Chapter submission still pending

[eddie_wilder]

Hi everyone,

I submitted the second chapter of my story on 1/7/25, but it stayed in the “Pending” tab for over a week without any updates. I emailed support a week later but didn’t receive a response. Thinking there might’ve been an issue, I removed it from Pending on 1/15/25 and resubmitted it right away, knowing that would put me at the back of the line.

It’s now 1/23/25, and my chapter is still pending. I understand there might be delays, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s an issue I’m unaware of. The word count is around 14k, which isn't super short, but not extremely lengthy either. For reference, the first chapter took 3/4 days to get published.

I’d really appreciate any advice or clarification on whether this is normal, or if there’s anything else I can do to ensure my story gets reviewed. Thanks!

 

[Katie_Mae]

Hi everyone,

I submitted the second chapter of my story on 1/7/25, but it stayed in the “Pending” tab for over a week without any updates. I emailed support a week later but didn’t receive a response. Thinking there might’ve been an issue, I removed it from Pending on 1/15/25 and resubmitted it right away, knowing that would put me at the back of the line.

It’s now 1/23/25, and my chapter is still pending. I understand there might be delays, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s an issue I’m unaware of. The word count is around 14k, which isn't super short, but not extremely lengthy either. For reference, the first chapter took 3/4 days to get published.

I’d really appreciate any advice or clarification on whether this is normal, or if there’s anything else I can do to ensure my story gets reviewed. Thanks!

It can take 12 minutes, it can take a month. There's been a lot of complaints recently around stories taking a good month or so to be approved. (and that's a month from the last re-submission date)

The problem is there's not one single queue of all stories which laurel works through and approves in date order. That's about all we know, but it means no one here can predict when your story will be looked at based on when theirs was submitted and looked/

Everyone has their own experience of "normal" so it's hard to say, but it does seem lots of people who've been hit with a long waiting recently have had shorter waitings in the past.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I’d really appreciate any advice or clarification on whether this is normal, or if there’s anything else I can do to ensure my story gets reviewed. Thanks!

Wait, is all you can do. Your story is now eight days in the queue (from the date you resubmitted it), which is getting on for long, but not unusual.

You could PM Laurel - don't expect a reply, but it might shake your story loose.

 

[eddie_wilder]

Thank you both for explaining. It’s a bit reassuring to know I’m not alone in this, though I really hope it won’t take a month. I guess I'll wait and see.

 

[StillStunned]

I've been waiting a month for my new story to go live! It's unacceptable!

Granted, I haven't submitted it yet, or finished writing it, or even decided which of my countless WIPs I should finish first, but still. Unacceptable, I say!

 

[TheWritingGroup]

The received wisdom is to PM Laurel after two weeks.

-Rocco

 

[MetaBob]

I admit to being curious about this; earlier this hour I submitted my first story here in several years. It used to take a day or two for my submissions to be posted. A lot of AI stuff has happened since then. Will my next chapter get rejected as having been AI-generated? I didn't use any, except for using Grammarly to do a final check, which turned up a handful of word misuses and misspellings that I corrected ("though" -> "through", for example). As usual, I rejected 90-95% of its suggestions, even though the program seems more clever than it was the last time I tried. It also seems that the free version has more limits.

 

[nice90sguy]

Its happened to me this week too, and I normally get a very quick turnaround. One thing I do is put the story back into drafts and then resubmit, which, although it puts the story to the back of the queue again, also often fixes a screwy flag in the database which can sometimes prevent it from getting published.

there's also the remote possibility that Laurel actually has a life, and is busy with other stuff.

Edited to Add: After resubmitting, my story got queued for publication in < 24 hours, so worth trying the "pending -> draft -> pending" thing

 

[HairFucker]

I submitted Chapters 2 and 3 on 15 January and have heard absolutely nothing since then. It's annoying in as much as anyone reading the first chapter has probably gotten bored and/or forgotten what happened. I'd hoped to submit a new chapter every few days, just to try and keep people interested.

 

[karina_jayde]

I submitted Chapters 2 and 3 on 15 January and have heard absolutely nothing since then. It's annoying in as much as anyone reading the first chapter has probably gotten bored and/or forgotten what happened. I'd hoped to submit a new chapter every few days, just to try and keep people interested.

That's not an unusually long wait, especially for a newer author here and particularly during a contest. When there's a big contest on (like the Valentine's Day one currently ongoing), I believe entries for the contest take priority, and non-contest entries may be a bit delayed.

 

[RejectReality]

I'm beginning to suspect the bulk of the long wait times are submissions getting flagged for AI, and they're just getting skipped. The number of AI rejection complaints plummets, and the number of long wait time complaints skyrockets... Coinky-dinky?

Doubly suspect if resubmitting to reset the position in the queue doesn't resolve the problem. The odds of falling in that crack twice in a row should be abysmal.

If you're still stuck in pending a second time around after resetting, I'd assume you're getting AI flagged, and good luck with that. Trying to appease a mindless bot that thinks the Constitution was written by AI is a pointless endeavor.

 

[MetaBob]

I admit to being curious about this; earlier this hour I submitted my first story here in several years. It used to take a day or two for my submissions to be posted. A lot of AI stuff has happened since then. Will my next chapter get rejected as having been AI-generated? I didn't use any, except for using Grammarly to do a final check, which turned up a handful of word misuses and misspellings that I corrected ("though" -> "through", for example). As usual, I rejected 90-95% of its suggestions, even though the program seems more clever than it was the last time I tried. It also seems that the free version has more limits.

It took my new story a little more than two days to be posted this time.

I tried using the Beta "Story Series" feature, but that doesn't seem to have worked. Maybe it'll get sorted out later. I hope it will be.

 

[MetaBob]

It took my new story a little more than two days to be posted this time.

I tried using the Beta "Story Series" feature, but that doesn't seem to have worked. Maybe it'll get sorted out later. I hope it will be.

Eleven days later, my "Story Series" issues sort-of got sorted out. Some updated nicely while others either didn't or got disappeared. They all "resolved" at the same time. Is there a schedule? Did I violate some unknown rule? I don't know. The good news is that the story chapter I submitted doesn't seem to have been affected. Other than not being indicated as being part of a "Story Series."

 

[ElectricBlue]

Eleven days later, my "Story Series" issues sort-of got sorted out. Some updated nicely while others either didn't or got disappeared. They all "resolved" at the same time. Is there a schedule?

Series get processed in batches. I'm not sure there's a schedule, though.

Did I violate some unknown rule? I don't know.

Why do people keep thinking they've done something wrong? Surely you've been on Lit long enough to know that it runs to it's own rules, to its own schedule, and all authors can be, is patient.

 

[bestkeptsecret678]

The received wisdom is to PM Laurel after two weeks.

-Rocco

Does that mean reach out to “support”, or is there a some secret (to me) lit user name I should commit to memory? I’m only on day 7 waiting so should probably just hush up.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Does that mean reach out to “support”, or is there a some secret (to me) lit user name I should commit to memory? I’m only on day 7 waiting so should probably just hush up.

Commit Laurel to memory. Seven days, yeah, keep waiting.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Does that mean reach out to “support”, or is there a some secret (to me) lit user name I should commit to memory? I’m only on day 7 waiting so should probably just hush up.

Up above this message you should see a little envelope, the icon for "Conversations". Lots of people call that Private Messaging, PM. So, if you click that and start a new conversation, you could talk to Laurel, who is the Everything Non-Technical for Literotica.

-Annie

 

[MetaBob]

Surely you've been on Lit long enough to know that it runs to it's own rules, to its own schedule, and all authors can be, is patient.

Actually, authors can also be curious, especially about a new "beta" feature that doesn't appear to be fully functional. Who better to ask than other authors who might know something more than I, who has never tried using this new feature before.

Now maybe you've also learned something about this new feature.

Is sharing insights with other authors in this community not the purpose of this forum?

 

[bestkeptsecret678]

Commit Laurel to memory. Seven days, yeah, keep waiting.

A related question: I understand that if I go into and edit a pending submission, that the story then goes back to the end of the review queue.

What if I just open it, but don’t actually change anything, nor hit “submit”. Have I unwittingly been bumping myself back?

I was really just wanting to read it while I waited…

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I did that once, and it didn't seem to affect anything.

-Annie

 

[MillieDynamite]

I don't understand the "got disappeared" in your statement! Were they moved to sent back? I've never had anything just vanish here.

Eleven days later, my "Story Series" issues sort-of got sorted out. Some updated nicely while others either didn't or got disappeared. They all "resolved" at the same time. Is there a schedule? Did I violate some unknown rule? I don't know. The good news is that the story chapter I submitted doesn't seem to have been affected. Other than not being indicated as being part of a "Story Series."

 

[ElectricBlue]

A related question: I understand that if I go into and edit a pending submission, that the story then goes back to the end of the review queue.

What if I just open it, but don’t actually change anything, nor hit “submit”. Have I unwittingly been bumping myself back?

If you don't submit again (!), you should be okay. Should, being the operative word. One can never be sure.

I was really just wanting to read it while I waited…

You only have the one version, in the Lit submission box? That's unwise. I write in Word, saving the draft on my device, and only copy paste into the Form at the end.

 

[MetaBob]

I don't understand the "got disappeared" in your statement! Were they moved to sent back? I've never had anything just vanish here.

I now have five Story Series (new Lit beta feature). I added a note to the description of two of them that I have posted slightly updated versions to a story site (which I will not name here) that allows me to sell the full book, as opposed to reading the older versions chapter by chapter here. When the cover page for one of those Story Series, which includes the cover art I used on that other site, was initially posted here five days ago, it seemed to exclude that note, though the rest of the description was included. This is what I meant by "got disappeared".

Update: my note that includes the name of that other story site is now included in my Story Series cover page for both of those books. I might also have been mistaken and just not noticed the note about that other site.

 

[bestkeptsecret678]

If you don't submit again (!), you should be okay. Should, being the operative word. One can never be sure.

You only have the one version, in the Lit submission box? That's unwise. I write in Word, saving the draft on my device, and only copy paste into the Form at the end.

To add, I write and edit in ZOHO. But inevitably, I’m still tinkering even after I’ve copied it to the submission box. So technically that’s my only, real final. Albeit 99.98% the same as my zoho copy.

I will say, I’ve had some random characters get lost in the paste into the box, so I proof the #€*&$ out it on Lit.

 

[MillieDynamite]

You aren't supposed to mention other sites (especially story sites where you sell stories) inside stories either as pre or post-matter. It is part of the site rules.

I now have five Story Series (new Lit beta feature). I added a note to the description of two of them that I have posted slightly updated versions to a story site (which I will not name here) that allows me to sell the full book, as opposed to reading the older versions chapter by chapter here. When the cover page for one of those Story Series, which includes the cover art I used on that other site, was initially posted here five days ago, it seemed to exclude that note, though the rest of the description was included. This is what I meant by "got disappeared".

Update: my note that includes the name of that other story site is now included in my Story Series cover page for both of those books. I might also have been mistaken and just not noticed the note about that other site.