Story rejected for underage characters 8 months after it was initially approved

[pocketbooklover]

I received several emails from readers wondering why I took down a story. I didn't. I went to the submission page and noticed it was "rejected" and the reason given:

Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site. However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.

Was there an underage (under 18 years old) sexual relationship in my story?
Report ID: 3672 Title: Violating submission guidelines (please list below): Details: Story fearures minors. Under the age of 16 Submission: South Mountain Pack Ch. 01 [edit] Submission Author: pocketbooklover [edit]
Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions. You can find a list of Volunteer Editors here.

Please consult our Writer's Resources section and make sure you read our submission guidelines:

If you have any questions on these, please let us know.

Thanks for your time, and look forward to reading you again!

Laurel & Manu
Literotica.Com


The girls in the story were not having sex and the blurb at the top specifically says there is no underage sex in the story. I've written an email to laural and manu and have gotten no response. What do I do now?

 

[desertslave]

Emails don't work, PM Laurel. (And spelling counts, it IS Laurel, not Laural)

 

[sr71plt]

Wondering how fans noticed a story was down that was rejected and not put up to begin with.

 

[pocketbooklover]

The story was approved and was posted 8 months ago, today several readers emailed me and asked why I had taken the story down. I hadn't, so I went to the submission page and got the message posted above.

 

[sr71plt]

Hmmm, I don't think it works that way. If someone complained about it, they just take it down, they don't mark it with a rejection notice like that. I don't think. That notice is for not putting a story up to begin with.

So, you might ask Laurel about that too when you PM her.

 

[pocketbooklover]

South Mountain Pack Ch. 01 Alpha-heir finds his mate with best friend's sister.
4.64 717 29615 NonHuman (English) 01/20/13 Rejected - reason
Public Comments: 35 Moderate Public Comments
Voting Status
Yes No Public Comment Board: Yes No

 

[sr71plt]

Strange. As I noted, something to ask Laurel about. I doubt she has time to go back and send the initial rejection notices on something already up.

 

[pocketbooklover]

Thats what I don't understand. The story has been up for 8 months and was not rejected when it first posted. I've written 8 additional chapters to this story, all involving the same characters and they were approved also.

 

[SandraMustard]

The girls in the story were not having sex and the blurb at the top specifically says there is no underage sex in the story. I've written an email to laural and manu and have gotten no response. What do I do now?

I'm surprised no one else thought of this, especially the keen mind of Pilot.

The guidelines are more restrictive that just whether the girls were involved in a sex act. They can't think about it, talk about it, witness it, and others cannot think or talk about the girls being involved. I suspect this borderline involvement is the issue. Probably, something slipped by until brought to Laurel's attention.

 

[pocketbooklover]

My editor and I knew the guidelines and were very careful about the submission. If they were violated somehow, why would the story be approved and then 8 months later pulled down and rejected? Like I said earlier, these same characters have been in 8 additional chapters and they have all been approved and posted.

 

[lovecraft68]

Obviously someone reported the story. That could be because they felt there was underage or perhaps one of the trolls decided to mess with you.

If there is indeed no under age simply submit the story again with a note in the notes field declaring that. a PM to Laurel wouldn't hurt either.

Whatever you do, don't cry foul about this or you will be told don't like it leave by the same people who tell everyone else the same thing when someone has a gripe with the site.

 

[lovecraft68]

My editor and I knew the guidelines and were very careful about the submission. If they were violated somehow, why would the story be approved and then 8 months later pulled down and rejected? Like I said earlier, these same characters have been in 8 additional chapters and they have all been approved and posted.

Because the "screening" process here is done by one person trying to scan 75 or so stories a night. Most get barely a skim, meaning some post that should not and some get booted that should not.

What this does is it leaves the readers to "police" the site and report stories.

 

[SandraMustard]

Well, if you're certain no rules were bent or stepped on and you're not just on a soapbox about a story getting past once should not be appealed, then you are back to square one. Send a PM (and only a PM) to Laurel and get her answer. No amount of campaigning on this forum will matter one iota.

 

[pocketbooklover]

A friend of mine reminded me that I did get a bad comment on chapter 5, which I responded to politely, but other readers weren't so nice. She basically told me that I was condoning abuse of women. There is absolutely no abuse of women in my story, but she felt that the male characters were too controlling and therefore it would later lead to abuse and she didn't like that.

thank you for your help, and I will PM Laurel. And I am sorry for writing "Laural" earlier, I have a friend and her name is spelled with an "A".

 

[PennLady]

Just chiming in to say good luck and to echo the others who advised you to send a private message to Laurel. Stories do get reported by readers and removed by Laurel, who admits that some stories that violate the rules slip through the cracks from time to time.

While I think Sandra is generally right regarding the underage rule, it's really not a total gag rule. Characters can reflect on things, for example, so long as it's not graphic, e.g., "I lost my virginity at sixteen," or "I was embarrassed when I saw my mom..." There just can't be any explicit description of what goes on.

However, as sr71 says, you don't usually get a "rejection" notice on a story that's been up and then taken down. But perhaps that changed.

I'd say even though it was up, read over your story, or at least the parts in question and make sure everything is as you remember. If it's all good, resubmit and put a note in the "Notes" field explaining what happened, or at least reiterating that all characters involved in any sexual situations are over 18.

 

[lovecraft68]

Just chiming in to say good luck and to echo the others who advised you to send a private message to Laurel. Stories do get reported by readers and removed by Laurel, who admits that some stories that violate the rules slip through the cracks from time to time.

While I think Sandra is generally right regarding the underage rule, it's really not a total gag rule. Characters can reflect on things, for example, so long as it's not graphic, e.g., "I lost my virginity at sixteen," or "I was embarrassed when I saw my mom..." There just can't be any explicit description of what goes on.

However, as sr71 says, you don't usually get a "rejection" notice on a story that's been up and then taken down. But perhaps that changed.

I'd say even though it was up, read over your story, or at least the parts in question and make sure everything is as you remember. If it's all good, resubmit and put a note in the "Notes" field explaining what happened, or at least reiterating that all characters involved in any sexual situations are over 18.

You get the rejection notice if the story was reported and in review the site sees something it does not like or is close enough to err on the side of caution.

Or, because no one really knows, maybe if a story is reported for underage it gets the boot with no review.

But you will get the rejection notice on a reported story because it happened on 2 of mine over a year ago. They both passed were up six months and were then rejected after being reported.

 

[pocketbooklover]

I had two other people read the story again, as well as me. The only thing 'objectionable' any of us could find was one sentence. "He held her to his side, to prevent her from being pressed against his chest which was a violation of the Were rules." so I removed it and resubmitted it.

I did send the PM to Laurel, but have not received a response yet, but have gotten another 15 emails from readers wanting to know what is going on.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I had two other people read the story again, as well as me. The only thing 'objectionable' any of us could find was one sentence. "He held her to his side, to prevent her from being pressed against his chest which was a violation of the Were rules." so I removed it and resubmitted it.

I did send the PM to Laurel, but have not received a response yet, but have gotten another 15 emails from readers wanting to know what is going on.

I don't think that's it. The site has no "Were Rules" restrictions. Why don't you post the part that flirts with the underage prohibition and let's take a look at that.

 

[pocketbooklover]

That was the sentence that was removed.

 

[sr71plt]

But you will get the rejection notice on a reported story because it happened on 2 of mine over a year ago. They both passed were up six months and were then rejected after being reported.

Thanks for that. I didn't know that. Bummer that the system doesn't notify the author and give him/her a chance to defend or to quickly change. Guess I'll have to review all of mine to see if that's happened to me.

 

[lovecraft68]

But you will get the rejection notice on a reported story because it happened on 2 of mine over a year ago. They both passed were up six months and were then rejected after being reported.

Thanks for that. I didn't know that. Bummer that the system doesn't notify the author and give him/her a chance to defend or to quickly change. Guess I'll have to review all of mine to see if that's happened to me.

Yeah, I really have no idea how long mine were "missing" like the OP I got an e-mail saying "I read chapters 1 and 2, I see 4 but not 3 and 5.

And in your case because some of your stories are a few years old-and having so many- and most likely not getting a lot of "attention" one could be gone for a long time without you knowing

 

[PennLady]

You get the rejection notice if the story was reported and in review the site sees something it does not like or is close enough to err on the side of caution.

Or, because no one really knows, maybe if a story is reported for underage it gets the boot with no review.

But you will get the rejection notice on a reported story because it happened on 2 of mine over a year ago. They both passed were up six months and were then rejected after being reported.

Thanks. This is good to know.

 

[PennLady]

I had two other people read the story again, as well as me. The only thing 'objectionable' any of us could find was one sentence. "He held her to his side, to prevent her from being pressed against his chest which was a violation of the Were rules." so I removed it and resubmitted it.

I did send the PM to Laurel, but have not received a response yet, but have gotten another 15 emails from readers wanting to know what is going on.

I have to agree, as someone who has posted a few were stories, that this doesn't seem at all objectionable. I have a hard time thinking that was the sentence or scene that resulted in rejection. If underage was specified as a possible reason, that's what you should check.

 

[pocketbooklover]

PennLady - I can send you the story if you would like to look it over. Maybe you could see something that every one else has missed. Like I said earlier, I removed that one sentence and re-submitted it. if you would send me an email, then I will send the story to you.

 

[lovecraft68]

Thanks. This is good to know.

Just to clarify. when I said "notice" I meant you see it as rejected and if you click it you get the reason.

I didn't mean you actually get notified, which is kind of what I made it sound like. My "notification" was from a reader.

I suppose if an author checks his page frequently they will see it, but I only tend to follow new stories on my page.