100 stories written, 2 or 3 archived

i was in the official story index, and there are maybe 100 stories written every month, yet only 2 or 3 show up in the archives. does that mean that the reviewers are really strict about who they let archived, or does it mean that a lot of people work there butts off writing and never bother to archive thier work?

 

The archive and the forum aren't related.

The stories that are archived have been beta'd at least twice before submission, then are reviewed by two reviewers (three if they disagree) and then archived. Some have been forum stories, some have not. It's an entirely separate procedure.

 

yeah, but i always thought people come to the forums to try thier stories with an audience, and even if they never intended to archive thier stoies, they would when they were finished, because their stories are very good.
i guess i'm not making any sence here. i understand that some people might not want to archive thier story, but two or three out of one hundred is a bit much for me.

 

There's no connection whatsoever between the forums and the archive, except that several people are in common between them. Whether something has been on the forums or not has nothing at all to do with whether or not it gets submitted to the archive.

I don't have the exact statistics; I'd venture a guess we accept maybe one out of five or six that are submitted, higher percentage some updates, lower percentage others. Quite a high percentage for a juried archive, actually. Some people only like posting on the forum. Some things on the forum don't end up being finished. Some don't get accepted. But a lot aren't even submitted. I've personally done about twenty-odd stories on the forums, and I've only submitted four of them so far. (More in the wings for when I leave the staff.)

 

did the stories make it?

 

anyway, thanks for your help, jedigaladrial

 

Did mine make it in? Yes, but the one advantage to being on staff is that I know the guidelines well enough not to bother submitting things that won't get approved, so I don't.

 

the guidlines says that stories have to be completed, betaread, rated g, pg, or pg13, and set exclusivly in star wars universe. so does that mean that 4 out of 5 people don't follow the guidlins, or do the reviewers look for how good a story is, also?

 

Of course quality counts. That's the given. There are a surprising number of things submitted that don't meet the guidelines, but no, they don't account for all the rejections. I certainly know better than to submit anything that breaks the guidelines; I also know the general quality level we're looking for.

I'm really not sure what you're getting at here or what your issue is. The archive is not secretive about its practices and there is no great mystery about the processes. If something is a regularly occurring problem, someone on staff will usually write an article about it (pacing problems, Mary Sues, beta-reading, etc). We don't get 100 submissions a month, if that's what you're asking.

 

sorry, i don't mean to sound rude or anything. i thought that you would get a lot of submissions, like at least over fifty every month.

 

While on the subject, I submitted a story a few days ago and right before I checked over the guidelines once more. One thing that caught my eye is the story is sent to reviewers who enjoy reading those kinda of stories. Well, mine is a Jag vignette and while looking at the reviewers reading preferences I noticed that only one person had Jag picked. Does that mean that it won't get in because of that or will it have to wait for someone to finally review it after a month or so? Sorry kinda long.

 

No, that's not what it means. Someone who specifically marked Jag is a good thing for you... that person will probably grab your story. But as long as a person follows the EU and likes your kind of story (romance, adventure, whatever), that person could pick it up. Pretty much anyone who reads and likes EU in general would be able to review a story about an EU character. The preferences tend to work negatively more than positively--eg, as I don't read EU, I wouldn't be qualified to judge whether or not you've portrayed Jag well. Or, because I have an intense dislike for Obi-Wan/Amidala/Anakin triangle stories, I'm prohibited from picking those up. The way they'd work positively would be if I were going through the list and noticed that your story was unclaimed, I'd contact a reviewer who seemed like s/he might find it interesting, and urge him/her to pick it up.

 

Thanks!

 

I'm curious... how long does it normally take after submitting a story to find out if it is accepted? I know it has the "x number of reviewers are currently reviewing your story" box, but what happens when that says "2" but there has been no response? Is that a bad thing, a good thing, or nothing at all?

 

It doesn't necessarily mean anything. It could mean that there's a split decision and an editor is looking into it.

We aim for two weeks. Sometimes, if a story is picked up quickly and it is short (and the decision is clear and agreed upon by both reviewers), the decision will come sooner. If a story is really long, it may take longer to get through the process. Obviously, when the archive gets a lot of submissions at once, things will get a little backed up as well, which isn't anything the authors can really control.

 

CalaisKenobi, that means two reviewers are reading it, but doesn't mean that they've both finished yet (especially if its a long story). You are likely to get a reply soon if you already have two. The reviewers are regular people who are volunteering their spare time, so it can take one or two weeks (or longer if its a long story).

bobilll, the archive recieves an average of about 20 submissions per month and the rejections are most often due to spelling and grammar mistakes (which the author fixes and then usually re-submits the story). About half of the stories sent in are accepted.

 

Thank you JediGaladriel and Julie, not only for answering me, but also for volunteering your time. Thanks

CK