What do I do now?

[PariahSolo]

What do I do now? Editor Request

Okay, I have been using two editors for different works here at Lit.com.

One of the editors has mostly completed one of my stories that I have started posting here and I got a reply email stating that it was the editor's mother and that the editor in question is a 16 year old girl. I was also told that she has all of the emails (and stories) that I sent to her and that if I don't quit emailing that account she will take them to the police.

No, nothing shady was said to the editor such as cybering. I asked her no personal questions and it was strickly professional in communication, so I am not worried about that, but I am worried about the police aspect.

I would also like to pass on my emails and her account to someone in an official cupacity here at Lit.com editors.

Thank you,

PariahSolo

 

[Lalah]

PM Laurel, although I'm not sure what the lit admins have to do about it.

 

[PariahSolo]

Mainly so I can pass the editor's name so the account can be deleted or whatever TPTB does when something like this happens.

Passing the emails does nothing but maybe adds a bit of peace and mind to me.

 

[sr71plt]

Okay, I have been using two editors for different works here at Lit.com.

One of the editors has mostly completed one of my stories that I have started posting here and I got a reply email stating that it was the editor's mother and that the editor in question is a 16 year old girl. I was also told that she has all of the emails (and stories) that I sent to her and that if I don't quit emailing that account she will take them to the police.

No, nothing shady was said to the editor such as cybering. I asked her no personal questions and it was strickly professional in communication, so I am not worried about that, but I am worried about the police aspect.

I would also like to pass on my emails and her account to someone in an official cupacity here at Lit.com editors.

Thank you,

PariahSolo

I'd notify Laurel, yes, identifying the "editor." I'd also respond to the mother--just once--saying the Web site you connected with her daughter on explicitly states that no one under 18 is welcome and that it is the daughter, not you, who has been at fault in this. Tell her just to delete all of the material and to monitor her daughter's net use better in the future.

 

[LadyCibelle]

Once again, I have to say that I agree with hewhoshallremainnameless. If, really, nothing untoward happened between you and this editor, please do everybody a favour and notify Laurel about this editor's name so she can promptly close that person's account.

 

[PariahSolo]

PM to Laurel with user name has been sent.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

PM to Laurel with user name has been sent.

Now we all wait to see if we can spot who has disappeared? A warning to all of us might be justified in this case.

Or maybe someone should start a book on who it is?

Asylumseeker 6-4
Lady Cibelle 5-4on
sr71plt No odds offered

 

[Lalah]

Now we all wait to see if we can spot who has disappeared? A warning to all of us might be justified in this case.

Or maybe someone should start a book on who it is?

Asylumseeker 6-4
Lady Cibelle 5-4on
sr71plt No odds offered

Or maybe it's you.

 

[LadyCibelle]

Now we all wait to see if we can spot who has disappeared? A warning to all of us might be justified in this case.

Or maybe someone should start a book on who it is?

Asylumseeker 6-4
Lady Cibelle 5-4on
sr71plt No odds offered

Hmm me think it's CopyCarver.

 

[CopyCarver]

Hmm me think it's CopyCarver.

I haven't disappeared per se. I'm merely a figment of my own imagination.

 

[cloudy]

I haven't disappeared per se. I'm merely a figment of my own imagination.

you too?

 

[Many Feathers]

Just a quick one...

you too?

Cloudy!

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Okay, I have been using two editors for different works here at Lit.com.

One of the editors has mostly completed one of my stories that I have started posting here and I got a reply email stating that it was the editor's mother and that the editor in question is a 16 year old girl. I was also told that she has all of the emails (and stories) that I sent to her and that if I don't quit emailing that account she will take them to the police.

No, nothing shady was said to the editor such as cybering. I asked her no personal questions and it was strickly professional in communication, so I am not worried about that, but I am worried about the police aspect.

I would also like to pass on my emails and her account to someone in an official cupacity here at Lit.com editors.

Thank you,

PariahSolo

I had a not-quite-so-similar event occur about six months ago. Someone contacted me wondering who I was and how my stories had ended up on his underage son's computer. I explained that I submitted sexual stories on an adult website requiring readers to be certified of legal age, and if the person in question was underage then that wasn't my problem.

Never heard any more, though my votes did lower for a bit. <LOL>

 

[cloudy]

Cloudy!

 

[sr71plt]

I had a not-quite-so-similar event occur about six months ago. Someone contacted me wondering who I was and how my stories had ended up on his underage son's computer. I explained that I submitted sexual stories on an adult website requiring readers to be certified of legal age, and if the person in question was underage then that wasn't my problem.

Never heard any more, though my votes did lower for a bit. <LOL>

This is going to happen, of course. But the Web site is covered for this--if a juvenile comes in here and pretends to be an adult, that's their parents' problem (with their kid)--and they can jolly well be told that when they threaten--not the problem of anyone here--as long as the poster here didn't try to get cozy with the one posting here without permission to do so.

Still, I'd like to see a head count on what "editor" is suddenly missing. There have been several I suspected of not being old enough--as well as a whole heap of ones volunteering to edit who obviously have no business offering services. This really isn't a well-controlled place to be finding reliable help in writing. And this instance of an underaged "volunteer editor"--or at least what has been claimed to be that--should drive home the risks involved to anyone asking for editorial help here.

 

[freshface]

Still, I'd like to see a head count on what "editor" is suddenly missing. There have been several I suspected of not being old enough--as well as a whole heap of ones volunteering to edit who obviously have no business offering services. This really isn't a well-controlled place to be finding reliable help in writing. And this instance of an underaged "volunteer editor"--or at least what has been claimed to be that--should drive home the risks involved to anyone asking for editorial help here.

When I went looking for a VE, I was surprised by how many of the VE profiles were ungrammatical or riddled with spelling errors. I was even more surprised by how many of them had posted sloppy stories.

 

[PariahSolo]

You may not be able to tell. The editor in question sent an email previously stating that she periodically disabled her editor account when she had a full load of stories to work on.

 

[Jeanx2storm]

I've done that before or just taken time off from editing when I'm really busy, so, I wouldn't judge anyone on that basis.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Just Wondering...

Since it seems the "Editor" links are archaic and most requests post in the Editor forum, why not cut the dead weight?

Too simple? Maybe I'm missing someth9ing? (but not the 9, LOL)

 

[Darkniciad]

--as well as a whole heap of ones volunteering to edit who obviously have no business offering services. This really isn't a well-controlled place to be finding reliable help in writing.

This is one of those places where you irk me on occasion.

I'd say the largest part of people posting stories on Lit don't have the faintest aspirations to do anything more than just that -- post stories here. They're not out to break into the wider publishing world, or even crack into the niche of paid erotica publishing. They don't have any illusions of becoming a great writer, they just want to post some stories, and they turn to the VE program for a second set of eyes as much as anything.

Let's face it, a lot of people posting stories could receive tremendous help from about anyone. There's a lot of cringe-worthy stuff in the new list every day. The seasoned editors always have full plates, and taking on a project of the magnitude many authors present is so daunting that they pale at the thought of taking them on.

That's where the others ( like me ) come in. Even a basic grasp of spelling, punctuation, and storytelling can be a vast boon to many of the new authors on Lit.

There probably should be some sort of major/minor league divider in the editor program to differentiate the pros from the dabblers, but there are a lot of people for whom a dabbler is perfectly fine, and is exactly what they're looking for. In many cases, it's the only hope they have of any editing at all.

I just get this impression from the wording/tone of some of your posts ( especially in this section of the forum ) that you think everyone aspires to have a shot at the NYT Best Seller list sometime before the year is out. While I know that's not the case, it certainly comes off that way to me.

I'll quit ranting now Just irks me, and I had to say something about it before I exploded.

Apologies for the threadjack.

 

[sr71plt]

This is one of those places where you irk me on occasion.

I'd say the largest part of people posting stories on Lit don't have the faintest aspirations to do anything more than just that -- post stories here. They're not out to break into the wider publishing world, or even crack into the niche of paid erotica publishing. They don't have any illusions of becoming a great writer, they just want to post some stories, and they turn to the VE program for a second set of eyes as much as anything.

Let's face it, a lot of people posting stories could receive tremendous help from about anyone. There's a lot of cringe-worthy stuff in the new list every day. The seasoned editors always have full plates, and taking on a project of the magnitude many authors present is so daunting that they pale at the thought of taking them on.

That's where the others ( like me ) come in. Even a basic grasp of spelling, punctuation, and storytelling can be a vast boon to many of the new authors on Lit.

There probably should be some sort of major/minor league divider in the editor program to differentiate the pros from the dabblers, but there are a lot of people for whom a dabbler is perfectly fine, and is exactly what they're looking for. In many cases, it's the only hope they have of any editing at all.

I just get this impression from the wording/tone of some of your posts ( especially in this section of the forum ) that you think everyone aspires to have a shot at the NYT Best Seller list sometime before the year is out. While I know that's not the case, it certainly comes off that way to me.

I'll quit ranting now Just irks me, and I had to say something about it before I exploded.

Apologies for the threadjack.

Obviously you haven't read my posts across the board in which I consistently opine that there's a level of "perfectly fine" to post for reading pleasure on Literotica and that this "get an editor" craze here is going overboard in most cases. I invite you to point to a single "get an editor" posting of mine on the forum (all of my posts are conveniently accessible on my profile).

Most of what I've posted to the Feedback area has been to assure the writer that what he/she'd written was as good if not better than what the "expert critiquer" there was telling her/him should have been done. I invite you to point out in my forum posts where I've done otherwise.

Neither of these support your supposition that I expect professional-level stories here.

When I respond to editorial questions here (almost always with citations from publishing authorities--in contrast to the usual "I think I heard in my high school English class . . .") I do, yes, respond with standard practice in the publishing world. Why would I respond with how they do it in Kindergarten rather than best practice in professional publishing?

You, here, and others across the board use "editor" and "second eyes/reader" as if they are synonyms. They are not. Most of those claiming to be "editors" here demonstrate that they know crap about editing--and thus at least potentially are a threat rather than a help to writers who think they are getting an edit. I'm all for volunteering to be second eyes readers and agree that this is a very useful process for anyone to go through with their stories. (I have another Lit. author who I use as a reader for my submissions--and he always finds things I missed and need to change.)

The example of someone who has functioned as a VE editor here who is only 16 and who obviously therefore has very little training in editing erotica only highlights the high-risk crap shoot anyone is entering by thinking that Lit. VE means "editor." In most cases, it doesn't. It means a reader who quite possibility has less knowledge and talent than the one getting the "edit." If they are honest and say they are only doing a backup read to point to possible problems, that's fine--and an entirely different matter than the "service" that most offer.

You can certainly be irked as you please. As a professional editor watching the damage that is being done here daily to writer development, I can assure you that I'm way beyond "irked" myself. And don't bother to rejoin with "then go away" because I am only responding to your bringing the issue up.

 

[Darkniciad]

I did say that I don't think you actually feel that way, but it certainly comes across that way in your posts a lot of times

Your input as a professional writer and editor is hardly overlooked. Where someone does dismiss you, it's probably because that person feels as though you're talking down your nose to them like a dog that's just messed the carpet.

It's a volunteer editor program because it's made up of volunteers. Just like any other organization of the willing, you get the good with the bad. Habitat for Humanity gets people who don't know one end of a hammer from the other. The pros on hand can teach the amateurs how to use that hammer, or perhaps find something else useful they can do that helps the effort.

It just seems like you're trying to teach someone how to use a hammer by beating them over the head with it a lot of times

The VE program is far from perfect. It needs a major overhaul and probably an overseer of some type. Not everybody has a major in literature or creative writing. Sometimes the author may even outstrip the first editor they pick in skill.

In the end ( with the statistical probability of some who are just using it as a means to troll for cyber-sex partners or something ) everyone in the VE program just wants to help, and the odds are that there's an author out there that can benefit from the help of every one in the list.

 

[sr71plt]

For the life of me I don't know why, but scenes from the Wizard of Oz keep flipping through my head. Appearances are so much more important than reality, I guess.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

... The VE program is far from perfect. It needs a major overhaul and probably an overseer of some type. ...

It was "overhauled" three years or so ago, by deleting everybody. The current mess is people who have signed up since then. The official VE programme does not make any money for the owners of this site, so there is little incentive for them to do anything about it.

... Not everybody has a major in literature or creative writing. ...

I haven't seen the other half of this "discussion" but I would point out that creative writing, especially fiction, is not something that can be learned from books, or University courses.

One of the soi-disant Creative Writing courses will teach the student many of the tricks of trade, at the level of not having two characters with the same name, but it will not, and cannot, teach anyone how to be creative. As to teaching the basics of orthography, such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation, surely that should be taught in the first few years at school, say by the age of 12?

Certainly I must be doing something right in my writing as my novels are my sole source of earned income, and have been for some years now. All I do when editing is proof-read (which I need just as much as anyone else, since I see what I know I wrote, not what is on the page), gently suggest continuity problems and ways to avoid them, and occasionally say that I would not have written something that way and explain why.

 

[PariahSolo]

If I may be so bold to circumvent the Editor process, is there anyone that would like to edit a story or two of mine? Specifically, the story that the previous editor was removed from. She completed all of the story except for one part, a part that I didn't realize was missing until after the other parts had been sent to me. And I will be honest, even though she had admitted that she knew next to nothing about incest, she was willing to do the story, which I assumed from grammatical point.

I have mentioned the story in question because it is one that means a lot to me because it is based on most of the females that I have been intimate with and as I have said previously, the first part of the story is about 70% true and the second part is only about 5%.

Let me know if you are interested.

Thanks,

PariahSolo

Note: I am using another editor for a separate story but she had to take a slight break due to personal reasons which is why I am asking here.