Story re-writes

[BONNIEBREA]

Just to express some frustrations and a word of caution to other authors.

As an author you're supposed to be able to submit editted/re-written versions of your stories to replace original postings.

I did this recently with the re-writes of six of my stories.

It's been over a week since I started submitting them and it's an ungodly mess.

Many re-written chapters have not been posted while others have. The chapters of some stories are posted in the wrong story. One re-written chapter has only 3 paragraphs posted. Two chapters of one story are missing entirely.

At this point only 2 of 6 re-written stories are posted entirely correct.

They (the site people) seemed to give it sort of a half-hearted try to straighten out the mess for a couple days, but since have gone missing.

So just a caution to authors that trying to get editted or re-written submissions posted can turn into a real nightmare. I've got four stories now royally screwed up, with no end of the mess in sight.

BB

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Never had a problem submitting edited submissions...if done properly.

1) the title and description have to be exactly the same as the original
2) the work EDIT must be appended to the title preceded by a space
3) in the notes section type "EDIT please replace"
4) edited work tends to take a little longer than first time submissions due to the difference in the database commands.

5) If all else fails - PM Laurel - be polite, explain to her what has happened, she will work with you to fix the problem.

Good luck and welcome to the AH.

 

[talismania]

Not long ago I had a similar problem posting a revised story. I had some formatting problem with two chapters of a series and submitted new chapters. A few days later, Ch. 1 was fixed but Ch. 2... had Ch. 1's text. It took a few PMs to work out what had happened, but the problem persisted into the next day. So I wrote back.

The site administrators explained that the script they use takes 72 hours to completely work through a revision. I'm not exactly sure how that happens; I don't understand this script business. But eventually Ch. 2 popped up where it should be. The administrators were super nice to communicate with throughout.

Since then, I submit only one revised chapter at a time. I haven't had a problem doing it that way.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Not long ago I had a similar problem posting a revised story. I had some formatting problem with two chapters of a series and submitted new chapters. A few days later, Ch. 1 was fixed but Ch. 2... had Ch. 1's text. It took a few PMs to work out what had happened, but the problem persisted into the next day. So I wrote back.

The site administrators explained that the script they use takes 72 hours to completely work through a revision. I'm not exactly sure how that happens; I don't understand this script business. But eventually Ch. 2 popped up where it should be. The administrators were super nice to communicate with throughout.

Since then, I submit only one revised chapter at a time. I haven't had a problem doing it that way.

The script is run against the stories that have been revised by the authors and are sitting in the submission que. The script has to update each field with the new data, without error, before it can proceed to the next entry.

New submissions are new entries into the database so the script for them is a little simpler as they are just inserting new records as opposed to updating existing records.

I know...more than you wanted to know.

 

[BONNIEBREA]

Hi Zeb -

Thank you for the reply. I followed all of the editted submission requirements to the letter. And I've been in contact daily (using the works 'thank you' a great deal) with a list of the many issues that still need to be resolved, but nothing's getting corrected and I've heard from no one. Very frustrating to see one's stories butchered like this.

BB

 

[BONNIEBREA]

Hi Talismania -

Thanks for the reply. Glad your experience went better than mine. All my communication has been in one direction. I haven't heard a peep from the administrators and nothing's getting corrected anymore. I've even offered to re-submit anything that needs re-submitting, but I've gotten no replies or action on getting this mess straightened out.

BB

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Hi Zeb -

Thank you for the reply. I followed all of the editted submission requirements to the letter. And I've been in contact daily (using the works 'thank you' a great deal) with a list of the many issues that still need to be resolved, but nothing's getting corrected and I've heard from no one. Very frustrating to see one's stories butchered like this.

BB

Be patient...it will take time...and Laurel is only one person and there are only 72 hours in a day. No wait, 36 hours in a day. That's not right...what planet am I on.

 

[cloudy]

Hi Zeb -

Thank you for the reply. I followed all of the editted submission requirements to the letter. And I've been in contact daily (using the works 'thank you' a great deal) with a list of the many issues that still need to be resolved, but nothing's getting corrected and I've heard from no one. Very frustrating to see one's stories butchered like this.

BB

Are you emailing or using PM's?

Emails are never even read....use the PM function.

 

[talismania]

That's true, Bonnie. Use the PM function to contact Laurel. That's who I worked with and she was wonderful. I found her under the Awards topic. She posts the Awards, so I knew I could find her username there and then contacted her directly. She got back to me quickly.

And thanks, Zeb, for the explanation! I'm pretty clueless about tech... I learn just enough to use it, but never enough to explain it to anyone else.