Very slow?

[CWatson]

I'm trying to get a story through the submission process and onto the site. I sent it in Saturday night, and it's still nowhere to be seen. Even better, I had been planning to put Part 2 into the queue today, but if Part 1 hasn't even been read by anyone yet...

Is this normal? The last time I posted here was '03, and traffic has likely increased since then. (Not to mention that I use a lot of HTML tags.) Or is there something I can do to streamline the process and make it easier for our mods?

 

[glynndah]

I'm trying to get a story through the submission process and onto the site. I sent it in Saturday night, and it's still nowhere to be seen. Even better, I had been planning to put Part 2 into the queue today, but if Part 1 hasn't even been read by anyone yet...

Is this normal? The last time I posted here was '03, and traffic has likely increased since then. (Not to mention that I use a lot of HTML tags.) Or is there something I can do to streamline the process and make it easier for our mods?

Chocolate. Lots and lots of dark chocolate. Just send it off in care of the good little witch.


It takes at least a week most of the time. I'd go ahead and put the other part in the queue. Readers don't like to wait.

A welcome for the little practically newbie from the good little witch.

 

[Laurel]

Hi there! The current wait time is around 3 days from submission to posting on all stories that don't contain illustrations or audio. If your story has been pending for longer than that, it's possible that you may have opened the pending submission and hit SUBMIT more than once. Stories and poems are approved by date, oldest to newest. Whenever the author makes changes to a story or poem - or even if the author clicks on the submission and hits SUBMIT again - that submission is moved to the end of the queue. To speed up the posting of your work, only make changes when necessary. Hope this helps!

 

[CWatson]

Well, that would explain a lot. Even worse, I realized I had mis-named a character. Fortunately, the submission bounced due to misplaced HTML tags, so I got to fix everything. (I am in the process of switching to a new conversion system between word-processed text and HTML, and this submission was one of the casualties.)

If I type out all the <P> and <I> and <B> tags and then paste that into the Please-Paste-Text field, is that good or bad? (So far as I can tell the story is perfectly formatted for posting, but obviously this depends on you guys being able to EXTRACT that formatting.)

 

[freshface]

Well, that would explain a lot. Even worse, I realized I had mis-named a character. Fortunately, the submission bounced due to misplaced HTML tags, so I got to fix everything. (I am in the process of switching to a new conversion system between word-processed text and HTML, and this submission was one of the casualties.)

If I type out all the <P> and <I> and <B> tags and then paste that into the Please-Paste-Text field, is that good or bad? (So far as I can tell the story is perfectly formatted for posting, but obviously this depends on you guys being able to EXTRACT that formatting.)

Not sure why no one else responded, but here goes. You can type out all of the html tags and then paste into the submission box. For a good guide to html tagging, try this. When you have it pasted in, you can click on a preview button that will show you exactly what the final submission will look like. A quick scan through that should show you if you have any missing tags.

 

[CWatson]

Excellent. That's basically what I did. Thanks very much. (Now I just hope they can deal with the occasional font changes and color changes to represent Instant Messaging!... This is why I keep my own site! *laughs*)

 

[evanslily]

Not sure why no one else responded, but here goes. You can type out all of the html tags and then paste into the submission box. For a good guide to html tagging, try this. When you have it pasted in, you can click on a preview button that will show you exactly what the final submission will look like. A quick scan through that should show you if you have any missing tags.

I was just about to suggest the same thing. The article freshface mentions is great. I tend to write in Word first but put html tags in manually, then copy and paste the whole thing to Notepad. Then and only then do I cut and paste to the box on the submission page. The other thing to note though, if you do use the Notepad route, is to make sure that Word Wrap isn't enabled, cos that tends to put some odd breaks into the finished product.

Good luck! Come back and post a link when you finally get your story approved!

P.S. I have to admit that I don't think you'll get your font/colour changes--at least I've never seen them here...

 

[Zeb_Carter]

If you have word set up properly and place the extra paragraph breaks in the text there is no reason why you can't go directly from Word to the Paste box on the submission page.

I do it that way all the time without problems. I do however type the HTML tags I want to use in the text. Usually just chapter titles and such.

 

[CWatson]

Yay, it finally got up! (...wait, that sounds wrong. Okay, starting over.) Yay, my story has finally been posted! And with the formatting and stuff! (Sweet, I didn't know they'd let me keep that.)

Thank you again if you helped me figure this out. Now I can just put things together with a minimum of fuss. To (mis)quote a crazy computer, "Thank you for helping us help you help us all."

 

[bronzeage]

Yay, it finally got up! (...wait, that sounds wrong. Okay, starting over.) Yay, my story has finally been posted! And with the formatting and stuff! (Sweet, I didn't know they'd let me keep that.)

Thank you again if you helped me figure this out. Now I can just put things together with a minimum of fuss. To (mis)quote a crazy computer, "Thank you for helping us help you help us all."

You can submit all the parts of a serial story at one time. The editors will approve all pieces, but only post one a week.