Moderation delays

Are there still delays in the moderation process? About how long is the delay currently ?

Hey, it's currently about 2-3 days for premium, and about 10-14 days for non premium.

They're not really delays at the moment, just turnaround times. The queue is mostly settled for now, although pretty constant.

So three weeks is - I’ve been forgotten?

Quote by Virginjanet

So three weeks is - I’ve been forgotten?

I do not see a story from you in the queue. Check your draft folder to make sure you clicked on Publish.

Thank you. I’ll do that.

I understand that the purpose of submitting stories to Lush is to entertain but I find that perfect prose is demanded as a prerequisite. I am unable to provide this it seems and thought that if what is submitted is readily understood by the reader, perfect prose is a secondary consideration.

It seems however that I am wrong and after several attempts to satisfy the moderator it seems I must withdraw my story.

Quote by Virginjanet
perfect prose is demanded as a prerequisite

That's a little harsh. We don't expect perfection, but basic grammar rules should be followed (for example, dialogue formatting) because it helps readers understand your work. Without it, confusion occurs, which takes people away from the story.

We're more than happy to work with authors who require assistance reaching a minimum standard that conveys the story clearly, but sadly, with the volume of works that are submitted here daily, we don't have the resources to edit them for you.

There is however this thread where you can post to ask for the community to assist you.

https://www.lushstories.com/forum/writing-resources/need-a-proofreader-post-here

It’s a challenge for new authors to get their grammar up to standard, but don’t give up yet OP.

I recently learned this, via a ‘rejection’ from a Mod but it’s been a very helpful point to learn.

-- Proofread again for comma splices near dialogue. Action tags describe an action different from speaking and merit a sentence of their own. They are therefore separated from speech using a period, unlike speech tags, which take commas.

e.g., ["Freddie", mum was lying on her front, “come and do my back, please, love.”]

==should be==>

["Freddie." Mum was lying on her front. “Come and do my back, please, love.”]

Quote by Jen

Hey, it's currently about 2-3 days for premium, and about 10-14 days for non premium.

They're not really delays at the moment, just turnaround times. The queue is mostly settled for now, although pretty constant.

This is the way. I was figuring a week, and I looked and dang it's live? but then again I stopped writing 7K chapters

Quote by Virginjanet

I understand that the purpose of submitting stories to Lush is to entertain but I find that perfect prose is demanded as a prerequisite. I am unable to provide this it seems and thought that if what is submitted is readily understood by the reader, perfect prose is a secondary consideration.

It seems however that I am wrong and after several attempts to satisfy the moderator it seems I must withdraw my story.

I use grammary and Word to catch all the commas and stuff. if you need help, ask. I'm usually available to give a story a once over

Thanks Jill. I might do that but I think a lot of people are put off by a too rigid observance of the rules being insisted upon when it is the meaning that is important. Grammar etc is important if it improves understanding but unnecessary if it does not. I have only limited time and would rather spend it on telling a tale than slavishly following a set of rules.

Quote by Virginjanetth

Thanks Jill. I might do that but I think a lot of people are put off by a too rigid observance of the rules being insisted upon when it is the meaning that is important. Grammar etc is important if it improves understanding but unnecessary if it does not. I have only limited time and would rather spend it on telling a tale than slavishly following a set of rules.

So, if you're more interested in venting your spleen than taking advice AND offers of help, are you trying to improve, or campaigning to lower acceptability standards that many are happy to work very hard to meet?

The issue I have is that I can't upload a second story while I have one waiting to be reviewed. I have 16 stories in my series, followed by a 30-story series and a 19-story series. Even a 2-week delay amounts to years. As an author, we drive traffic to the website, and I would expect better turnaround times.

Quote by Virginjanet

Thanks Jill. I might do that but I think a lot of people are put off by a too rigid observance of the rules being insisted upon when it is the meaning that is important. Grammar etc is important if it improves understanding but unnecessary if it does not. I have only limited time and would rather spend it on telling a tale than slavishly following a set of rules.

Having published over a hundred stories on here, I can testify that the mods are not at all “slavish.” They just want to see general adherence to the rules of English, with which not everyone is as familiar as they could be.

In a typical story, I probably have 20-40 items flagged by Grammarly. But I verify them all carefully, so that my “violations” are deliberate and make sense. Learn the rules to break the rules.

It’s been a while since I had a story rejected or substantially edited due to errors, but it’s part of the process of learning to be a better writer. When they’re starting out, a lot of people don’t know what they don’t know. Best advice I ever got on here was to start using Grammarly, despite its foibles.

Quote by TammyTrueheart

The issue I have is that I can't upload a second story while I have one waiting to be reviewed. I have 16 stories in my series, followed by a 30-story series and a 19-story series. Even a 2-week delay amounts to years. As an author, we drive traffic to the website, and I would expect better turnaround times.

If you have sixty-plus stories to publish, yeah maybe that should take a year to publish. It would likely have taken you years to write them, so what’s the sudden rush? It’s an awful lot to ask of the mods to review that many stories in a short time. Most writers on here take years to publish that many stories, partly because the expectation is that they were written by humans.

How much marginal traffic is your sixty-fifth story in a short time going to “drive to the website” anyway? The fact that you’re using the word “upload” as opposed to “publish” suggests you’re expecting something different from this site than what it is.

Quote by TammyTrueheart

The issue I have is that I can't upload a second story while I have one waiting to be reviewed. I have 16 stories in my series, followed by a 30-story series and a 19-story series. Even a 2-week delay amounts to years. As an author, we drive traffic to the website, and I would expect better turnaround times.

Premium authors get quicker turnaround, so consider supporting the site by doing that.

The reason we have a one at a time policy is to save us having to manually return loads of chapters because we had to send one back for an issue. This way makes sure nothing is published out of order, and and issues we come across can be addressed in future chapters before submission.

“Thanks, I might do that” does not signify to me someone who refuses help and advice

Jill, I am grateful for it. I have made further changes which I hope will now make it acceptable. Is there some way I can send it to you before submitting it?

Quote by Jen

Premium authors get quicker turnaround, so consider supporting the site by doing that.

The reason we have a one at a time policy is to save us having to manually return loads of chapters because we had to send one back for an issue. This way makes sure nothing is published out of order, and and issues we come across can be addressed in future chapters before submission.

I support the site by writing and driving traffic. Rival sites turn around in 1-2 days without paying any premium. I would say Lush deliberately delays publication in order to make their authors pay for a service that should be free. Lush may consider this a business model. Where I am from, it is called extortion. I will wait before I submit to paying. I only want the increased publishing time. I don't want all the other stuff that goes with a gold subscription; why should I pay for it? I might pay a very small amount for just that service, but that is not offered. It is Lush's loss. I might change my mind later, but not now.

Quote by TammyTrueheart

I support the site by writing and driving traffic. Rival sites turn around in 1-2 days without paying any premium. I would say Lush deliberately delays publication in order to make their authors pay for a service that should be free. Lush may consider this a business model. Where I am from, it is called extortion. I will wait before I submit to paying. I only want the increased publishing time. I don't want all the other stuff that goes with a gold subscription; why should I pay for it? I might pay a very small amount for just that service, but that is not offered. It is Lush's loss. I might change my mind later, but not now.

Not seeing myself at the centre of the universe means I can't quite get my head around 'driving traffic', though if the other comically bizarre accusations made are a guide, it's probably utter nonsense. Hopefully, a period of reflection might help you to realise that proclaiming your disappearance as a loss to others might come across as ever so slightly arrogant, whether misplaced or not.

All the authors, not just me, drive traffic. Without us, there is no website. I started writing stories in 2005. I have a large collection on a rival site and published books that I am trying to upload here, but I am frustrated by the unnecessary delays and the site wanting to charge me what I get for free elsewhere. Use AI to screen the stories, then read only the ones it flags. That would decrease the wait time. Get some advertisers. I am sure they could easily get volunteer readers.

Quote by TammyTrueheart

All the authors, not just me, drive traffic. Without us, there is no website. I started writing stories in 2005. I have a large collection on a rival site and published books that I am trying to upload here, but I am frustrated by the unnecessary delays and the site wanting to charge me what I get for free elsewhere. Use AI to screen the stories, then read only the ones it flags. That would decrease the wait time. Get some advertisers. I am sure they could easily get volunteer readers.

What pen name did you use for the published books?

Quote by TammyTrueheart

All the authors, not just me, drive traffic. Without us, there is no website. I started writing stories in 2005. I have a large collection on a rival site and published books that I am trying to upload here, but I am frustrated by the unnecessary delays and the site wanting to charge me what I get for free elsewhere. Use AI to screen the stories, then read only the ones it flags. That would decrease the wait time. Get some advertisers. I am sure they could easily get volunteer readers.

No, many just do stuff because we like to, not to tack on some buzzword from 'Marketing For Dummies'. |F you don't want to pay for something, don't; nobody is forcing you. The 'volunteers' you think it's so easy to recruit need to have the relevant knowledge and experience to maintain standards, and if you're so reluctant to part with money, expecting others to give up their time voluntarily is hypocrisy of epic proportions.

Quote by TammyTrueheart
Use AI to screen the stories

No. We're trying to keep AI stories off the site, not have it wave its mates through. Been there, tried that.

Wait, or don't. The choice is yours.

Just to clarify, I accept that my English is not perfect and perhaps not up to the standard expected for normal publication in the book industry but I’m not sure what the true purpose of Lush is. Is it to gradually educate the author by rejection or is it to entertain your readers?

If, even with imperfect English, the writer’s story is understood by the reader, have we not done enough? Few if any of us is seeking a degree in English or to publish a serious book.

I’m sorry if you think I was “venting my spleen “ when all I was doing was questioning the standard necessary. It is good, surely, for everyone to question themselves from time to time rather than simply assume they are always right? Can you, hand on heart, say that all or even the majority of stories published already on Lush are written to the highest standard of English?

I hope that you will find that you can understand everything I have written in the story which I am waiting to resubmit.

Quote by Virginjanet
Can you, hand on heart, say that all or even the majority of stories published already on Lush are written to the highest standard of English?

Nowhere does the site state that's the stated goal. The goal is to have a higher standard than other sites, that just let almost anything through.

If I recall, your story was returned primarily for dialogue formatting (I may be wrong) which is not even subjective. It's a tried and tested formula, adopted from centuries of writing, so readers can follow the story easily through convention. Depending on how much of a particular issue is in a story, the mod may either tweak it or (usually if there's a lot in the story) return it.

The more time authors take to prepare their work to a reasonable standard, the less work moderators need to do to fix/return it, the shorter the queue gets from resubmissions, and the faster we can get through the volume.

The original questions have been answered, this thread will now be locked.

Quote by TammyTrueheart

All the authors, not just me, drive traffic. Without us, there is no website. I started writing stories in 2005. I have a large collection on a rival site and published books that I am trying to upload here, but I am frustrated by the unnecessary delays and the site wanting to charge me what I get for free elsewhere. Use AI to screen the stories, then read only the ones it flags.

We don’t have rivals. Different sites have different goals. Lush is unique in this field. I think your suggestion that we use AI to screen stories might indicate that you don't understand the intention behind this site. We're not here to churn out oodles of stories. We’re not an on-demand publisher.

Lush exists to provide readers with a curated experience, and writers with a dedicated audience. We love giving writers a platform for their stories, and we’re grateful to all them who chose Lush as their publisher, but everything is done in service of the community here. We focus on building relationships between writers and their readers. Having a writer flood the site with a story a day, or every couple of days, doesn’t foster the kind of relationship that sets us apart from other similar sites.

In our experience, in alignment with our goals, it’s better to publish a story, give it a chance for our readers to discover it, take it in, comment on it, and give our writers an opportunity to interact with readers, reply to comments and organically build a following here. It’s not just a place to park your stories for exposure.

When it comes to turnaround times, we send back as many stories as we publish. Sending a story back takes more time and effort than publishing a story does. We give feedback, offer help and suggestions that are tailored to each author’s needs. Part of our goal here is to nurture and develop writers, not just publish content.

The moderation team are all volunteers who have lives, families, jobs, etc. We do our best to publish as much as we can, as quickly as we can, while maintaining a standard of quality that our readers expect from us. That can cause some delays, but they aren't unnecessary.

The idea that you consider a membership extortion suggests that you’re just looking for something transactional – you provide a story, we publish it, that brings in readers, done. Lush is much more than that. What works here isn’t a cold, detached, quid pro quo. It’s the effort that we put into developing a community of readers and writers who love and value creativity.