Who else gets nervous every time they're ready to hit that "Submit" button?

[nice90sguy]

Actually, she posted a couple of times a week ago or so. I believe @PennyThompson and @nice90sguy were both "reviewed" by her recently.

I haveta say, they spent more effort on the review than I did on the story! Most of it was opinionated ragebait, with (useless and trite) observations. It was on one of my few stylistic anomalies, a romance between an intellectual and an upper-class person, and it irked them that it was rather stuffy and wordy. It made me re-read the story, and I (genuinely) thanked them for taking the time to read it all the way through, and produce lots of words in their review.
But anyone who takes even a quick glance at my modest ouvre would see instantly that it's atypical of my writing, so I think it was slightly obtuse of them to choose that story rather than one of my "honest" findom stories to review.

The language used in the review makes me highly suspicious that it's a "she". So I've called them a "they".

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I haveta say, they spent more effort on the review than I did on the story! Most of it was opinionated ragebait, with (useless and trite) observations. It was on one of my few stylistic anomalies, a romance between an intellectual and an upper-class person, and it irked them that it was rather stuffy and wordy. It made me re-read the story, and I (genuinely) thanked them for taking the time to read it all the way through, and produce lots of words in their review.
But anyone who takes even a quick glance at my modest ouvre would see instantly that it's atypical of my writing, so I think it was slightly obtuse of them to choose that story rather than one of my "honest" findom stories to review.

The language used in the review makes me highly suspicious that it's a "she". So I've called them a "they".

Stacnash once said she was a woman, but yeah, sex is relative on the internet.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

many confused the writer with the story

Stuff like a character has an internal thought or observation or belief system or whatever, and assuming that was reflective of the writer's own beliefs? Or something else?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Stuff like a character has an internal thought or observation or belief system or whatever, and assuming that was reflective of the writer's own beliefs? Or something else?

@TheWritingGroup has linked to a couple of the threads. There are others, which I'm sure will turn up in a search.

I've just checked the comment left against my story - it was August 2023. I think I was one of the first half dozen or so to get a review, so there's a time frame, to assist in a search.

It was one of the more peculiar episodes to hit the AH. Not quite the nuttiest, but close.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

@TheWritingGroup has linked to a couple of the threads. There are others, which I'm sure will turn up in a search.

I've just checked the comment left against my story - it was August 2023. I think I was one of the first half dozen or so to get a review, so there's a time frame, to assist in a search.

It was one of the more peculiar episodes to hit the AH. Not quite the nuttiest, but close.

Ooh! Spill. What was the nuttiest?

 

[iwatchus]

I did my category homework in the first week or two I arrived on Lit. It wasn't hard to pick the category to permanently avoid, and to spot the formula for some of the others. I don't quite understand why more people don't do that, a whole lot of grief could be avoided!

I have intentionally taken somewhat the opposite tack after learning about the realities of engagement by category. I write what I want to write and then try to adjust my perceptions of the reactions based on what I understand about the categories. I've hit I think 16 categories in my 9+ months of writing here. That my SciFi stories fight to get over 2K views doesn't bother me. I'm not overwhelmed by the 84K (and still growing quickly) views I got from my lone incest story.

What frustrates me is people here quoting the 1%/0.1% rule that is pretty accurate overall. My early stories were all E&V and I wondered why I got almost no comments. Only when I wrote in some comment friendly categories did I start to see many more comments. In retrospect, the lack of comments in E&V should not be surprising; the category readers are mostly voyeurs who want to read about exhibitionists. As voyeurs, they want to see (and it's a category that gets decent views), but not be seen (horrific other forms of engagement).

I think people quoting that 1%/0.1% rule of thumb do great disservice to the authors here. Those are actually very disappointing rates if you're writing in Romance or LS or SF&F. They're spectacular results in E&V (or to a lesser extent GS). Too many people struggle with the math to even understand the per view rates. Don'f mislead them about they mean. I don't mean to pick just on you about this. Several of who I consider the old guard (from my relatively recent arrival at AH) quote that 1/0.1 guidance regularly. It's meaningless (and can be very frustrating) without context.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

There can be a fine line between impatiently rushing a story to publishing and obsessing over it ad nauseam.

My only suggestion is that you give it your best effort and then remember the "edit" feature on the site. There is no shame in submitting an edit to correct mistakes discovered after publication.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

There can be a fine line between impatiently rushing a story to publishing and obsessing over it ad nauseam.

My only suggestion is that you give it your best effort and then remember the "edit" feature on the site. There is no shame in submitting an edit to correct mistakes discovered after publication.

So that's also something I've been trepidatious about. It seems like the edit process is also semi-manual on the part of the site editors. I worry that if I end up making too many edits, they'll become annoyed. If it were automatic, like editing a forum post, I might have a lot less hesitation.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

So that's also something I've been trepidatious about. It seems like the edit process is also semi-manual on the part of the site editors. I worry that if I end up making too many edits, they'll become annoyed. If it were automatic, like editing a forum post, I might have a lot less hesitation.

If you kept making edits to the same story I could understand your trepidation. However, if you submitted all the edits at a single time for your story, you should be fine.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

If you kept making edits to the same story I could understand your trepidation. However, if you submitted all the edits at a single time for your story, you should be fine.

I've not yet submitted any edits. Too scared. Probably what I'll do is if I ever come back to a story to write a followup, I'll go over the original and make sure it's fixed up when the sequel is almost ready or something. Not sure.

 

[yowser]

As for typos that appear as soon as your story is published, I firmly believe that there is a demon in my computer that changes words as soon as I hit submit. It is truly demonic. It changes both what I sent to Literotica and it changes the original file. It has been present in all of the five computers I've had over the years.

It's a fairly ancient belief, going back to Gutenberg era times. See der Fehlerteufel.

 

[alohadave]

I've not yet submitted any edits. Too scared. Probably what I'll do is if I ever come back to a story to write a followup, I'll go over the original and make sure it's fixed up when the sequel is almost ready or something. Not sure.

Honestly, unless it's something big, don't bother.

I edit one story edited to change the title and category because I wrote a second chapter to it, and the originals weren't really right anymore.

But for things like typos, not worth it in most cases.

 

[iwatchus]

My first edit was because a reader noticed that the wrong person did something. I fixed that name, and cleaned up a bunch of other issues at the same time. It was my first story and had LOTS of issues that I recognized by the time I fixed it.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

My first edit was because a reader noticed that the wrong person did something. I fixed that name, and cleaned up a bunch of other issues at the same time. It was my first story and had LOTS of issues that I recognized by the time I fixed it.

Oh yeah. Nothing pulls me out of a story quite like a misplaced name. Stuff like:

"If you're okay fucking Carol, then there's no reason you shouldn't be able to fuck me too," said Carol.

It's the worst.

Which reminds me, a REALLY weird pattern I've noticed over the years is the number of stories where a character's name just randomly switches to something else halfway through. It always makes me wonder if the author was using the real name of someone they knew and then tried to change it afterward but missed a few.

(I actually have a WIP where someone discovers a story someone else was working on using real names that they hadn't changed yet, but I don't know for sure if that's what's actually happening with the stories I mentioned. And I know, I know, the 'discovered story/journal' is kind of cliche, but I promise it's not the usual way it goes. One thing I really like is finding ways to subvert cliche tropes with something [hopefully] more believable. The story I currently have pending is also a cliche-buster.)

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think people quoting that 1%/0.1% rule of thumb do great disservice to the authors here.

I've got over 130 individual chapters / stories here, and as a general rule it is pretty close. That's why I'll say it's a rule of thumb. Whenever I post that information, I think I always say, it's category dependent. It's not gospel truth, but it does provide information to new writers, with the caveat, some categories are dramatically different.

Those are actually very disappointing rates if you're writing in Romance or LS or SF&F.

Yes, and if you write in those categories you know that, and on occasion I'll see people say so - but an information based post like yours is very rare, to calibrate the general advice.

They're spectacular results in E&V (or to a lesser extent GS).

True. I won't submit to Group ever again, because stories go there to die. Why do I say this? Because the View and Comment rates are so much lower than the rule of thumb. There's a frame of reference for two other categories.

Too many people struggle with the math to even understand the per view rates. Don'f mislead them about they mean. I don't mean to pick just on you about this.

If people can't do fundamental maths, it's my problem now?

They need to go back to school then, and stop wasting time writing erotica. That's a silly argument.

Several of who I consider the old guard (from my relatively recent arrival at AH) quote that 1/0.1 guidance regularly. It's meaningless (and can be very frustrating) without context.

If it's often quoted, maybe, just maybe, it's what other people see in their own data set. That's why it's pretty good general advice.

If new folk can't read the caveats, that's my problem now? Teaching them comprehension as well as maths? Should have been a fucking teacher, like my mum and dad.

 

[ElectricBlue]

So that's also something I've been trepidatious about. It seems like the edit process is also semi-manual on the part of the site editors. I worry that if I end up making too many edits, they'll become annoyed. If it were automatic, like editing a forum post, I might have a lot less hesitation.

There's an onus on authors to submit the best possible copy they can, edited as best they can. There's good advice all over the AH on ways to do that.

We all have typos, the thing is to not have too many, and to know when it's worth the bother to fix them. Unless it's a really dumb mistake that renders a section incomprehensible, I rarely bother.

Having said that, I've just submitted an edit to fix a name that I missed, when I should have done Find Replace but didn't. First time that's ever happened - I added an "Oops, that's being fixed," comment, to avoid a bunch of, "Huh, who's that?" queries.

I think all the site does is to swap out the old content with the cleaner copy, you don't need to show the changes, just add a general note. I reckon the site would run a simple Compare Copy, to make sure you've not introduced dodgy content - which is why edits go through as a new submission.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

There's an early story I keep meaning to edit, where I misstated a price by $100,000. It isn't that critical in itself, but I'm working on the sequel, and the plot there won't work with the original number.

--Annie