It occurred to me that I might be able to help in my own little way. Please note the following URLs:

http://www.ponychan.net/chan/fic/

Or, if you are allergic to PonyChan:

http://mlpchan.net/fic/index.html

Either one of these fabulous institutions has, at its disposal, a Training Grounds queue where you can submit your work for further editorial assistance. You also might find a reviewer on-hand who is willing to give your story personal attention.

Treat these resources like the gems they are. These boards also host writing podcasts, contests, and even a place where you can present questions to the EQD Pre-Readers. We are happy to discuss, civilly, the content and tone of our reviews. Even those of us who sometimes lose our tempers.

>>298823298823

Hello! My name is Twilight Snarkle. Okay, it's not really, but that's the pen-name I utilize at this moment.

I noted your claim that pre-readers do not write stories. I would like to respectfully disagree. Please note the proof I provide below. Rest assured, these are only those pre-readers who were immediately available to reply. A great many more of our ilk have written similarly.

Love and kisses,

Snarkle

http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Noble%20Cause

http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Alexstrazsa

http://www.fimfiction.net/user/TwilightSnarkle

http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Ninestempest

http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&user=5123

http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&user=283

http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&user=1924

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/57744/happily-ever-after

I have submitted two stories. Both rejected because of grammar.

I have a third one that I am really proud off, but I'm afraid to send it.

I anyone is offering prereading it or beta-ing it, I would surely be grateful."

I only submitted as a joke.  My story was understandably rejected, but not for the reasons I thought it would be (continuity errors, pacing issues).

It was rejected because, the pre-reader said, there was nothing that could validly challenge the interdimensional immortal supergod protagonist meaningfully.  Because the prereader apparently only read less than half of chapter one; by the end of the chapter, the main character gets his ass handed to him by a normal unicorn, and a little later it becomes abundantly clear to him that something is amiss with his powers.  And the story is a character drama and what little powers the protagonist can summon usually cause more trouble than they ameliorate.  Spot on, EqD prereader.

Not sure I even wanna resubmit after the rambling, borderline incoherent response they sent me, to be honest.

My story got rejected because it 'touches on too much of questionable material not allowed under our content guidelines'. ^_^ I'm an EqD Reject.

Apparently mine was rejected before it even got to the pre-readers. The only reason I can think of is because I am Australian, and thus spell certain words differently.

I think that's just a little silly, and I don't have the time to go through 60k words just to correct every single 'honour/honor' and 'colour/color' for example.

Oh well, it did alright back here, so I can't complain too much.

I've been rejected twice without strikes for comma issues and repetitive sentence structure. I'm getting sick of EqD. I want to be featured on it.  But it feels like I'm being belittled every time you get rejected. My story has gotten over 8,000 views and 117 likes and 5 dislikes and 126 favorites (I did not feel like writing out the numbers). I've run them through multiple spell checks, grammar checks and so forth. I've even went through it myself looking for errors.The repetitive sentence thing is fairly easy to correct, but it would still require at least two straight days of edits to go through twenty chapters to find any repetitive sentences.

I've attempted... I think 6 times? I lose track.

I never try again. What they usually say is pretty valid... but it's not grammar that gets me. It's stuff that honestly changing would require completely changing the text of the story. Like, a complete rewrite.

But still, six times. The one that made it is subpar in a dozen  ways, and stories far more original don't make it? I don't know about that. I guess I got lucky.

Since this seems to be the place for sharing experiences, I guess i'll share my own.

I wrote my first fan fiction back in October (Samhainophobia). Feeling incredibly brave, I decided to submit it to Equestria daily. Got an e-mail two days later saying that it had too many grammar errors that needed to be fixed before it could be eligible for reviewing; luckily they didn't give me a strike. So I went back and fixed almost every mistake I could find, then submitted it again. Five days later, I finally got a response from a pre-reader. He/She said that the story itself was good, but it was rejected because of errors primarily with grammar. So back I went, fixed what they told me, and didn't resubmit.

Why, you ask? One, I was getting too busy to commit myself to multiple re-edits, and two, I just wasn't feeling confident enough to send it back. I spent three months of brainstorming, and one month of writing to create that story. But my decision to not send it in again still haunts me to this day. Though my story has received positive reviews, 17 favorites, more than 280 views, 11 likes and only one dislike; I still wonder what it would have been like if I took another risk. A part of me wants to give it one more round of editing and send it in, while another part wants me to just put it in the past. I guess the best thing for me to do is learn from the pre-reader's comments, write another story, send that in and hope.  

I tried my best to get there, but was rejected twice for both of my stories. Both were rejected for different reasons, and when I corrected what they told me to, they were rejected again. I guess they just dont like crossovers that much.

The problems with the pre-readers on EQD is multiform. One is that I have never actually seen them writing a fanfic. They have no idea how hard it is to write something people would want to read. For instance when I submitted my story Ghosts of Normanedy it was blocked for the fact they had to many war stories. I feel that it was the fact that that pre-reader didn't like the idea of a realistic WWII ponyfic, so he blocked it. But that was in March and I moved on and now I really don't care about it much any more. SO here is my solution to the pre-readers. Get writers to read the stories that get submitted, and one that wrote a fanfic with a similar premise, instead of these so-called experts.

Having read a few comments, I decided to share my own story.

My first experience when submitting to EDQ was positive, even though my story was rejected. (The story was, "To Fear the Sun.")  The pre-reader was kind, pointed out my mistakes, and gave me constructive criticism on the pacing of my story.  That pre-reader went by the name, Pre-reader lost in Middle Earth.

My second experience left a bad taste in my mouth.  (Story submitted, "Catharsis and Hash Browns for Breakfast.")  Here is a quote from the response to my submission: “I normally attempt to read the story at a more common 300 WPM rate and perhaps do it once or twice. In this case, I read at my normal reading rate of 650-700 WPM and do not turn back.”  Despite the superior tone that the pre-reader gave, his message was riddled with grammatical errors, tense conflicts, and pronoun usage problems.  The pre-reader did not mention any errors in my story, but stated that he was turning it down due to his preferences on story framing.

I have to agree with earlier comments; it is the luck of the draw as to the submission process.  If you get the right pre-reader, you’re golden.  If you get the wrong one, you’re screwed.

EqD is dying. I honestly don't see why you'd want to get on it. Whoopee, you get ten views and a watcher. How about you make yourself a name without it? The fandom has an AMAZING grapevine without EqD, so try stepping onto that thing instead of whining about your failures. I haven't been on EqD once*, but damnit, I write my hardest regardless. I've been rewarded by finding out I actually have an influential name here on FIMFic.  I didn't get there by complaining that I didn't get on a website.

Your writing is as good as you make it. It isn't good because you make it onto an incredibly biased popularity contest, it's good if you like it. Of course, there are limits to this, but the point remains clear.

*Except for music. Counting collaborations submitted by others, I've actually made it 5 or 6 times.

>>297859297859

Well, lol... its been six weeks since I posted that comment...

If you want to help point out the "errors" in it, by all means please do.

>>Secret_Shadows

I took a look at your story, and I think I understand what got it the pink-slip of rejection, and why it hinged on Grammar and Punctuation.

I honestly don't give a damn about EqD or the self-deluded so-called connoisseurs of fan fiction there, but if you want to have the actual facts, and not some fan-cited bull-shit, I'd be glad to point you in the right direction.

Just Message me.

I got rejected because of one stinkin' rule.

"No brony in Equestria stories, but human in Equestria stories are just fine."

What's up with that?

So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and just say what happened to me with EqD...

I tried to submit my story sisterly bonds, the grammar (According to several people) is fine...but it was denied anyway because of "Bad Grammar" and "Bad Punctuation"

I have had it looked at by several proofreaders, and they found some things, but they all said it was less than what a standard EqD featured story has....

I haven't resubmitted my story or even tried to do anything with EqD since......I see no use in submitting to them if they are going to overlook potentially good stories.

EQD tends to piss me off, I've submitted a few things and been rejected every time even after fixing my errors. Here's a little something for you guys to swallow by the way, Fallout: Equestria is racked with numerous errors in all three categories and then some. (Made up words, spelling, punctuation, grammatical flaws etc.) and yet it's the number one fic on EQD. So yeah.

I got rejected because of the grammar . It's a legit reason, but I feel that "countless grammar and punctuation errors" was a little rude  , but after seeing the reasons that other people has given, I think they went easy on me

I got rejected for using "..." and using a hyphen on a made-up word.

I'm not going to say I hate them for it, but I will say that they are a little strict.