What am I doing wrong?

[Blind_Justice]

Okay, I'm a first-time Lit submitter and have no prior experience with the system, but I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. I've posted my submission(s) last Thursday (the 14th) and sometime last weekend, and still nothing has happened, I'm still looking at "pending" next to both of them.

I have submitted via the online form, both stories are fully edited and I believe they concur fully with the submission guidelines. I don't mind waiting a couple days, but this is definitely more than 72 hours now...

What gives?

 

[PennLady]

First-time submissions may take a little longer, I believe that's in the FAQ. Also, with the holidays coming and a themed contest just finished, Laurel (the site owner who vets the stories) may simply be behind. She has to go through a lot of submissions every day. I wouldn't take it personally -- there are enough things going on at this time of the year that I'd bet nearly any submission would be delayed, even those by veteran authors.

Good luck!

 

[sr71plt]

PennLady's right, but that said, the one submitted on the 14th is pushing the limits of normal posting even under current conditions. If that hasn't changed in the next two days (and you haven't fiddled with the pending button--that would send it back to the end of the line), you wouldn't be out of line to send the editor, Laurel, a PM in the private message system (upper right corner of this page) and ask her if the story is hung up by mistake.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Okay, now it's getting even more interesting:

Both my stories have been rejected, and the only reason stated doesn't make any sense. The stories have been flagged for "underage participants", and there no underage participants! The people in the stories are all adults, apart from the AI with whom they're having cybersex.

***removed story and remainder of post***

 

[sr71plt]

First, if the story was rejected for content cause in the story file, the owners of the Web site don't want it published to the forum either. It's just as much on the site and published here as in the story file.

Second, the rejection was in the form of a question. Every one of my rejections have, like you feel yours is, been for elements that weren't actually in the story. All I needed to do was to resubmit them with a disclaimer in the notes box that the answer to the rejection questions was "no, that's not in the story"--and they all have been published as written. Try doing the same.

There's such a big glop of text here that I only gave it a scan. This might be the base of the editor's problem for one of two reasons--or both:

"I must have been a constantly horny teenager when I last looked at erotic fiction as a bandwith-conserving alternative to more exciting video content. That was way before Lit had turned into a almost-exclusive VR porn site with all good content behind sky-high paywalls.

"I thought to myself: "Maybe I should pay them a visit and treat me to some nice VR girls"

First, Lit. might not like the idea of a teenager having been reading on Lit. Second might be the use of "girls" rather than "women," leaving open the possibility that the sex after that was to be envisioned as sex with a "girl," i.e. underage. Simple fixes there might overcome any more definite objections than just a question that the editor might have. Underage sex in cyberspace by constructs of a human would still be underage sex.

The objections might be to something else. You didn't zero in on what might be the problem area, and I'm not going to read it in detail to do that for you.

A side note: the posting delays are really slow again. My current one is on a five-day delay so far. So, for those who wondered, yes posting is slow right now.

 

[Blind_Justice]

First off, thanks for that extremely speedy reply. I'll re-submit the stories and ask for advice. Sorry for bothering you with "a huge glob of text", but how can I get help otherwise?

Again, as I wrote in my initial post, this is new to me. I HAVE read the FAQs and I HAVE read the rejection message, but the last one only pointed me towards the author's ressources, which wasn't of much help to me.

And frankly, since when infers the useage of "girl" underage? When I look at a strip club with "XXX Girls" in huge neon signs on the front, does that mean there are underage girls in there?

 

[sr71plt]

First off, thanks for that extremely speedy reply. I'll re-submit the stories and ask for advice. Sorry for bothering you with "a huge glob of text", but how can I get help otherwise?

Again, as I wrote in my initial post, this is new to me. I HAVE read the FAQs and I HAVE read the rejection message, but the last one only pointed me towards the author's ressources, which wasn't of much help to me.

And frankly, since when infers the useage of "girl" underage? When I look at a strip club with "XXX Girls" in huge neon signs on the front, does that mean there are underage girls in there?

Look, it's only going to be grief for all of us for you to be the 3,000th person to want to argue with the users over the procedures of the Web site. The word "girls" sets them off as possible underage and frequently triggers an "is this underage" question rejection. As I said, in most cases, a resubmission with a "no, this doesn't involve anyone under 18" posted to the notes box takes care of the issue.

And instead of posting the full text to the forum after the Web site rejected the posting of it to the story file, you could ask if anyone would take a look at it and arrange for an off-line look at it. If they rejected something for the story file, they're saying they don't want it on their Web site. The forum is part of their Web site.

 

[Blind_Justice]

The word "girls" sets them off as possible underage and frequently triggers an "is this underage" question rejection.
.

Thanks for enlightening me. This is the kind of "behind the scenes" stuff that a first time user can't possibly know about. I was under the impression that a human being would look at the story to greenlight it. Again, I've re-submitted the stories, making doubly sure to let the editors know that there are no underage persons in it AND I also removed all hints at Lit, just to be extra-extra sure

Look, I have no desire to argue over anything here. It's Lauren's site and her right to approve and decline whatever she wishes, no problem here. It's the rather obtuse submitting process that gets me a bit antsy. If, for example, the paragraph or sentence in question would have been pointed out, it would have been tons easier to figure out what caused the rejection. A completely general question, without any reference, is no big help. And the FAQ isn't either. It says:

"Click those words to see the reasons the work was sent back to you. You can make changes on that page and hit the "Submit" button. You don't need to fill in a new submission form. "

Fine, but how should I know what to change if all I get is "Are there underage people in a sexual relationship in your story?" and I damn well know there aren't?

 

[PennLady]

First off, thanks for that extremely speedy reply. I'll re-submit the stories and ask for advice. Sorry for bothering you with "a huge glob of text", but how can I get help otherwise?

Again, as I wrote in my initial post, this is new to me. I HAVE read the FAQs and I HAVE read the rejection message, but the last one only pointed me towards the author's ressources, which wasn't of much help to me.

And frankly, since when infers the useage of "girl" underage? When I look at a strip club with "XXX Girls" in huge neon signs on the front, does that mean there are underage girls in there?

Working backwards and agreeing with sr71, let's not rehash the underage rule. It may be new to you, and that's okay, but Lit has two main no-no's -- no underage sex and no bestiality. A character can muse that "I lost my virginity at sixteen," but you can't give details. No, that's not like real life but that doesn't apply here. Their site, their rules.

The usage of girl or boy in certain contexts could lead Laurel -- one of the site owners and the only one who vets stories -- to believe there is underage sex. The easiest thing, as you've done, is to resubmit with a note.

For help, you can ask on here, or on the Editor's forum, for someone to read your story. You can, via PMs, work out how to send the file and all of that. There are plenty of people here who can and do help, although it may take a while to find one.

 

[PennLady]

Thanks for enlightening me. This is the kind of "behind the scenes" stuff that a first time user can't possibly know about. I was under the impression that a human being would look at the story to greenlight it. Again, I've re-submitted the stories, making doubly sure to let the editors know that there are no underage persons in it AND I also removed all hints at Lit, just to be extra-extra sure

To our knowledge, a human being does skim the story. That's Laurel, and she's the only one. I have no doubt that she skims stories as opposed to reading them and has learned over the years which words or phrases are likely to raise red flags, even if those prove to be false alarms.

Look, I have no desire to argue over anything here. It's Lauren's site and her right to approve and decline whatever she wishes, no problem here. It's the rather obtuse submitting process that gets me a bit antsy. If, for example, the paragraph or sentence in question would have been pointed out, it would have been tons easier to figure out what caused the rejection. A completely general question, without any reference, is no big help. And the FAQ isn't either. It says:

"Click those words to see the reasons the work was sent back to you. You can make changes on that page and hit the "Submit" button. You don't need to fill in a new submission form. "

Fine, but how should I know what to change if all I get is "Are there underage people in a sexual relationship in your story?" and I damn well know there aren't?

What you're saying isn't unreasonable, but it just doesn't apply here. There are lot of things about this site that both writers and readers would like to change. Some things have changed, some haven't, but to me personally, it's a free site, so we don't have a lot of pull here.

I'd look at it this way: when you get one of these rejection questions, Don't get defensive. Just look over your story and try to see what might raise those questions. If you don't find anything, resubmit with that in the note. If you do, make the changes and resubmit with an explanation.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Laurel is timorous to the point of pathology. And what those expressions, like BOY OH BOY! And GIRLY-MAN. Laurel leaps off the ledge first, as you know. We chipped in and bought her a barrel of industrial strength valium but it only made her worse.

 

[Dream_Operator]

"Click those words to see the reasons the work was sent back to you. You can make changes on that page and hit the "Submit" button. You don't need to fill in a new submission form. "

Fine, but how should I know what to change if all I get is "Are there underage people in a sexual relationship in your story?" and I damn well know there aren't?

I had a recent story rejected for a similar but different reason. I don't remember the exact wording but it was along the lines of "It is against site rules to publish real names, user names or other personal information."

My story was completely fictional and told through the exchange of PM's. I even searched the Lit member database to see if anyone had the same user names I had created, and there were none.

Like you I was a bit upset, but then I realized it was probably rejected for legal CYA (potential lawsuits) reasons. I think the same goes for potential underage characters.

Rather than fight it, I added the following disclaimer and resubmitted the story:

Author’s Note: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious and are eighteen years of age or older. The web forum mentioned in this story is fictional, as are the users names and any other information. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

It was approved within a couple of days.

You might want to try that route.

 

[DeeZire]

... The stories have been flagged for "underage participants", and there no underage participants! The people in the stories are all adults, apart from the AI with whom they're having cybersex.

If the AI character is portrayed as a teenager, and that teenager could be under 18, or acts like she's under 18, that would get you rejected. You need to establish the age of the AI character. "All characters are over the age of 18" may work, but if you use that disclaimer and then write a character that is obviously a 14-year-old, you would either get rejected or the story would be reported and Laurel would take it down.

I once had a AI dolphin in a story with a AI version of Jessica Alba, all grown up. (Google: Flipper TV series 1995) Because there was some sex involved, I had to change the AI character in the simulation from a dolphin to a man in a big rubber dolphin suit. It ruined the scene, but it got through.

 

[mikey2much]

There are other sites

Try Storiesonline.net They will post whatever you want to write, pretty much.

Lit is the best as far as readership goes but their rules do get in the way sometime.

But it is her site, and she runs it the way she wants to.

 

[Blind_Justice]

@DeeZire: The AI in question is freshly formed, so to speak. She is playful, curious and still struggling to comprehend human behaviour, but I made sure that her avatar looks like a grown woman. The living participants in the story are defined as adults, without the shadow of a doubt. I didn't get any feedback telling me "hey, she's behaving like a kid/teenager" from both my editor and a few people I gave the story to read to, so I thought it would be kosher.

I should also mention that I'm really thankful for you all trying to help me. It's much appreciated, and that's the main reason I intend to publish here, because I know that my stories are in good company and will hopefully find an appreciative readership.

 

[DeeZire]

@DeeZire: The AI in question is freshly formed, so to speak. She is playful, curious and still struggling to comprehend human behaviour, but I made sure that her avatar looks like a grown woman. .

This is the behavior of a child, which might be your problem. The fact that she looks like a woman means nothing.

I didn't read your story because I don't download docs from people I don't know. No offense, my friend.

 

[Blind_Justice]

So, all's well that ends well, I guess. Chapter 01 has been approved and can safely be read on Lit now.

http://www.literotica.com/s/ghost-in-the-machine-ch-01

I wish I had done a little research in advance, because someone else has taken the same title (Ghost In The Machine), but what can I do?

Thanks again for your support, AH! :=)