Pending for 1.5 months

[DomDykeOnTop]

Hey, I’m new to the forums so please lmk if this is the wrong place to ask

I wrote three stories ages ago that need some small edits, and a little over 6 weeks ago I posted the edits how it said to in the FAQ in order to transfer comments and ratings—title of the story with the word “EDITED,” and the edited story below. They have not been sent back or approved, they still just show as “pending.” I emailed literotica to ask at one point but didn't hear back.

Does anyone know if this is a normal wait time, or did I so something wrong?

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Edits are the lowest priority of the site staff. Six weeks is long but by far not the longest ever.

 

[JQueen9]

I filed a finished story on June 26, and it is still sitting in the PENDING file. Is there anything I can do to get it posted? It is chapter 12 of a 13 chapter story, and I feel bad about making my followers wait so long for the last two chapters.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Also, be aware that when the edit does eventually go through, your edited version will disappear from Pending but your live version won't change. So it looks as if the edit has just been thrown away. But don't panic. The change takes another day or two to apply to the live version.

 

[DomDykeOnTop]

Thank you both, good to know!

 

[UnpublishedEroticaWriter]

Hey, I’m new to the forums so please lmk if this is the wrong place to ask

I wrote three stories ages ago that need some small edits, and a little over 6 weeks ago I posted the edits how it said to in the FAQ in order to transfer comments and ratings—title of the story with the word “EDITED,” and the edited story below. They have not been sent back or approved, they still just show as “pending.” I emailed literotica to ask at one point but didn't hear back.

Does anyone know if this is a normal wait time, or did I so something wrong?

Yeah, you are never gonna hear back from them. They never answer. They like to go on about all the events and writing-contest storylines, while half the writers end up in a pending purgatory. You are better off finding another site. I think the site erotxt.me is just made up of people who got tired of getting stuck in pending purgatory. The site's owners of Lit have no interest in fixing it.

 

[StillStunned]

Yeah, you are never gonna hear back from them. They never answer. They like to go on about all the events and writing-contest storylines, while half the writers end up in a pending purgatory. You are better off finding another site. I think the site erotxt.me is just made up of people who got tired of getting stuck in pending purgatory. The site's owners of Lit have no interest in fixing it.

As frustrating as it is to be waiting for a story to be approved, remember that Lit is still publishing 150-200 stories every single day. While some writers get stuck, there are still thousands who manage to get their stories out there.

ETA: also remember that this post was about edits, which have always taken weeks to approve. The lesson is to do a better job the first time around.

 

[ColtonWrites]

Yeah, you are never gonna hear back from them. They never answer. They like to go on about all the events and writing-contest storylines, while half the writers end up in a pending purgatory. You are better off finding another site. I think the site erotxt.me is just made up of people who got tired of getting stuck in pending purgatory. The site's owners of Lit have no interest in fixing it.

Given how many stories get published every day, and how many of us there are in the writer's forum who AREN'T complaining about pending times, I'd say it's far, FAR less than half.

When I was publishing stories in the fall, it was regularly taking days to a week to get through a multi-part story. Right now, my Pending items are generally being approved within a day of submission, though the system seems to be drip-feeding the actual publication.

 

[PublishedEroticaWriter]

As frustrating as it is to be waiting for a story to be approved, remember that Lit is still publishing 150-200 stories every single day. While some writers get stuck, there are still thousands who manage to get their stories out there.

ETA: also remember that this post was about edits, which have always taken weeks to approve. The lesson is to do a better job the first time around.

I've had some of my stories in pending for 6 months. Some just vanished completely. Recently, I sent a test story that said, "This is a test just to see if you are getting my stories." Still pending for a week. So if someone's story gets stuck in pending, just find another site because they will not get published. I even made a second account. I wrote 3 stories before getting stuck in the pending state. There are so many people stuck in pending purgatory that they decided to make their own website. Or just left for another site. My latest story has been in pending since 05/27/2026. This site is broken.

 

[DomDykeOnTop]

Well, I hope mine will go through eventually, however long it takes. They are probably busy. Sorry to hear you've been stuck in pending for months though, that sucks. It's too bad the contact form doesn't work better. Regardless, thanks for the information.

 

[PublishedEroticaWriter]

Well, I hope mine will go through eventually, however long it takes. They are probably busy. Sorry to hear you've been stuck in pending for months though, that sucks. It's too bad the contact form doesn't work better. Regardless, thanks for the information.

Update: Well, they just rejected my test story. As for the chapter of my actual story that I sent on 05/27/2026, which came before it, it's still pending. It's only 2834 words. Oh, it's not just me. It has been a problem for many for at least a year. Maybe longer. There are many posts about it.

 

[ColtonWrites]

Have you tried the usual fix of deleting and resubmitting? That often works for people.

 

[PublishedEroticaWriter]

Have you tried the usual fix of deleting and resubmitting? That often works for people.

Yes. Muliple times.

 

[SmilingLez]

Yes. Muliple times.

So does that mean your second account now is hosed?

 

[PublishedEroticaWriter]

So does that mean your second account now is hosed?

I got three stories in before pending purgatory started on this second account.
But I now have an update. It is no longer pending. Nope. It has been rejected. '(since substantial parts of the final draft may not be written by you). We've checked this work several times, and it is still coming back as being composed largely of AI-generated prose.) How much is largely AI-generated? Appartently Six%. According to Grammarly. AI rejected it anyway... again.
I had a woman who does story editing for a living rewrite it. Still got rejected as AI. So I checked it with Grammarly. No AI was found. So the second time, before I resent it, I used Grammarly, and it still had some suggestions, and that is where the 6% came from. I went out of my way to revise the sentences so that the rewrite suggestions would be in my own words. After telling them in the notes that none of it was AI, they rejected it again.
This time, because the chapters were out of order. Even though they weren't. I just didn't have all the chapters listed in the title. If a person, not an AI bot, had read it, they'd see that. So I added the chapters in the title and resent it for a third time. Two months later, rejected as AI again today.
I guess I got it down to 0%. Then wait 2 months and have it rejected as AI anyway.
So the site is still broken. I had to use the workaround just to log in today. It wouldn't let me reach the forums. You know the thing Manu claimed was fixed.

 

[SundaeCherry]

Hey, I’m new to the forums so please lmk if this is the wrong place to ask

I wrote three stories ages ago that need some small edits, and a little over 6 weeks ago I posted the edits how it said to in the FAQ in order to transfer comments and ratings—title of the story with the word “EDITED,” and the edited story below. They have not been sent back or approved, they still just show as “pending.” I emailed literotica to ask at one point but didn't hear back.

Does anyone know if this is a normal wait time, or did I so something wrong?

Damn! That sucks

 

[PublishedEroticaWriter]

Btw, I got an error when I tried to post this. I had to refresh it and hit send. This was my first draft, not the second I was trying to publish. Lite can mess up messages, too. Sometimes, only half a message gets sent if you encounter this error. Or an earlier version. Yeah, this site has a lot of problems.

 

[PublishedEroticaWriter]

OK, I ran it through Grammarly again for grammar issues. I use AI detection on it. It was only 16%. I then sent it again today. In a couple of days or more, it will be flagged as mostly AI again.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

To repeat advice all over the board: do not use Grammarly at all. It's AI. If you use its advice, your stuff will read like AI. Grammarly itself is "motivated" (trained by the owner) to not say that it sounds like AI--that would decrease your use of it.

 

[Adam_Sephenson]

i've been trying to have my 13k word lesbian story published since early april this year, it's been rejected 3 times due to "suspected AI written" (which is pure BS!) and has been stuck in pending hell since june 16th - currently 1 month 12 days I've also deleted and resubmitted a fair few times and really am starting to find this whole "pending" fiasco to be both disheartening and demoralizing to even continue writing my current stuff.

I get that stopping AI written stories is top priority, but if using a program to "sniff out" AI written stories that might be an AI program itself, then you're shooting yourself in the foot big time!

::edit::

I've long since disabled copilot and deleted grammarly off the face of my PC, I use only the default spelling and grammar checks that come with microsoft word.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

But, was this story written by/with Grammarly before the deletion? If so, it might just be picked up as AI-generated until and unless you delete it entirely and rewrite from scratch.

Or not, I have no idea how that story came into existence, obviously.

 

[Adam_Sephenson]

nope, haven't used Grammarly since I finished writing "Theory of Love" which was roughly this time last year, my recent writings have always been by my own hand. (Twice Linned Ch 1, Ch 2 and currently 3a and 3b. Ashleigh's Gift)

 

[DomDykeOnTop]

I’ve been writing a bit more on patreon. It’s nice to just be able to post stuff without dealing with them pending for weeks or months, but it doesn’t have nearly the same reach, and doesn’t allow you to offer anything NSFW for free

 

[PublishedEroticaWriter]

To repeat advice all over the board: do not use Grammarly at all. It's AI. If you use its advice, your stuff will read like AI. Grammarly itself is "motivated" (trained by the owner) to not say that it sounds like AI--that would decrease your use of it.

It's also claimed that my work is AI, even though I haven't used AI before. I had a professional editor work on my story. It was rejected as an AI. I also try to use Grammarly, but only for grammar corrections, nothing else. Also rejected.
If using AI is completely forbidden, then why are they saying it was largely written by AI when it wasn't? It doesn't say don't use Grammarly. It says we can use Grammarly for editing, but not rewriting.
This is the rejection: substantial parts of the final draft may not be written by you. (It was written by me. Only 6% was AI.) We've checked this work several times and it is still coming back as being composed largely of AI-generated prose. (It wasn't.)
I would get constant complaints about the grammar in my stories, even with a volunteer editor helping. So I used Grammarly to edit, and it still gets rejected. I just can't win.
Lit has the AI detection up so high that it just flags anything as AI. I asked Grammarly to check if anything might be flagged as AI. It highlighted sentences I personally wrote. So I guess I'm an AI bot too.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Lit has the AI detection up so high that it just flags anything as AI. I asked Grammarly to check if anything might be flagged as AI. It highlighted sentences I personally wrote. So I guess I'm an AI bot too.

It seems that your style matches at least one LLM.

Note that Lit doesn't flag for AI randomly. Most writers never get a false AI flag, some of them having published hundreds of stories. Others get multiple stories flagged, like you.