This is just some general information that I wanted writers to know about, but couldn't find a place to put it. I hope it turns out to be useful. If you're a writer on this site, or plan to be someday, this is good stuff to know.
How Long Does It Take For Stories To Go Up?
I'm rather proud of my track record for getting stuff up. I check my mail often and if I have the time, I'll get as much stuff up as I can. I think most people on this site can say I've had their stuff up within 24 hours of sending it to me at the latest, and most times sooner. I've even put stuff up when I've been sick so this archive will have new stuff for people to read.
Of course there are times when this can't happen. If I'm out of town I can't update. Usually if I'm going away for over a day, I give people warning of it, so they will know.
However, being so quick to get stuff up has been a curse as well as a blessing. I've gotten letters from people who sent me stuff less than a day ealier, asking why it isn't up. This is a pain because it means I still have to put it up, and I have to write them back and explain that I wasn't ignoring them, I just got busy. I end up saying, "I'm sorry." when I really don't think it's such a big deal.
Trust me, as a writer, I understand where you're coming from. I want to know when my stuff is going up. But as an archiver, it's not always easy. Sometimes things come up and I just can't get to your stories until later.
Weekends are the worst time for me. I work on weekends and on Sunday, I have awful hours. So if you send me something Saturday or Sunday, please don't be surprised if you don't see it up until late late Sunday or Monday.
I'm asking everyone to give me 3 days before writing me to ask what happened. Especially with new stories and new stories by new writers. Those take me the longest to do. If I get a mailbox full of sections to stories I'm already archiving and new stories, I'll probably put the sections up first.
If you've sent me something and you don't see it up on my archive in three days, by all means, write me then and ask me. Chances are, something happened and whatever you sent me got lost. So I'd strongly reccommend if you do have to write me, you resend me whatever you sent me the first time.
How Do I Get More Feedback?
Beats me. If I knew the secret to that, I'd share it. However, I have found a couple of things that help.
Asking for it. No, I'm not saying beg, plead and threaten. (Although I know at times it's tempting!) But, I don't see anything wrong with telling people that you would appreciate feedback and will respond to feedback letters. I've had people tell me they didn't write me before because they were afraid I was already getting too much feedback (as if such a thing was possible!) Sometimes letting people know you're receptive to it is a gentle nudge.
I do everything I can with this site to make it easy for people to give and get feedback. I try to put up multiple mail links so all it takes to give a writer feedback is to click on the author's name.
Another thing I do is allow people to set up a guestbook. Yes, you can have your own guestbook if you're a writer on this site! It's up to you to set it up and send me the information, but that doesn't take long. I've got a page of instructions you can check out to see how to do it.
What about rewrites?
I don't like rewrites for two reasons. As an archiver, I don't like them because they mean extra work for me. You've sent me your story, I've done the work I have to do on it, then suddenly I get this letter saying, "Tear it down and put this up instead." So, I have to redo the work and put it up again.
As a reader, I hate it even more. I consider what is on this site to be "published." I would really get annoyed if I were reading a book and suddenly I got a phonecall from the bookstore. "Hi, Darqstar, you bought that book yesterday? Well, the writer decided to change a few things so please come back and we'll give you another book!" I feel the same way with rewrites of fanfiction.
Double check your work before you send it. Make sure it's the way you want it to be. Think of this site as "Printed" and make sure your work is the best you can do with it before you send it off.
If I'm taking the story from Untold-L or ACFF and you want to take some extra time after putting it up on those to smooth and edit your work before having it "published" here let me know. I'll be happy to wait until you send it directly to me. I understand why writers would want to polish their work, but the polishing should be done before it goes up on this archive.
If you're really unhappy with something and want to rewrite it, I'll do my best to understand and do what you want. However, if you're going to do massive rewrites all the time, especially if it's an invitation story where I have to do all the HTML work, I'm not going to be happy. And I may very well decide it's not worth my time anymore. Doing it once is time consuming enough. Doing it twice is annoying. Doing it three times is intolerable. If you're willing to do all the HTML work, even the headers and the footers (with footer links) so all I have to do is upload the new version, I'm more likely to be willing.
I'm not trying to come down hard here, or be the bad guy, I'm just trying to explain how I feel and why it really isn't worth it for me to mess with rewrites. In the time I redo something, I could have gotten another story, a new one, or a new section to an ongoing one up.
Well, that's it for now. I may end up adding information to this area from time to time, so you might want to check this page every once in awhile.
Thanks for reading
Darqstar