Unrequested help...

[PastMaster]

I have found, with my series story, that I have had a few of the readers take it upon themselves to 'help' me. One guy is practically building the e-book using LaTeX, something I'd never heard of before speaking to him, and now i've got someone else 'editing' the story in case I should decide to publish. I'm not entirely sure what to say to these guys...
I'm sure this has happened to other people - how did you deal?

 

[Voboy]

There's already a thread about this.

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...te-alternate-endings-in-the-comments.1584128/

My answer here would be the same as my answer there: delete the comment immediately. If they want to write that badly? They can do so on their own account, then click submit.

 

[PastMaster]

There's already a thread about this.

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...te-alternate-endings-in-the-comments.1584128/

My answer here would be the same as my answer there: delete the comment immediately. If they want to write that badly? They can do so on their own account, then click submit.

It's not so much that they are trying to write the story, but more that they seem to just want to be involved in the process. They're not suggesting plots, just formatting what iv'e already posted, perhaps rooting out some stuff my editor missed. I can see that it would be a huge amount of work, andI feel a little ungrateful that it makes me feel uncomfortable

 

[MrPixel]

LaTex. Gawd. I haven't heard mention of that in like three decades. I'm surprised it's still a thing. (I used to be in the typesetting/pre-press business.)

Sounds like you have a fan club. I did this sort of thing once to a fellow who had an annual technical publication he self-published. The info collection was great but he didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground about publishing and presentation. Not only did I save him from himself, it so impressed the major publisher in the niche that they bought the publication rights from him, copying my format, and I was locked out. So he got a healthy invoice from me for the work done, at trade rates. He paid me 50% and we have not spoken since.

My general advice in this case is either formalize the publishing partnership, or do what you can to nicely say, "Gee thanks, but no thanks," and gently assert your rights to control your intellectual property.

 

[alohadave]

It's not so much that they are trying to write the story, but more that they seem to just want to be involved in the process. They're not suggesting plots, just formatting what iv'e already posted, perhaps rooting out some stuff my editor missed. I can see that it would be a huge amount of work, andI feel a little ungrateful that it makes me feel uncomfortable

You didn't ask them to do this, so there's no reason for you to feel ungrateful. While it's likely coming from good intentions, you aren't asking them to do this. It's pushy and shows a lack of respect for boundaries.

If you don't want them to do it, you need to tell them so.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I have found, with my series story, that I have had a few of the readers take it upon themselves to 'help' me. One guy is practically building the e-book using LaTeX, something I'd never heard of before speaking to him, and now i've got someone else 'editing' the story in case I should decide to publish. I'm not entirely sure what to say to these guys...
I'm sure this has happened to other people - how did you deal?

What do you want?

If the offers are genuinely helpful and things that you feel are in your best interest, embrace them.
If they are annoying, a distraction, or potentially damaging, squash them.

 

[gunhilltrain]

LaTex. Gawd. I haven't heard mention of that in like three decades. I'm surprised it's still a thing. (I used to be in the typesetting/pre-press business.)

Sounds like you have a fan club. I did this sort of thing once to a fellow who had an annual technical publication he self-published. The info collection was great but he didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground about publishing and presentation. Not only did I save him from himself, it so impressed the major publisher in the niche that they bought the publication rights from him, copying my format, and I was locked out. So he got a healthy invoice from me for the work done, at trade rates. He paid me 50% and we have not spoken since.

My general advice in this case is either formalize the publishing partnership, or do what you can to nicely say, "Gee thanks, but no thanks," and gently assert your rights to control your intellectual property.

I used to work in publishing (starting in 1984) and I've never heard of it. In later years, if I remember correctly, the text (say a book for lawyers) would be written in Word and formatted in Adobe InDesign (QuarkExpress was briefly a thing).

Anyway, the formatting on Lit is so basic and automatic that there is no point in doing that much. Just paste it into the submission box and add a few HTML tags if needed. Thus, this guy is not really offering the OP anything. So yeah, just say "no thanks" and ignore any further messages.

 

[Voboy]

It's not so much that they are trying to write the story, but more that they seem to just want to be involved in the process. They're not suggesting plots, just formatting what iv'e already posted, perhaps rooting out some stuff my editor missed. I can see that it would be a huge amount of work, andI feel a little ungrateful that it makes me feel uncomfortable

Meh. Same answer.

Fuck them. It's your story, not theirs. They can go screw, and you have no reason to feel uncomfortable.

That is, unless you actually WANT this kind of intervention? If you take their suggestions seriously, well, then you're a different kind of writer than I am. You know what's best for your own story. There cannot possibly be any suggestion from any reader that's better than what you'd come up with, because it's not their story.

Again, they're more than welcome to crank something out. If their suggestions are so great, then they can format their own stories and leave yours alone.

 

[MrPixel]

I used to work in publishing (starting in 1984) and I've never heard of it.

LaTex is a pre-WYSIWYG tagged-text markup language sort of similar to HTML, but much more complex. It was the favored language in textbook publishing because it had operators for typesetting college-level math equations, again, without a WYSIWYG capability. I never used LaTex, but another similar language proprietary to the PDP-11 based typesetting integrations I managed.

LaTex seemed to hold on through the '90s because Quark XPress and Aldus Pagemaker were awful for textbook publication. Anything you built in pieced text boxes - like those equations - wouldn't reflow with the running text, you had to move them "by hand". Gosh - "...briefly a thing"? Quark was the standard bearer in the trade starting in the late '80s through the mid-2000s. InDesign supplanted Pagemaker ~2000 but most big pre-press operations really didn't get with ID until the late-'00s.

That somebody is volunteering to format @PastMaster 's work into LaTex is... uh... more than a little puzzling. It's a publishing anachronism and would not be the least bit portable. Like some of my artwork in Aldus FreeHand (like Adobe Illustrator, but with a much friendlier UI).

 

[alohadave]

Was LaTeX a Unix only thing, or were there ports for Apple/Windows? I've only ever heard of *nix users talk about it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

LaTex is a pre-WYSIWYG tagged-text markup language sort of similar to HTML, but much more complex. It was the favored language in textbook publishing because it had operators for typesetting college-level math equations, again, without a WYSIWYG capability. I never used LaTex, but another similar language proprietary to the PDP-11 based typesetting integrations I managed.

LaTex seemed to hold on through the '90s because Quark XPress and Aldus Pagemaker were awful for textbook publication. Anything you built in pieced text boxes - like those equations - wouldn't reflow with the running text, you had to move them "by hand". Gosh - "...briefly a thing"? Quark was the standard bearer in the trade starting in the late '80s through the mid-2000s. InDesign supplanted Pagemaker ~2000 but most big pre-press operations really didn't get with ID until the late-'00s.

That somebody is volunteering to format @PastMaster 's work into LaTex is... uh... more than a little puzzling. It's a publishing anachronism and would not be the least bit portable. Like some of my artwork in Aldus FreeHand (like Adobe Illustrator, but with a much friendlier UI).

"Briefly a thing" - that's because my company was extremely behind the times technically. Thus when they were sold off in 1995, virtually everybody got fired - in stages - including me. I missed many of the things you mentioned above because my company never used them.

 

[MrPixel]

Was LaTeX a Unix only thing, or were there ports for Apple/Windows? I've only ever heard of *nix users talk about it.

It dawned on me the moment I stepped away from the computer that, yeah, LaTex has to still be in current use because there is no equivalent to InDesign in the Unix/Linux world. Given that nobody is paid - or can be paid - to develop professional publication apps in the "user supported" OS ecosystem means that the truly old text-driven stuff is new again.

Anyway, yes, there were/are LaTex apps in OSX/MacOS and Windows.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I have found, with my series story, that I have had a few of the readers take it upon themselves to 'help' me. One guy is practically building the e-book using LaTeX, something I'd never heard of before speaking to him, and now i've got someone else 'editing' the story in case I should decide to publish. I'm not entirely sure what to say to these guys...
I'm sure this has happened to other people - how did you deal?

That's just strange. Set boundaries, I'd say, and don't let slip your address.

 

[tenyari]

When I get things like this I just ignore it. Even where I might appreciate some help I'd prefer to not be tangled up with someone over my erotica.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I have found, with my series story, that I have had a few of the readers take it upon themselves to 'help' me. One guy is practically building the e-book using LaTeX, something I'd never heard of before speaking to him, and now i've got someone else 'editing' the story in case I should decide to publish. I'm not entirely sure what to say to these guys...
I'm sure this has happened to other people - how did you deal?

I think you should take this as a HUGE compliment.

You have managed to craft a story where the characters are so engaging they are practically real to those reading it. That’s a massive achievement.

TBF that’s sort of who I got to be here on the AH rather than just an anonymous reader. When I read LIKE THE DEVIL WITH A DEAL I hated the ending of it and my mind whirled into action creating a sequel in a creative flurry the likes of which I’d never before experienced (the metaphorical lightbulb above the head moment)

I contacted the author and they advised they would permit me to write an unofficial sequel as long as I acknowledged the copyright for the characters belonged to them. 2 months later and 100,000 words and it was done.

This however isn’t the only time that’s happened with Guess: The Ultimate Sex Game (in non-consent) beginning with one author and finishing with another. If you don’t have a solid ending suggestions may be helpful, however, if do have a solid ending write it. If they don’t like it tough. If they want to write a sequel let them as long as they start were you finish. If he didn’t get out of the Howdy-Doody car, then that’s where they start.

 

[onehitwanda]

Was LaTeX a Unix only thing, or were there ports for Apple/Windows? I've only ever heard of *nix users talk about it.

I write in Lyx, which is a WYSIWYM editor and toolchain that interfaces with MikTex on windows (and, before that, to TeX on OS-X). I use it specifically because I cannot stand the way applications like Word "helpfully" decide what I meant to type.

It takes a bit of setting up but the benefits are that the markup language is text rather than a proprietary format or something bonkers like XHTML. Nothing else I've seen or used has come with the same power and flexibility.

I guess I'm a dinosaur, but it works nicely for me.