Sanity Check

Forty-four days ago, I submitted Spell Check to Equestria Daily. As of today, it was rejected for the second time. I have received feedback both times, and while some of it was good, the rest has me questioning my sanity. Hence this blog post. What follows is the entirety of both submissions, such that I might observe others' reactions and see if I'm actually the one who's lost it.

Copy/Paste from email, so not much in the way of formatting. The first submission:

Fic Submission <[e-mail]>
11/13/16

to fanfiction
This is an automated message sent to [Me]@gmail.com. Please do not respond to it.

Hi, SirNotAppearingInThisFic! Thanks for submitting to Equestria Daily. The pre-readers have just received the following story from you:

[Comedy]

Author: SirNotAppearingInThisFic

Description: Everypony makes mistakes, so why not make a spell to correct them before they even happen? Starlight Glimmer had her Magnum Opus. All it had to do was survive testing.

Spell Check

Additional Tags: Morally Questionable Magical Science
Story image
Main characters: Starlight Glimmer, Sweetie Belle, Dinky, Snips & Snails
Have you submitted this story before? No - This story has never been submitted before.
How many strikes does it have? 0
Is this story complete? Complete
Incomplete story synopsis:

Additional comments:
We encourage you to peruse our Editor's Omnibus if you want first-line writing help. Feel free to direct all other comments, questions, and concerns to [e-mail], and we'll do what we can to answer you.

Pre-readers: if you are the first to respond to this thread, please be sure you're replying explicitly to the pre-reader mailing list.

Fanfic Box <[e-mail]>
11/14/16

to me
Thank you for submitting your story to Equestria Daily! There's a lot to like in this story, so I gave it some extended feedback.

While pre-reader feedback cannot be assumed to include any detail, I occasionally prefer to provide feedback to stories of sufficient quality and do so outside of Equestria Daily. Your review is posted here and deals with the more abstract issues in depth:

https://www.ponychan.net/fan/res/23.html#2620

Your story has not been identified by title or author there, and the site doesn't get much traffic, though it certainly wouldn't be hard to Google a few phrases and locate your story, if someone cared to; if you wish, you can ask that I remove your review. You may also ask questions there. This is not a strike.

Sincerely,
Pre-reader 63.546

Aptly Named <[Me]@gmail.com>
11/21/16

to Fanfic
My apologies for a less-than-timely response. There have been multiple factors beyond my control limiting my ability to even draft an email.

Before I start addressing the story, the response I received is a little ambiguous in its verdict. While it does imply that the story was not accepted, there isn’t actually any definite statement of it. This isn’t much of an issue, but I figured that you may or may not be aware of how it comes across to someone else.

I will be referring to content in the ponychan post, in case anyone aside from Pre-reader 63.546 is reading this.

Firstly, I am pleasantly surprised that you have bothered to provide this much feedback for my submission. Anything that I do or do not agree with is in good spirits, of course.

The list of technical errors is admittedly something that I could have largely avoided with a more careful proofreading, and I have the means and knowledge to comb out those types of errors. I have already fixed and/or addressed in a manner that I am satisfied with everything that you have listed and more. In same cases…

>protégé//
She's female, so protégée.

...all I can say is, “The more you know.”

As for the cover art, I first want to remark that I actually chuckled when I read about your troubles with it (which is a rare occurance for me). In retrospect, I can see some confusion coming from a picture of that size and nature, but I would hope that the context (I specifically provided it in the box asking for a link to the cover art) would help to keep everything straight. Producing a larger-yet-still-crisp cover of the same nature in MS paint would likely manage to be overcomplicated for what it is, but, methods aside, the cover did end up with many more pixels. I do note that I chose that as my cover specifically; if it were to be deemed “too boring”, I would be displeased if the story were posted under a different cover without my approval.

Most of the rest of the feedback is of what would make the story more humorous. While it isn’t wrong, it is beside the point, or at least the point I’m going for. This story is what I wanted it to be, and several of your remarks actually confirm that. This wasn’t supposed to be a story that made everybody who read it fall out of their seats laughing, even though it does appear that you were expecting something to that extent. I actually suspect this is more to do with tagging and preconceptions than the story itself.

“Comedy” is not defined to be “Slapstick”. I know I submitted it with only the comedy tag, which probably suggests to most people that it has one purpose, which is to be outright funny. This probably isn’t even the right mindset to reach upon seeing the “Comedy” tag, but if it is the most common purpose to see it used for, it certainly isn’t an unreasonable one.

Spell Check’s humor value comes from a darker place, based more on its premise than any specific actions that happens within. Real-life parallels (which is what the cover art is for) and Starlight’s questionable methods and assumptions are more of the point, and I fully admit that some of this is quite subtle, as it was supposed to be. (Nonetheless, I did make a few small tweaks to help make sure that it can be picked up by potential readers.) I might consider adding another tag or two to help offset misplaced expectations in the future, though pretty much all of the rest of them seem to be partially applicable at best, and I’m sure that [Dark] would run into similar problems on the opposite end of the spectrum. It’s just not as lighthearted as your average comedy piece. [Slice of Life] may be the best option, especially given that, as you’ve noted, nopony is overly worried or surprised about many of the events that take place.

For what it’s worth, the cover art had no significant problems in attracting (or at least not diverting) attention during the story’s debut on Fimfiction: the response in general on that site has been very positive. Several readers did comment on Dinky’s line at the end, and it would appear that they definitely liked it.

Thank you for the time and consideration.
–SirNotAppearingInThisFic

Go ahead and read the ponychan link if you haven't already.

After revising the story a bit, I submitted it again. A lot of time passed, so I had a lovely conversation with Ferret through Fimfiction PM:

5w, 1d ago
SirNotAppearingInThisFic said:
Ohai, it's me again. I submitted my story (again) after re-evaluating it and taking into account Pre-reader 63.546's feedback. It has now been 8 days since the automated confirmation of submission, and I haven't even been told 'no'. Kwakerjak suggested "Have you tried seeing if Ferret can grease the wheels?", so here I am. I'd be okay with something along the lines of 'we're just really busy at the moment', though. (Truth be told, I hear you like the light and fluffy end of things, so you might even enjoy it yourself. I also don't blindly trust the objectivity of Pre-reader 63.546 after some contradictory feedback I have received since the first submission of this story. This would be kinda awkward if that were you. )
Cheers,
SirNAITF.

5w, 4h ago
Themaskedferret said:
Ohaidere,
We try and be quick but sometimes it can take up to a month for the PRs to reply >,< Lotsa fics + not a lotta staff = means slow turnover sadly.
And if you got contradictory feedback, say something. The prs are only human after all and may not have realized. Or it might be a misunderstanding.
and I'm not, don't worry. I sign with my real handle. n_n
- Ferret

4w, 5d ago
SirNotAppearingInThisFic said:
Ironically, of the EqD pre-readers, you seem to be regarded as the most 'human' (whatever that means for a ferret ). I did send a reply to the email from the first submission, so I think that should still be attached to the second submission to at least some degree. Not being a pre-reader myself, I can't say how willing people are to respond in a manner that isn't akin to "My story is good, you're just wrong.", but from what I have seen, people do seem to expect the EqD pre-readers to be unreasonably strict, which may prompt thoughts like "Why should I give in if they won't?".
I don't know if any of you are already aware, but there's a thread that occurred recently – here – that while is admittedly somewhat anecdotal and limited to what I think is slightly less than 50 different perspectives (provided I counted right), suggests that the reputation of EqD among both readers and writers (who use Fimfiction, notably) has dropped over time, probably because many of them aren't getting a "The prs are only human after all and may not have realized." vibe. Though, arguably, Fimfiction being such a large base of writers, alienating them probably wouldn't bode well for the long-term success of EqD's fanfiction department. People are already tired of seeing already-numerously-featured authors getting another story featured (See: Pascoite. I've seen him get flak specifically), because they don't think that they have a chance.
I've had conversations with people whose names I can and cannot remember that support this, so I promise it's not just "I saw one thing, therefore X is true." I still caution against considering any of this to be worthy of the title "fact".
There's my tangent, which I only provide for you to consider if it indeed proves relevant. It might actually overlap some with that low-staff = minimal turnover problem, though. Regardless, I await my own submission response with scrunchy-faced anticipation.
– SirNAITF

4w, 3d ago
Themaskedferret said:
No problem, and yes, EQD is far less relevant than it used to be, but honestly, we're okay with that. EQD is a general news site, it was never meant to be a site like fimfic.
There are some folks who have sour grapes, but sadly there's often not much you can do about it. Oftentimes they had one bad experience and refuse to imagine there was more to it.
It's a pity, but it happens and most folks like us alright. n_n
Nice to know I'm more human though.
- Ferret

A lot of time passed anyway, which I chalked up to holidays and all. I finally got a response to the second submission:

Fic Submission <[e-mail]>
11/29/16

to fanfiction
This is an automated message sent to [Me]@gmail.com. Please do not respond to it.

Hi, SirNotAppearingInThisFic! Thanks for submitting to Equestria Daily. The pre-readers have just received the following story from you:

[Comedy][Slice of Life]

Author: SirNotAppearingInThisFic

Description: Everypony makes mistakes, so why not make a spell to correct them before they even happen? Starlight Glimmer had her Magnum Opus. All it had to do was survive testing.

Spell Check

Additional Tags: Morally Questionable Magical Science
Story image
Main characters: Starlight Glimmer, Sweetie Belle, Dinky, Snips & Snails
Have you submitted this story before? Yes - This story has been submitted before.
How many strikes does it have? 0
Is this story complete? Complete
Incomplete story synopsis:

Additional comments: I've addressed many of the comments made by Pre-reader 63.546 after the fist submission (and responded to the message via email, if any of that is relevant). The only thing that I didn't change directly, per se, has still been addressed. Conversations I've had with people before and after revisions suggest that pure slapstick should now be less expected.
We encourage you to peruse our Editor's Omnibus if you want first-line writing help. Feel free to direct all other comments, questions, and concerns to [e-mail], and we'll do what we can to answer you.

Pre-readers: if you are the first to respond to this thread, please be sure you're replying explicitly to the pre-reader mailing list.

Fanfic Box
7:07 AM (9 hours ago)

to me, equestria-dail.
SirNotAppearingInThisFic:

Thank you for submitting "Spell Check" to Equestria Daily, but I'm afraid I'm sending it back to you again. I've read the story three times now and read your blog post about the story, and I still can't understand how Starlight's Spell Check spell is supposed to work. I mean, why does the "spell library" even include a blasting spell powerful enough to destroy the Apple family barn? And why does Dinky's water boiling spell cause the glass to shatter? I just couldn't get a handle on what was supposed to be going on with it.

Pre-reader AugieDog

On Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 11:20 PM, Augie Dog <[Augie Dog's email]> wrote:
===DON'T SEND===

OK, then:

Let's send it to the moon again.

Augs

===SEND===

SirNotAppearingInThisFic:

Thank you for submitting "Spell Check" to Equestria Daily, but I'm afraid I'm sending it back to you again. I've read the story three times now and read your blog post about the story, and I still can't understand how Starlight's Spell Check spell is supposed to work. I mean, why does the "spell library" even include a blasting spell powerful enough to destroy the Apple family barn? And why does Dinky's water boiling spell cause the glass to shatter? I just couldn't get a handle on what was supposed to be going on with it.

Pre-reader AugieDog

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 1:32 PM, Pascoite <[Pascoite's email]> wrote:
It's been a while since I read it but I think it played Starlight as someone who didn't have the social awareness to know what spells were inappropriate, so the library it checks against is basically anything she knows to exist.

I took a look at that mess of an email, and its contents, and just about faceplanted onto the nearest horizontal surface. What do you all think?

Comments

[Bugsydor]

So what the second rejection amounted to was "I didn't get the joke," despite Pascoite explaining it?

Man, that place has gone downhill.

[Test4Echo]

Yeah, I've lost a lot of faith in the pre-readers at EQD over the years. I've submitted a few pieces of my work, all universally acclaimed, almost all edited by an outside source. Still no dice.

Eh, to be fair, I never really pursue it much after a fic gets rejected (partly because there's no feedback aside "Nope. Lol. No feature for you."), so I could be better at being persistent and taking any feedback into account, but I'm too lazy.

Rush and Pony on!
T4E

[Themaskedferret]

darn I missed the change to be an optimist in amongst the cynicism. Oh well n_n

[FanOfMostEverything]

Honestly, I just stopped bothering with them after a few submissions. The payoff doesn't feel worth the hassle. Also, I'm really lazy when it comes to self-promotion.

[Wellwater]

Count me as an interested bystander that's gotten steadily more cynical about EQD over the years, but, on the other hand, Augie is generally pretty sane and I like his work here. I don't know exactly what happened with the last email bit, but it may be some internal chatter that got misdirected.

[Admiral Biscuit]

Yeah, I’ve had my share of QC issues with them, as well, from being incorrect about word choices to simply forgetting a story that I submitted. It does give a boost to views, though, so it might be doing.

[SirNotAppearingInThisFic]

4906567
I presume you mean "worth doing". There are other ways to get a boost to viewership, though, such as writing things that FoME will plug in his own blog posts, which I've managed twice now.

Fixing up a story that they have anything more than one or two minor issues with seems unlikely to be worth the effort of rewriting, though. At best (at this point), I'd keep their advice (that which checks out) in mind while writing in the future.