If you are having a lengthy delay in publishing, please add the name of your story and when submitted here.

[Adam_Sephenson]

I've submitted my chapter, 3 times now, first time was with the in built story writer, second time I had to take it out and put in some edits I noticed -- resubmitted that as a word.docx. I've resubmitted it once more (there was a MASSIVE error I saw when reading chapter 2 to help with context for chapter 3) using a .txt file that somewhat seems to work whenever I send an entry (both inbuilt and .docx file were in pending for a week each) I'm hoping for a greenlight in the upcoming week or failing that, before new year.

 

[EmilyMiller]

A week is not unheard of, I guess the cut off for taking action is maybe two weeks.

 

[Adam_Sephenson]

A week is not unheard of, I guess the cut off for taking action is maybe two weeks.

yeah, the whole resubmitting was my own volition. the only time I've ever experienced a pending longer than a week was my first story (submitted in November, came out in late feb) so in a way, I'm thinking this would be the same deal. Has this always been the case, or was late 2024 and now later 2025 the "recent" thing that's come up?

 

[EmilyMiller]

yeah, the whole resubmitting was my own volition. the only time I've ever experienced a pending longer than a week was my first story (submitted in November, came out in late feb) so in a way, I'm thinking this would be the same deal. Has this always been the case, or was late 2024 and now later 2025 the "recent" thing that's come up?

As far as I can tell, the current problems date to late August this year. Some people have got stuck long before that, but it impacting a wider range of people - including established and comp-winning authors - is relatively new.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Sooo... five days pending... on Lush Stories.
What are the chances that it's Laurel who runs that site, too?

Meh, I'll give them a few more hours before I withdraw the submission. I really wanted to try that site out, but I'm not willing to undergo the Lit treatment for it. I suspect it's cause of the length of my story, maybe? It's 27k words, and I'm yet to see a story over 10k on Lush.

Bah, who cares what the reason is. God, I wish SOL had a better interface and visibility.

 

[TypoTales]

Sooo... five days pending... on Lush Stories.
What are the chances that it's Laurel who runs that site, too?

Meh, I'll give them a few more hours before I withdraw the submission. I really wanted to try that site out, but I'm not willing to undergo the Lit treatment for it. I suspect it's cause of the length of my story, maybe? It's 27k words, and I'm yet to see a story over 10k on Lush.

Bah, who cares what the reason is. God, I wish SOL had a better interface and visibility.

I'm pretty sure lush has a hard 10k words limit so you'll probably need to split it lol
Other than that it takes about a week to get a story through but there's a contest going on and also the holiday period so it might be slower. Longest it took me was ten days I think, so not as fast as Lit used to be when it was working, but your story always ends up in front of a human moderator on lush. Good luck

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I'm pretty sure lush has a hard 10k words limit so you'll probably need to split it lol
Other than that it takes about a week to get a story through but there's a contest going on and also the holiday period so it might be slower. Longest it took me was ten days I think, so not as fast as Lit used to be when it was working, but your story always ends up in front of a human moderator on lush. Good luck

Thanks for the info, much appreciated. I just wanted to try out Lush, but if it really takes that long for a story to go through, then I guess I can't see the upside of publishing on a site with far less traffic compared to Lit.

 

[MetaBob]

After it spent 45 days in PENDING status, I made several more small changes to the text and re-submitted the story.

Yesterday, after my EDITED story sat in Pending status for 52 days (on top of the 45 days it spent in Pending status the first time, for a total of 97 days), it was finally updated: https://www.literotica.com/s/travel-nurse-or-the-last-word

Again, this is not a new story, it's a story I resubmitted for revision. Typically, new stories I submit have taken 36-72 hours until they're published, depending on what time of day I submit the story -- stories tend to get published around 9:00 AM UTC.

This is part 1 of 3. I'll submit a revision of part 2 soon. Part 3 isn't finished yet; I think it'll be ready for submission in 2-3 weeks, but I might wait until the revised part 2 is published before submitting part 3.

Lesson learned is that for edited stories, even those with minimal changes (a typo or two, commas added or removed, a couple temporal inconsistencies), I now expect at least 7 WEEKS for the update to be published.

 

[thatsbogus]

So I woke up this morning to multiple comments and emails that Chapter 5 of My Straight Best Friend is gone - my October revision to chapter 6 was pasted over chapter 5 instead. I've sent a PM to Laurel and an email to the Literotica account, hoping somehow it won't take two months this time to correct it. So frustrating.

 

[EmilyMiller]

So I woke up this morning to multiple comments and emails that Chapter 5 of My Straight Best Friend is gone - my October revision to chapter 6 was pasted over chapter 5 instead. I've sent a PM to Laurel and an email to the Literotica account, hoping somehow it won't take two months this time to correct it. So frustrating.

OMFG - that’s awful. It seems more and more than they have an intern running this place.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Yesterday, after my EDITED story sat in Pending status for 52 days (on top of the 45 days it spent in Pending status the first time, for a total of 97 days), it was finally updated: https://www.literotica.com/s/travel-nurse-or-the-last-word

Again, this is not a new story, it's a story I resubmitted for revision. Typically, new stories I submit have taken 36-72 hours until they're published, depending on what time of day I submit the story -- stories tend to get published around 9:00 AM UTC.

This is part 1 of 3. I'll submit a revision of part 2 soon. Part 3 isn't finished yet; I think it'll be ready for submission in 2-3 weeks, but I might wait until the revised part 2 is published before submitting part 3.

Lesson learned is that for edited stories, even those with minimal changes (a typo or two, commas added or removed, a couple temporal inconsistencies), I now expect at least 7 WEEKS for the update to be published.

Edits are de facto not happening. Just one more author-friendly feature that has been discontinued.

 

[Heartsaver55]

have been waiting since early November for next chapters of stories to be published. Waited three weeks then edited it and resubmitted and still nothing m. Anyone know what to do next?

 

[EmilyMiller]

have been waiting since early November for next chapters of stories to be published. Waited three weeks then edited it and resubmitted and still nothing m. Anyone know what to do next?

How long since the resubmit?

 

[thatsbogus]

OMFG - that’s awful. It seems more and more than they have an intern running this place.

I wasn’t expecting them to drop everything and fix it, but there’s been zero acknowledgement after a day and a half. I know it wasn’t my mistake either, since my revisions to 5 are still in pending since Dec 14.

And not to sound entitled or anything, but that chapter’s running a 4.84 out of over 400 votes! if Emily Miller can’t get acknowledgement then I don’t know what hope the rest of us have, but still, I’ve driven tons of traffic to this site over the years. I don’t expect a thank you or anything but it would be nice if they could just publish my work the way I want it to be published.

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

I thought I would share with everyone because of the amount of complaining or posting that I did on this thread so some absolutely good news.

Yesterday at the recommendation of another author, I deleted and pulled down the conclusion of my Marcus Hogue series and combine the two chapters into one large chapter, renamed the story, and then pulled it from the category. It was in and put it into another similar category for publishing.

I am thrilled to share that the conclusion of the Marcus Hogue series will be published on 12/25. That story is titled “Marcus, Dani, and Angela” will be published in the Romance category.

I share this because it was something that was successful for me based on what another author recommended hopefully it might help others that have that pending purgatory issue

 

[EmilyMiller]

I thought I would share with everyone because of the amount of complaining or posting that I did on this thread so some absolutely good news.

Yesterday at the recommendation of another author, I deleted and pulled down the conclusion of my Marcus Hogue series and combine the two chapters into one large chapter, renamed the story, and then pulled it from the category. It was in and put it into another similar category for publishing.

I am thrilled to share that the conclusion of the Marcus Hogue series will be published on 12/25. That story is titled “Marcus, Dani, and Angela” will be published in the Romance category.

I share this because it was something that was successful for me based on what another author recommended hopefully it might help others that have that pending purgatory issue

That’s good news .

Albeit it highlights just how random things have become.

 

[Adam_Sephenson]

I thought I would share with everyone because of the amount of complaining or posting that I did on this thread so some absolutely good news.

Yesterday at the recommendation of another author, I deleted and pulled down the conclusion of my Marcus Hogue series and combine the two chapters into one large chapter, renamed the story, and then pulled it from the category. It was in and put it into another similar category for publishing.

I am thrilled to share that the conclusion of the Marcus Hogue series will be published on 12/25. That story is titled “Marcus, Dani, and Angela” will be published in the Romance category.

I share this because it was something that was successful for me based on what another author recommended hopefully it might help others that have that pending purgatory issue

that's great news to hear that your story will finally be released and finished =D. I wonder if that's what the problem is, with "sequel chapters" being the cause of the issue? It would make sense why "new" stories that aren't continuations are being uploaded more quickly, while subsequent chapters are facing longer delays. (your new story being uploaded quickly)

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

that's great news to hear that your story will finally be released and finished =D. I wonder if that's what the problem is, with "sequel chapters" being the cause of the issue? It would make sense why "new" stories that aren't continuations are being uploaded more quickly, while subsequent chapters are facing longer delays. (your new story being uploaded quickly)

Adam, it’s a great question that we’re really not certain if we know the answer to, but there might be something to it

 

[EmilyMiller]

that's great news to hear that your story will finally be released and finished =D. I wonder if that's what the problem is, with "sequel chapters" being the cause of the issue? It would make sense why "new" stories that aren't continuations are being uploaded more quickly, while subsequent chapters are facing longer delays. (your new story being uploaded quickly)

It’s not that either, non-chaptered works have also got stuck. Whatever rhyme or reason there is, it’s not accessible to us.

 

[NikkijMaadison]

good news and not so good news

On Sunday morning, 12/21, I submitted a new story, 'Excited to Explore Further', in the first-time category. It was short, only 2700 words. I added to my Friends with Benefits series. Did my normal self edits before submission. I added a note to Admin mentioning the 9 other stories I have had pending since 11/24 (six)- the second submission for the six. Three others were submitted for the first time in December.

On Monday, 12/22, it had a published date set for 12/23.

No action on the other 9.

Thanks for listening to me vent.

https://www.literotica.com/s/excited-to-explore-further

 

[Heartsaver55]

How long since the resubmit?

It’s been a couple days since resubmit but this is third time. I usually wait three weeks to resubmit

 

[EmilyMiller]

It’s been a couple days since resubmit but this is third time. I usually wait three weeks to resubmit

Wow! That’s not so great

 

[RejectReality]

Sooo... five days pending... on Lush Stories.
What are the chances that it's Laurel who runs that site, too?

Meh, I'll give them a few more hours before I withdraw the submission. I really wanted to try that site out, but I'm not willing to undergo the Lit treatment for it. I suspect it's cause of the length of my story, maybe? It's 27k words, and I'm yet to see a story over 10k on Lush.

Bah, who cares what the reason is. God, I wish SOL had a better interface and visibility.

That's because there's a 10k word submission limit. Anything longer than that has to be broken up in parts. If you submitted the whole thing in one chunk, you may as well pull it now, because it ain't getting published as is.

Holidays are always slow over there. There are umpteen moderators, but as often as not, only one or two of them will pop in to review stories a couple of times a day around the holidays. The category and content matters as well. Anything heavy may get skipped over for something light and fluffy until one of the more dedicated moderators comes along. And good luck catching one willing to review incest. LOL

The positive angle of that is, that if you manage to get in just before or are one of the lucky ones to catch a moderator during a holiday season, it gets a long stint on the front page.

 

[IWroteThis]

I just resubmitted my September submission again. I figure, if it gets approved tomorrow, I can call it my Christmas miracle. If not, well, nothing's really changed.

 

[Adam_Sephenson]

It’s not that either, non-chaptered works have also got stuck. Whatever rhyme or reason there is, it’s not accessible to us.

Adam, it’s a great question that we’re really not certain if we know the answer to, but there might be something to it

After talking with another author, I may have an idea as to "why", I went back and looked at the stories that I had posted that took the most amount of time in pending, those being: Brandi, we have to talk. Theory of Love chapter 3, and now "A Past's refusal to forget (chapter 2 of TW,NF) there's one thing that they all have in common, controversial subjects or mentions of minors in the story.

Brandi: I talked about the subject of suicide, along with having a baby that was a few month's old.
Theory of Love chapter 3: I had a toddler and her age mentioned in many scenes.
A Past's refusal: I have a lot of mentions of schools, kids, ages. etc.

so while this may be a reach, it's the only thing I could think of. further brought up that @Aoife_from_Ulster you had your past few chapters in pending for a long time? I went through your later chapters and saw mentions of a young age daughter.

Even @other2other1 had his chapter 1 of "Disrespect and DNA" in pending for a long time due to a mention of a 16 year old daughter.

It's entirely possible that the scan picked up the age mentions and flagged it to have it be reviewed manually. As anything regarding mention of people under the age of 18 in a descriptive sexual relationship is removed.

like I said earlier, this may be a massive reach and all circumstantial, but you never know =)