their good name) in disguise a few weeks ago!! My response was that the other author would never sink so low as to write like me!!!

 

[ElectricBlue]

How many times can someone do that before they're thrown off Literotica? Since I don't know what they offense was, then I would change "this" to "that" and resubmit. Then if it comes back, I restore it back to how I originally had it, and change "that" to "this" and resubmit. I feel like I would just be shooting blindly with no idea what my target was. I don't want to get banned over something as silly as a little "Yay! I had a fun year!" essay.

You won't get banned, why would you think that? Think about it, at least, in terms of what the rejection might mean. It might not be the reference to off-site places, but it might be. Or PM Laurel directly.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Congrats on your anniversary Freya. Sorry to hear of the drama, but I'm sure you'll work around it.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Maybe rejig it slightly as 'advice to new authors' based on what you learned. Id be interester, sobif you want tovsend it tovme, I can see if Ivcan come u with more ideas. Or else do it as a mass Why I Wrote and Why.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Masses of stories and enough Red H’s to tile a ballroom floor. Honestly, I think you’re doing pretty well. I do have an idea; pray PM me.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Also, this

It seems like the kind of submission I've seen here before without any problems. What category was in it? It seems to fit well into Reviews and Essays or even How To. Sometimes the moderator gets bollixed up and rejects a story without looking at it too clearly. I once had an essay rejected and I assumed the reason was that I had humorously criticized a real-life person. (Quentin Tarantino, if you are curious.) But that wasn't the issue. I wrote back promising to go easier on Q.T., but then the story went through unchanged except for being switched from Celebrities and Fan Fiction to Reviews and Essays.

Oh yeah, Laurel did first suggest putting in a forum post but I said it was much too long for that. Some confusion behind the scenes I guess.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Hey, everyone!! I got a notification from Literotica that clears up what I need to change. I went afoul of one of the rules. Unintentionally, of course. I only play around with the rules that are play aroundable. I will make the changes and resubmit. I'm just in the middle of work right now...

But thank you all!!!

 

[Britva415]

Hey, everyone!! I got a notification from Literotica that clears up what I need to change. I went afoul of one of the rules. Unintentionally, of course. I only play around with the rules that are play aroundable. I will make the changes and resubmit. I'm just in the middle of work right now...

But thank you all!!!

That's good news. It's a bit confusing though - you said the original rejection feedback was
"This is better suited to our forum: http://forum.literotica.com/"

Then what? Did you resubmit it? Just wondering where the second, and contradictory, feedback came from. And why it was about a rule and not just about where on the site they wanted you to put it.

I was gonna suggest "maybe they don't think that what you wrote was an essay" since it sounds more like a journal, but I guess that wasn't the issue after all?