The Official Author's Hangout 2014 Halloween Contest Support Thread

[TxRad]

You'll want to edit the one in your sig as well. It's broken for anyone using IE who doesn't go into the address bar and remove the extra slashes.

For some reason, every link you paste is http:////www

Something has changed here at Lit. when I copy the link from my submissions page. It has the // in it but doesn't show them when I set up my signature. Only IE seems to read extra ones.

The link I posted in the tread didn't have any //'s at all.

 

[patientlee]

Lots of views, a few votes, a couple of good comments,and then the trolls showed up. So much for the good score.

Has your first day went better?

Mine went better than I expected. My expectations were quite low for this one.

 

[patientlee]

It's there now!

My story not only isn't up it was rejected. As a snuff story.

I can still not stop laughing, and only my editor knows why.

Oh well there is no way to rewrite this one. I'll just have to settle for posting the others and hope they make it through.

Pity, it a very good story.

Happy Halloween Lol.

MST

 

[MSTarot]

It's there now!

The others are up as well. Yeah!

 

[stlgoddessfreya]

My first one's up, I'll be working on my second one this weekend. It was fun to write - a definite twist on the usual werewolf story. My plots have been drifting more towards erotic horror over the past few months. I wonder if it's just the change of seasons. Anyone else experience that?

 

[Hypoxia]

Other commitments are done and I have the anthology structure worked out. There'll be at least two A TASTE OF INCEST collections and a longer standalone. I can FINALLY get to those -- unless the author I'm editing sends her 60k-odd-word piece back to me for fine-toothing. But this weekend is officially the start of MY Hallowe'en writing season. As long as I make the deadline...

 

[Kethandra]

A Literotica virgin's first submission

I've read Lit here for years, with an extra penchant for the contest entries. After several false starts, I managed to complete and enter my first submission: Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, for the Halloween contest.
Any love, votes, comments and suggestions are appreciated concerning the story or navigating successfully and peacefully through Lit society.
To all of you whose stories I have enjoyed for many years, thank you! As a member finally, I can go back and vote/favorite authors who have impacted me.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've read Lit here for years, with an extra penchant for the contest entries. After several false starts, I managed to complete and enter my first submission: Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, for the Halloween contest.
Any love, votes, comments and suggestions are appreciated concerning the story or navigating successfully and peacefully through Lit society.
To all of you whose stories I have enjoyed for many years, thank you! As a member finally, I can go back and vote/favorite authors who have impacted me.

Welcome to th AH!

Congrats on your first story and good luck!

If you want detailed feedback post a thread in the feedback forum and include the link to your story you can get some good critique and advice there.

 

[Kethandra]

Welcome to th AH!

Congrats on your first story and good luck!

If you want detailed feedback post a thread in the feedback forum and include the link to your story you can get some good critique and advice there.

Thank you! Lovecraft68, you are one of those authors whose stories I have enjoyed for years.

 

[Kethandra]

Contest etiquette question

What is the proper and recommended etiquette for voting on your own/ competitors' stories?
I have participated on art submission sites where voting for yourself and the competition was expected, and others where that was considered crass behavior of the worst sort.
Thanks for the feedback!

 

[stlgoddessfreya]

What is the proper and recommended etiquette for voting on your own/ competitors' stories?
I have participated on art submission sites where voting for yourself and the competition was expected, and others where that was considered crass behavior of the worst sort.
Thanks for the feedback!

Since no one else knows if the author has voted on their own story or not, there's not really a culture around it here that I've seen. People tend to fall in two camps - those who never vote on their own stories and those who think if you put a story out there for other people to read, you'd better vote it 5 stars because it's 5-star work. I follow the latter camp, lots of other writers I respect are in the first.

As for voting on other contest stories, I think the general consensus is please do! I know I always put more stock in votes and constructive comments from people who have also entered work in a contest than readers who tend to just say "I loved it! MOAR!" or "Freya, die in a bonfire of printed-out copies of this story." I'm going to try to read all the entries if I can and vote/leave comments because I know other people worked hard to put their work out there to entertain me and comments/votes are the only way I can really thank them.

Speaking of, I already managed to pick up an Anon comment troll. Am I the first so far?

 

[lovecraft68]

Thank you! Lovecraft68, you are one of those authors whose stories I have enjoyed for years.

Thank you!

Always nice to meet one of the ten or so people eho like my stuff.

As for the voting question I am not sure but some people have said author votes get swept

 

[patientlee]

My first one's up, I'll be working on my second one this weekend. It was fun to write - a definite twist on the usual werewolf story. My plots have been drifting more towards erotic horror over the past few months. I wonder if it's just the change of seasons. Anyone else experience that?

I loved it.

 

[patientlee]

I've read Lit here for years, with an extra penchant for the contest entries. After several false starts, I managed to complete and enter my first submission: Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, for the Halloween contest.
Any love, votes, comments and suggestions are appreciated concerning the story or navigating successfully and peacefully through Lit society.
To all of you whose stories I have enjoyed for many years, thank you! As a member finally, I can go back and vote/favorite authors who have impacted me.

Nice to meecha!

 

[JKendallDane]

My story not only isn't up it was rejected. As a snuff story.

I can still not stop laughing, only my editor knows why.

After reading the now "approved" story this morning, I am rolling around on the floor with you and pl.

Snuff? SNUFF??? Buwahahahaha!!!

Laurel will never live that one down!

 

[patientlee]

After reading the now "approved" story this morning, I am rolling around on the floor with you and pl.

Hmm. That sounds like a party.

 

[HuckPilgrim]

Since no one else knows if the author has voted on their own story or not, there's not really a culture around it here that I've seen. People tend to fall in two camps - those who never vote on their own stories and those who think if you put a story out there for other people to read, you'd better vote it 5 stars because it's 5-star work. I follow the latter camp, lots of other writers I respect are in the first.

Humm. I am not sure which camp I am in. I typically vote on my stories, but I'm noticing that my vote seems to get removed? I think that's what's happening. I go back to some stories I've voted on and I see my vote is still there. I go back to other stories and my vote is gone. If I put it back in, it seems to go away again. Is this what other people are seeing? I assumed that maybe it didn't like my vote, maybe because I didn't take the time to read the story? I'm assuming some sort of heuristics are in play with web stats to determine legitimate votes? I don't know, but I'd be interested to hear what others think.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't read or vote on many stories here, and don't pay much attention to whether they are in a contest or not. I do think that the author's own vote on his/her story will be swept. Laurel has posted that it isn't, though.

 

[HuckPilgrim]

Yep, I've sort of given up on voting myself. I read other peoples stories and occasionally I vote, but I rarely go back to see if my vote "stuck."

 

[DeathAndTaxes]

OK! Finally submitted mine! Erotic Horror:

The Fall of Rowland Graves
How a man became a monster.

Now I just have to hop around from one foot to the other and wait for it to be approved.

I've been reading through the other entries - all kinds of fun stuff in there! Some real great ones! Hope to get through most of them.

I don't vote on my own stuff, it just seems weird. I almost never vote on other people's stories unless I'm willing to give them a 5. I figure, if it isn't great, enough other people will send the message. But that's just me, I'm too soft. Hehe. Maybe that's why I'm writing about murderers, for some bizarre sense of balance.

 

[stlgoddessfreya]

OK! Finally submitted mine! Erotic Horror:

The Fall of Rowland Graves
How a man became a monster.

Now I just have to hop around from one foot to the other and wait for it to be approved.

I've been reading through the other entries - all kinds of fun stuff in there! Some real great ones! Hope to get through most of them.

I don't vote on my own stuff, it just seems weird. I almost never vote on other people's stories unless I'm willing to give them a 5. I figure, if it isn't great, enough other people will send the message. But that's just me, I'm too soft. Hehe. Maybe that's why I'm writing about murderers, for some bizarre sense of balance.

Thanks for your story comments, Death and Taxes! I'll look forward to reading yours - my submission was in on Thursday afternoon and posted on Friday, so I think Laurel's making a concerted effort to fast-track entries.

 

[lovecraft68]

OK, now I feel a bit better. I'm 3/4 done with this thing (I hope!) and I broke 15K last night, and even with that much I was already worried about getting into "TL;DR" territory.

I'm with you - I just want comments at this point. Bummed I couldn't get done by the 1st, but hoping to get there in the next couple days.

OK! Finally submitted mine! Erotic Horror:

The Fall of Rowland Graves
How a man became a monster.

Now I just have to hop around from one foot to the other and wait for it to be approved.

I've been reading through the other entries - all kinds of fun stuff in there! Some real great ones! Hope to get through most of them.

I don't vote on my own stuff, it just seems weird. I almost never vote on other people's stories unless I'm willing to give them a 5. I figure, if it isn't great, enough other people will send the message. But that's just me, I'm too soft. Hehe. Maybe that's why I'm writing about murderers, for some bizarre sense of balance.

It might not show up until Monday. In the last couple of contests Laurel was not putting entries up on the weekends. I think that's a good idea. Not so sure about Saturday, but Sunday is a crappy day for a new release.

 

[sr71plt]

My next one is scheduled to post tomorrow, Sunday. It was submitted on Friday.

 

[lovecraft68]

My next one is scheduled to post tomorrow, Sunday. It was submitted on Friday.

Good luck, the couple of times I ended up on Sunday the numbers were less that stellar.

I've always found Friday to be the best day, for me anyway.

 

[sr71plt]

Thus why I submitted it on Friday. Until recent contests, entries had been uniformily posting within 24 hours.

That said, Sunday appears to be the big comment/rate day for my stories.