"Sent Back" but no hint why

[WhenPreNut]

Hi all
Any advice?
Part four of 6 got sent back. 1, 2 and 3 are published.

The note says
"Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site . However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.

We now allow series to be made with different titles, and order the parts in the series however they like. Authors create the series on their end. More information on Series can be found in the Literotica Series FAQ - https://literotica.com/faq/series
Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions. You can find a list of Volunteer Editors here.

Please consult our Writer's Resources section and make sure you read our submission guidelines.
If you have any questions on these, please let us know.

Thanks for your time...
"

I previously read the submission guidelines but read them again and I don't contravene any of those. This is just a part that is consistent with part 1 to 3 in 5 and 6

Im at a complete loss as to how to identify what's been considered inappropriate in order that I can fix it

Any suggestions?

Thnx

 

[EmilyMiller]

You seem to have (whether by your design or the site’s actions) a rather idiosyncratic approach to titles and numbering. I’d suggest - as the site does - creating a manual series and using that.

 

[Britva415]

The message makes it fairly clear that it's something about the title. It's boilerplate, but that isn't the boilerplate anyone gets when the problem is something other than the title.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Im at a complete loss as to how to identify what's been considered inappropriate in order that I can fix it

It's your bizarre approach to story titles.

The site runs an auto-sequencing algorithm that works in two ways:

Story Title
Story Title Ch.02
Story Title Ch.03

Or:

Story Title - Annie
Story Title - Betty
Story Title - Charlie

It's an alphanumeric sort sequence. Your titles don't allow that to work - they're idiosyncratic at best, illogical at worst.

So what the site is saying is, if you want to use oddball titles - which is what you are doing - the only way to make them coherent is to use the Manual Series function, and do the sequencing yourself.

 

[PennyThompson]

kind of strange that Laurel would send a story back for this though, isn't it? Stories get published with series title typos all the time, and also an author can enable manual series and add stories to them at any time without having to go through the publishing or edit queue

 

[Bramblethorn]

I think these story titles are the issue, especially the last three. Literotica tries to automatically detect series with titles like "Blah Blah 1: Stuff Happens", "Blah Blah 2: More Stuff Happens" and so on, and put them into a series structure, but since you don't have anything before the number they don't know what the name of the series is supposed to be. I'd guess the moderator missed this issue with the earlier chapters for one reason or another, but noticed it with chapter 4.

Like EB said, if you want to keep on titling them this way you'll need to use the manual series control to indicate how they fit together.

 

[TheLobster]

kind of strange that Laurel would send a story back for this though, isn't it? Stories get published with series title typos all the time, and also an author can enable manual series and add stories to them at any time without having to go through the publishing or edit queue

Technically there is a delay when you create a series, since they have to go through moderation as well, so conceivably you could see Laurel rejecting the first story of what's clearly a series if there hasn't been a series created beforehand.

But of course this is fourth installment already, so she obviously didn't realize the first time. What's odd is that she also didn't realize the second and third, and only now suddenly has a problem with it.

 

[WhenPreNut]

You seem to have (whether by your design or the site’s actions) a rather idiosyncratic approach to titles and numbering. I’d suggest - as the site does - creating a manual series and using that.

View attachment 2599958

Thanks Emily but

The series Diary has been auto created.

The series Sarah's journey has been manually created with the parts labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 followed by a title. They are three different stories, in fact they two "diary are not anything I'd put together.

The series Sarah has been sitting pending for ages.

Thanks for replying but how do I fix it?

Thnx

 

[WhenPreNut]

The message makes it fairly clear that it's something about the title. It's boilerplate, but that isn't the boilerplate anyone gets when the problem is something other than the title.

I'm sure I'm being really dense but I don't understand your reply in the same way I don't understand the message I got.

I've got three six posts in a manually created series the series is not being published for whatever reason despite sitting there on pending but the parts have been published one two and three I submitted four and I have five and six just to be finally polished over the next week or two.


"but that isn't the boilerplate anyone gets when the problem is something other than the title"
I don't follow what your word that is referring to I've got two stories that I'm related and the system has decided to put them into a series and that doesn't really bother me and I have six stories that all follow the same pattern of being numbered 1 to 6 followed by some text that summarises the main theme of the piece.

Question remains what action can I take to fix it My thought for the moment is to just ignore part 4 as I have no course of action That seems hopeful.
Changing something would be a 'suck-it & see' exercise - And I've already done what I thought is the best thing.
An experimental approach with the response times on this platform being measured in weeks makes that really impractical and uses a lot of everybody's time unproductively.

Thanks for replying and I can see that it makes perfect sense to you you probably have lot more experience than me I need a little more 'hand holding'

Thnx

 

[WhenPreNut]

It's your bizarre approach to story titles.

The site runs an auto-sequencing algorithm that works in two ways:

Story Title
Story Title Ch.02
Story Title Ch.03

Or:

Story Title - Annie
Story Title - Betty
Story Title - Charlie

It's an alphanumeric sort sequence. Your titles don't allow that to work - they're idiosyncratic at best, illogical at worst.

So what the site is saying is, if you want to use oddball titles - which is what you are doing - the only way to make them coherent is to use the Manual Series function, and do the sequencing yourself.

Hi thanks for replying but I am using the site series function although my series has been appending for a long time.

The site has put two stories with similar names into a series That's a learning exercise for me because I didn't intend them to be in a serious and I didn't manually put them in a series and if I can take them out I don't know how.


The six stories I do mean to be in a series I have put in a series I put them in before I posted the first part and higher now posted parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and it's only part 4 that got returned - with a message that I read and said yes so I can create a series and I can name the parts and arrange the manually and that's what I've done....


Can you suggest actions that I can take given the series posts are logically arranged within the series and the stories not within the series are unrelated?

thanks for trying to help

 

[WhenPreNut]

I think these story titles are the issue, especially the last three. Literotica tries to automatically detect series with titles like "Blah Blah 1: Stuff Happens", "Blah Blah 2: More Stuff Happens" and so on, and put them into a series structure, but since you don't have anything before the number they don't know what the name of the series is supposed to be. I'd guess the moderator missed this issue with the earlier chapters for one reason or another, but noticed it with chapter 4.

Like EB said, if you want to keep on titling them this way you'll need to use the manual series control to indicate how they fit together.

View attachment 2599997

Thanks for your advice but as I have said to others I have the stories in a manual series which has been pending for ages and the six stories in the series are numbered 1 through 6. Other stories not related to the series are not in it and don't have titles that look anything like it

So I still don't know what I can do about this I can see why they're speculation but I don't think the speculation accounts for all the facts

Thanks for replying anyhow

 

[WhenPreNut]

Technically there is a delay when you create a series, since they have to go through moderation as well, so conceivably you could see Laurel rejecting the first story of what's clearly a series if there hasn't been a series created beforehand.

But of course this is fourth installment already, so she obviously didn't realize the first time. What's odd is that she also didn't realize the second and third, and only now suddenly has a problem with it.

The return says a volunteer moderator is that always laurel?

Anyway I think everybody has assumed that the structure isn't crystal clear and to somebody who can actually see how I've arranged things in the background it is crystal clear whether or not one starts looking at other items that have nothing to do with this six part story.


It's good to see that there are folk with some knowledge of how the platform operates but as yet I'm not seeing anything that I can do as a positive concrete action towards resolving what seems to be to me an inconsistency between the guidance in the FAQ type information given and the actual what's happened

Thanks for replying if you have a "do this idea" That would be helpful.


I haven't tried sending a message to anybody in admin I'm not entirely sure how to do it most of the posts here suggest it's not responded to and the response times are so long that it seems pointless (?)

Thanks for trying to help

 

[TheLobster]

Thanks for replying if you have a "do this idea" That would be helpful.

If I understand correctly, you did create a manual series but it is still pending review and therefore you cannot add any stories to it.

In this case, politely message Laurel (using the DM feature of the forum) to have her look at and approve the series. When that’s done, add the three chapters to it, and then edit your submission of the 4th one so that it’s set to be added to that same series.

This is basically the long version of what your rejection notice seems to suggest. It’s weird that you’ve got that rejection in the first place, but putting your connected works into a series is useful anyway, so in the end it should only work for the best.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The return says a volunteer moderator is that always laurel?

It says a volunteer *editor*. Different thing. VEs are just other folk on this site who are willing to help authors with fixing up their stories etc. But in this case I don't think a VE is going to make a difference, that's just a standard part of the Lit bounce message.

 

[WhenPreNut]

It says a volunteer *editor*. Different thing. VEs are just other folk on this site who are willing to help authors with fixing up their stories etc. But in this case I don't think a VE is going to make a difference, that's just a standard part of the Lit bounce message.

Thank you
a subtle distinction that passed me by

I have a clear view on what I want to read (sic) in the stories I write so I'm not looking for somebody to 'fix it up'.

 

[WhenPreNut]

If I understand correctly, you did create a manual series but it is still pending review and therefore you cannot add any stories to it.

In this case, politely message Laurel (using the DM feature of the forum) to have her look at and approve the series. When that’s done, add the three chapters to it, and then edit your submission of the 4th one so that it’s set to be added to that same series.

This is basically the long version of what your rejection notice seems to suggest. It’s weird that you’ve got that rejection in the first place, but putting your connected works into a series is useful anyway, so in the end it should only work for the best.

Hi Lobster,
Sorta not quite.
I created a series before I created any posts I then created six drafts That are all in the series.
I didn't understand that a series needs to be approved so I posted stories one and two before submitting the series.
Then I worked out why they weren't in a container so I submitted the series as a container.
Then I submitted post three which was approved even though the series is still pending.
A week later I submitted section 4 which is when I got the strange message (in my eyes) about "We now allow you to create series and you can do stuff manually" To which my reply mentally was "yep I've done that, And it would be good if you did your bit..."

Interspersed with the above I created another story which is somewhat similar in vibe to one I created earlier so I gave it a similar name and the platform has decided that they are a series when that is overstating their relationship.

Others seem to have assumed I've got one series and a hodgepodge of naming conventions but that is not the case.
I have a very clear naming convention within a manually created series (and I've discovered the platform makes assumptions about other stuff.)

I'll try reaching out to the legendary laurel

Thnx

 

[BobbyBrandt]

With all due respect to your writing, I would take a pass on reading them at this point.

To start with, I do not begin reading anything that isn't clearly and obviously a complete story. Your "series" is a collection of chapters, which are merely pieces of some whole story that we may or may not ever see completed. You are titling your chapters with no clear indication of their order other than the date published.

I'm sorry, but with it appearing so disheveled, what is one to presume about the writing itself?

 

[TheLobster]

Hi Lobster,
Sorta not quite.
I created a series before I created any posts I then created six drafts That are all in the series.
I didn't understand that a series needs to be approved so I posted stories one and two before submitting the series.
Then I worked out why they weren't in a container so I submitted the series as a container.
Then I submitted post three which was approved even though the series is still pending.
A week later I submitted section 4 which is when I got the strange message (in my eyes) about "We now allow you to create series and you can do stuff manually" To which my reply mentally was "yep I've done that, And it would be good if you did your bit..."

Interspersed with the above I created another story which is somewhat similar in vibe to one I created earlier so I gave it a similar name and the platform has decided that they are a series when that is overstating their relationship.

Others seem to have assumed I've got one series and a hodgepodge of naming conventions but that is not the case.
I have a very clear naming convention within a manually created series (and I've discovered the platform makes assumptions about other stuff.)

I'll try reaching out to the legendary laurel

Thnx

Close enough. Just make sure your series is actually approved and the three existing chapters are in it, and then you can resubmit the fourth one.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Others seem to have assumed I've got one series and a hodgepodge of naming conventions but that is not the case.

Your title method is unusual. It follows none of the usual chaptering conventions. Your titles will never trigger the auto-sequencing algorithm.

It's not at all clear what you're trying to do, how many Series you've got, nor how many you want.

I have a very clear naming convention within a manually created series (and I've discovered the platform makes assumptions about other stuff.)

It's not clear at all, even if you think it is - as evidenced by several people trying to assist, but we can't figure it out.

I don't think the site has made any assumptions - that's why your fourth chapter got bounced.

I'll try reaching out to the legendary laurel

I don't think it will help. I'd wait until all your Series are active, then go into Manual mode and arrange them in the correct order.

Next time, I'd suggest you follow conventional chapter titles - if you do that, the site automatically creates a Series, problem solved.

 

[WhenPreNut]

With all due respect to your writing, I would take a pass on reading them at this point.

To start with, I do not begin reading anything that isn't clearly and obviously a complete story. Your "series" is a collection of chapters, which are merely pieces of some whole story that we may or may not ever see completed. You are titling your chapters with no clear indication of their order other than the date published.

I'm sorry, but with it appearing so disheveled, what is one to presume about the writing itself?

That's a strange thing to say.
The series has parts explicitly labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

If the platform would move the series container from pending to what ever they call approved the structure would be clearly delineated and distinct from other contributions

I definitely didn't ask or suggest you should read my output. Disheveled is an inaccurate statement but given the platforms weaknesses I can see how you could be deceived.

Be well
Ciao

 

[WhenPreNut]

Your title method is unusual. It follows none of the usual chaptering conventions. Your titles will never trigger the auto-sequencing algorithm.

It's not at all clear what you're trying to do, how many Series you've got, nor how many you want.

It's not clear at all, even if you think it is - as evidenced by several people trying to assist, but we can't figure it out.

I don't think the site has made any assumptions - that's why your fourth chapter got bounced.

I don't think it will help. I'd wait until all your Series are active, then go into Manual mode and arrange them in the correct order.

Next time, I'd suggest you follow conventional chapter titles - if you do that, the site automatically creates a Series, problem solved.

1) dunno how you interleaved comment and reply so I'll do in a single flow.

2) yes I can see how you've not been able to discern the structure because it's entirely hidden from view by the platform 'sitting' on the pending series and having invented a series for other pieces (which is maybe fair of it)

3) if you could see what I put in the series the titles start with a sequence number. That about a simple and clear as I can imagine AND the stuff without the numbers isn't in the series of the story with title "4 ...." That got bounced

Any way c'est la vie

Thnx for responding

 

[MillieDynamite]

I have a non-ordered series here.

 

[WhenPreNut]

My series is now published so I'll try publishing the part again.

Well see what happens

I think seeing the series and parts 1, 2, 3, makes very clear the structuring and that next is 4,

Fingers crossed

Caio

 

[MillieDynamite]

Stories will be automatically posted in order if you post them that way without changing the default.

My series is now published so I'll try publishing the part again.

Well see what happens

I think seeing the series and parts 1, 2, 3, makes very clear the structuring and that next is 4,

Fingers crossed

Caio

 

[TheLobster]

My series is now published so I'll try publishing the part again.

Well see what happens

I think seeing the series and parts 1, 2, 3, makes very clear the structuring and that next is 4,

Fingers crossed

Caio

Just make sure you add chapter 4 to the series at submission time (using the story form). Since your series is manual (and has to be, given your title convention), you cannot count on the site to pick up that “4: …” is indeed chapter 4 of the series.