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

[EmilyMiller]

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 =)

We don’t know, OK? This is all supposition, but it seems at least possible that one factor is to do with manual review.

Without getting too specific as to why and betraying private conversations, I know that there is some element of automated screening for key words / phrases. Whether this is applied to all stories or only those from authors without a ‘safe’ reputation is not known to me (the fact that some authors are seen as ‘safe’ is known to me and it’s been confirmed to me that I’m one of them). Add to this initial review some sort of automated AI check (acknowledging the multiple flaws in such tools) and you get a subset of stories that are flagged and these are subject to human review. Again, at least historically, it’s been one woman doing the reviewing (by her own words).

It seems, for whatever reason, there was a delay to these human reviews, which led to a backlog. There is some evidence that efforts are currently underway to tackle this backlog.

So, yes, controversial themes (or keywords) together with writing that is flagged (correctly or not) as possibly AI-related, could (I stress could) put you into human review purgatory.

 

[old_prof]

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 =)

I strongly suspect that you are right and the vast majority of purgatory waits are for manual reviews. Your Bradi may also have been the suicide talk itself. The review could be for suspicion of AI, or one of the classic content issues, or just one she felt she was obligated to read. It may well be that the number of AI submissions has soared, meaning the manual review load is more than Laurel can reliably do.

Or it may be something completely different.

 

[SmilingLez]

I strongly suspect that you are right and the vast majority of purgatory waits are for manual reviews. Your Bradi may also have been the suicide talk itself. The review could be for suspicion of AI, or one of the classic content issues, or just one she felt she was obligated to read. It may well be that the number of AI submissions has soared, meaning the manual review load is more than Laurel can reliably do.

Or it may be something completely different.

I think you are overestimating the manual review process. To be realistic, given the fact that Literotica has a 25 plus year antiquated CMS system, it's a 50% probability that there is a backlog of waiting for manual reviews, and a 50% probability the CMS is laden with bugs and all the Band-Aids that were put on were ripped off. FWIW, my non erotic story is still in pending purgatory. I've done all the hacks since September 18, 2025, this last iteration has been in pending purgatory since November, 26th. 2025 YMMV

 

[IWroteThis]

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 =)

I thought my story must be stuck for a different reason, but I went back and double-checked for any age mentions. I didn't find anything direct, but I found this bit regarding a woman's ass in the story:

"it was trying to escape from a pair of volleyball shorts that might have been sufficient for the job years ago, back when she was in junior high."

It's far from the greatest bit of prose I've ever written, so I'm okay with removing it, but it's damn annoying if that one line is why this story has been languishing since September.

 

[WhoDunIt77]

How long should it take for a submission to be approved or kicked back for editing if all is working well? Seems like it’s been +/-3 days for either with each of my Refurbished story chapters.

 

[old_prof]

Most of the time it's been less than two days, but occasionally it slides longer. Very occasionally it slides into purgatory.

 

[WhoDunIt77]

Most of the time it's been less than two days, but occasionally it slides longer. Very occasionally it slides into purgatory.

Thanks, I was kinda getting the feeling that was about right, but with this being the holidays as well, I thought that might have a bit of an effect too. Had been unaware of how the submission process worked when I started posting, so I was hopping I had not overloaded the folks who oversee those too.

 

[Dark_Logan_]

After an 88 day wait looks like I’m finally getting another story posted here

I look forward to reading it myself as I’ve genuinely forgotten about most of the salient plot details

(2nd story at 68 days purgatory and counting, but mustn't grumble)

 

[EmilyMiller]

After an 88 day wait looks like I’m finally getting another story posted here

Yay!

 

[Dark_Logan_]

2nd purgatory story now rejected, specifically for the use of Grammarly

I’d love to know on what basis this is decided, of course they’re wrong (and I appreciate everyone accused stated they don’t use such tools), but I’d still be entertained by their explanation in substitute for a lazy cut and paste.

Not that anything beyond vague supposition is ever offered as justification by the Admin

Equally there seems little to no point in offering a ‘Note to Admin’ declaring that you don’t use AI Tools, Grammarly or similar tools, as is the case in all of my submissions

Resubmitted and so I await my Halloween story finally seeing the light of day by Easter

 

[designatedvictim]

After all this time, I'm gonna break down and chime in here.

After about three months online, my stand-alone piece, A Week of Sunrises, needed some light tweaks. Individually, nothing was a major edit. Just a few small ones bundled together.

Tweaked it, submitted it as an edit, it sat unpublished for weeks (I think this started back in August).

Not a problem. Edits are pretty much Tail-End Charlie with no priority. I knew that going in.

After a few weeks sitting there, I'd come up with another set of minor tweaks. Resubmit, waiting again.

Of course, as we all know, resubmitting also resets the clock, putting it back at the end of the processing queue.

Over the last few months, I did that a couple more times after anywhere from three to five week pauses.

Last re-submit was done on 11/27.

This morning I notice my Pending queue is at 0. Yay! It's done! It's been updated!

Opened the story and I'm like, Where's my new Author's Note? Where are all my edits?

It is kind of frustrating, and this is only for edits, not someone's standard story submission.

 

[SamBomb]

Story posted October 27. Deleted and submitted as instructed on November 15th. It published December 29*th.

 

[Adam_Sephenson]

Story posted October 27. Deleted and submitted as instructed on November 15th. It published December 29*th.

so you fully deleted the entry and started again? not just the "edit/draft" way and published again?

 

[SamBomb]

so you fully deleted the entry and started again? not just the "edit/draft" way and published again?

Deleted. Submitted with note saying what happened. Six weeks later it published.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Six weeks later it published.

Six weeks is crazy - that’s edit length

 

[IWroteThis]

This morning I notice my Pending queue is at 0. Yay! It's done! It's been updated!

Opened the story and I'm like, Where's my new Author's Note? Where are all my edits?

It is kind of frustrating, and this is only for edits, not someone's standard story submission.

That's because new stories don't have an old version cached that has to age out before the new version is picked up and displayed instead.

Also, the completed edit might be queued up the same as new stories, which show a publication date a day or two in the future once approved.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

That's because new stories don't have an old version cached that has to age out before the new version is picked up and displayed instead.

Also, the completed edit might be queued up the same as new stories, which show a publication date a day or two in the future once approved.

This is exactly right. My edit disappeared, but it wasn't until the next day that my edits showed up when I went to the story.
It's a bit disconcerting at first.

 

[designatedvictim]

That's because new stories don't have an old version cached that has to age out before the new version is picked up and displayed instead.

Also, the completed edit might be queued up the same as new stories, which show a publication date a day or two in the future once approved.

I... hadn't thought of caching on their end. I only looked to refresh any local caching.

We'll see what the New Year brings.

Thanks.

 

[designatedvictim]

That's because new stories don't have an old version cached that has to age out before the new version is picked up and displayed instead.

Also, the completed edit might be queued up the same as new stories, which show a publication date a day or two in the future once approved.

I just wanted to circle back and mention that the Pending entry dropped off on the 31st and the updated text started appearing today (the 3rd).

So... caching and/or scheduled (queued) releases.

 

[tswanabrit]

After waiting 38 days, watching some of the authors I follow get several stories through, I decided to delete and resubmit for the 4th time, hoping that the new year might change things. It probably won't. But I thought I'd get it in there before the Valentine's competition, and the inevitable rush of submissions for that.

 

[EmilyMiller]

After waiting 38 days, watching some of the authors I follow get several stories through, I decided to delete and resubmit for the 4th time, hoping that the new year might change things. It probably won't. But I thought I'd get it in there before the Valentine's competition, and the inevitable rush of submissions for that.

Good luck!

 

[tswanabrit]

Good luck!

Thanks, but honestly, at this stage, I think I might have a better chance with a completely new story than whipping a dead horse with this one. If it were an AI issue, I could deal with that; I could show the outline and the months of work I put into it. The limbo is annoying, especially since this story's limbo started less than a month after I'd finished a fairly well-received series, where each part was published in 3-4 days.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Thanks, but honestly, at this stage, I think I might have a better chance with a completely new story than whipping a dead horse with this one. If it were an AI issue, I could deal with that; I could show the outline and the months of work I put into it. The limbo is annoying, especially since this story's limbo started less than a month after I'd finished a fairly well-received series, where each part was published in 3-4 days.

The central problem is having no idea what is going on. Has a story fallen between the cracks, is it about to be rejected, is it on list for manual review that is backlogged?

 

[Storyteller0112]

I just noticed in my pending folder that a "January Thaw" may be approaching. Sf6 Part 18 is due to be published on 1/5. I last submitted on 12/7. No explicit communication about this leads me to believe/hope that it's a volume issue and a single point of validation.

Keep the faith, but maybe not flood the moderators.

 

[TaniaTulle]

I’ve had a story pending since 8th December and was just about to delete and repost it, when I noticed—only just now—that it’s actually scheduled to publish tomorrow! I’d even started reworking it, just in case a keyword had tipped it over. Thank God I didn’t spot any major issues in the end.

It’s my first story in the taboo category, so that might explain why it took a little longer to review, or just people enjoying the holidays and taking a break from smut checking.

I’ve been pretty patient with it, but I’ve also got another story pending from 23rd December, which will be part one of three, and I’m already about two-thirds of the way through yet another story. So my catalogue was starting to back up...

Perhaps its been Literotica's attempt to make me socialise with family and friends instead of squirrelling myself away and writing filth dammit!