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PoisonousTiger — How to Submit Literature on DA--Updated 08/2021
#da #tutorialsliterature #editing #pdf #tutorial #tutorials #tutorialhow
Published: 2013-05-30 06:07:56 +0000 UTC; Views: 67528; Favourites: 303; Downloads: 0
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If you want to submit literature on DeviantArt, you have two choices:

(1) Submitting it directly on the dA website as text
(2) Submitting as a .pdf (I tried submitting with a Word doc and it didn't work like it should).

After these two tutorials, I've also created a tutorial how to use Sta.sh Storage feature to edit a work. You can find the link for it in the description (or just go to the next tutorial)

*Side Note for any deviant who's been here for years: DA's latest update prevents veteran deviants (long-time usesrs) from submitting text like we used to a few years ago; however, you can edit older deviations' text the old way by clicking on the pencil icon and then clicking on the pencil icon in the new window and then selecting "edit text" and edit in the text box like you're used to (with all the html code at the bottom to guide you through formatting).

Once you finish, click "Preview" to see if the code worked, or "OK" to submit it, then click the "Update" button at the bottom and you're done.

Okay, side-note over--back to the tutorial:

If you choose to submit it directly onto dA, it’s pretty straight-forward and simple.(I know this looks like a lot of steps, but I had to break them down this way to make them easier to read and understand):

  • Hover over the "Submit" link at the top right of your DeviantArt page. This will give you the options of "Deviation", "Status Update," "Journal," "Literature," "Commission," "Poll," or "DAMuro". Select "Literature".
  • This will give you a Drafting Screen. You can now type a title in the space requested and then click where has a + symbol and “ Start by typing your main text here or begin by adding an image or video.”
    • Type your text directly into this box, or you can type up the chapters on Word or some other word processor (like WordPad, Pages, LibreOffice) and copy-and-pasted the text;
      • Note: While it's nice to be able to type right into this text box, I don't recommend it unless you're writing something quick and short.

        I can't tell you how many times either my internet connection failed me or         DeviantArt was unable to save everything I had typed before I could click on Submit...and I'm not alone. I've had several friends complain about what they wrote getting lost before they clicked Submit and got the message that the website failed to submit their deviations . . . after hours of typing T_T.

        So I strongly recommend typing it up somewhere else and copy-and-pasting.

        Fortunately, DeviantArt heard all of us veteran Deviants regarding this issue and programmed in a fail-safe of sorts: If you're worried about your internet connection, you can click the "Submit" button and then go back and edit later. DA will also warn you if you accidentally click away from your deviation before clicking on that "Submit" button (think if it as the "save" button for DeviantArt's draft window).

        If this happens (accidentally clicking away before saving/hitting submit), you have to intentionally hit the "Discard" button to lose your work. Otherwise, you can hit "Cancel" and go back to drafting on DeviantArt. It's a feature that was a long time coming and will save you hours of working online. (thank you, dA!)
  • After you finish typing it up or copy-and-pasting, click on the bright green "Submit" button in the upper-right corner.
  • This will take you to a “waiting room” of sorts, to add the final touches and make sure everything looks right. Note: You cannot edit your text at this point. You must submit first and then click on the Pencil icon to edit it later (irritating I know, but DA has very good reasons for keeping us from editing at this point).
  • There are now 3 things you absolutely must do to submit the literature:
    • (1) Indicate whether the submission "Contains Mature Content". This you'll find directly below a thumbnail of the text you just entered;
    • (2) Click on and read the Submission Policy link and then click on and read the Terms of Service, Premium Content Terms of Service, and Print Submissions Agreement links. Note: you only have to do this once unless dA updates these terms.
    • (3) Then check the two boxes at the bottom that read, “I have read and agree to the Submission Policy and/or contest rules if applicable” and “I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and to the Premium Content Terms of Service, and to the Print Submissions Agreement, if applicable.”
  • You have the option of adding a description, tags, indicate what inspired the deviation, give a location, and a preview pic. You aren't required to enter any of these, but I recommend them all if you want more views, and consequently, more readers. But if you don’t want to do any of that, skip ahead to step 12. Otherwise, keep reading for how to do each of the previous options.
  • You’ll see a thumbnail that shows a preview of your text. Just below this is the space for your title and description. A description will give your readers an idea of what they're about to read and/or gives you the option of adding comments or hyperlinks. I like to do a little summary of the story or a "hook" listing what the fic is about, and if it's a fanfic, what characters are involved (and any pairings).
    • You have the option of tweaking your title here. Just click in the box and change it.
    • To add a description, click where DA has written "Introduce your deviation. Tell the backstory, add some intriguing accompanying text, or simply give deviants extra information you'd like them to know." DA’s text will disappear and your text will start.
  • Tags are used by dA to recommend your fic to readers when they search on dA, so the more specific and plentiful, the better.
  • A preview pic will intrigue your readers to click on your work, but keep a few things in mind;
    • (1) If you use someone else's art, do your utmost to contact that person and get permission...sometimes this isn't always possible if you just grab art from Google Images or similar, but still do your best to get permission! No one likes their art being used without permission. It's the same as art theft to them (it feels the same as art theft even if you post a link back to their art; just get permission. It'll build a great relationship with that artist and all of that artist's friends).
    • (2) Use your own art/photos if you can or commission someone else to do it for you. You'll have more pride in the work and you'll also not have to go through the hassle of getting permission.
    • (3) Pick artwork that has some connection or association with the content of your writing. Nothing is more irritating or confusing to click on an image of a character and have that character never mentioned once, or for example, to click on a rose and the poem is about slugs. Remember, preview pics are like visual descriptions, so mismatched picture will function the same as if you put gibberish in the description space.
    • (4) Finally, I've found that literature that has full-color, well-drawn preview pics seem to get more clicks than poorly drawn/black & white pics or no preview pic at all.
  • To add the preview pic, click on the pencil icon to the right of your literature image and select "Change preview image". Browse your computer for the image and open it up. You will see a green progress bar to let you know how much time you have to wait.
  • If you’re planning on submitting a lot of the same type of literature submission and you don’t want to have to fill out the optional section over and over, click on the box “Remember these settings”
  • Regardless of whether or not you add a description, tags, and a preview pic, you submit your writing by clicking on the lime-green "Submit Now" button at the top right of the screen or at the bottom of the screen.
    • If you want to “Schedule” your submission time, you’ll need to be come a CORE member to do so, which requires a fee…unless you’re going to be on DA a lot or you plan on using it for commissions or your career, it's probably not something you want to do
    • You also have the option of saving your work and going back to edit later, but only select this option if you're not ready to submit the piece yet. You take this option by clicking any of the links at the top or starting another submission. dA will automatically save your work and put it in Sta.sh.
      Note: saving to Sta.sh will only work if you've hit the first "Submit" in Step #3. Otherwise, dA will ask you if you're sure you want to discard your work, and trust me, you don't want to do that. Once your deviation is automatically saved in Sta.sh (think of it as dA's cloud), you can only retrieve and/or edit, and submit your saved work through Sta.sh Storage.
    • That's it. You're done!

    Submitting a .pdf is similar. I chose this one specifically b/c it keeps all my original formatting whereas copy-and-pasting does not (interesting fact: copy-and-pasting some basic formatting like hard returns/enter spaces but keeps fancy formatting like bold, underling and italics; weird, I know but there it is).

    The main downside to selecting this option is that some mobile devices will not be able to view your work (you'll have to provide them with a hyperlink to FFN or a duplicate that was submitted via the "Literature" option), or they’ll have to click on another screen to preview the file or you’ll have to tell them to go a desktop/laptop to read it, and with the number of mobile phone users out there, you may want to consider the first option over this one:

  • After you finish typing up your document in your word processor, save/export it as a .pdf file; most word processors will allow you to do this (Word does this when you save it; LibreOffice has a pdf button).
  • Hover over the "Submit" link at the top right of your DeviantArt page to get that options of "Deviation", "Status Update," "Journal," "Literature," "Commission," "Poll," or "DAMuro". Select " Deviation ".
  • This will pull up a completely different screen than before. It’ll give you the option to drag and drop the pdf onto the screen where it says "drag and drop your art here” or “Choose a File to Upload” or “Select File from St.ash”; unless you’ve already uploaded a file to St.ash (see below how to do that), you can’t use that final option.
    • In order to drag and drop, you’ll need to “restore down” or tile your windows (it looks like two windows next to each other in a stack) and then drag the icon for your pdf over to the space indicated. Once you drop it, you’ll see a green progress bar start; wait for it to finish before you do anything else. Because restoring down your windows can be a hassle, I prefer to select the Choose a File to Upload” option
    • If you select “Choose a File to Upload”, it will access your computer files, find your file, and open it. When you upload the pdf, a green progress bar will appear; wait for it to finish before you do anything else.
  • Once it’s finished saving, it’ll turn into an “image” that says “PDF No Preview”
  • You’ll then see red text that says “Preview required,” this appears because regardless of whether you chose to "drag and drop your art here” or “Choose a File to Upload,” you're required to have a preview pic (it's not optional), and that pic is only displayed before your readers click on the deviation (after that, it disappears and leaves the reader to look at the pdf). For some, along with the inaccessibility/difficulty for mobile phone readers, this quirk may be a major downside to the pdf method
  • To add the preview pic, click on the pencil icon to the right of your PDF thumbnail and select "Change preview image". Browse your computer for the image and open it up. You will see a green progress bar to let you know how much time you have to wait. Then it will show your preview image in place of the PDF thumbnail
  • After that follow steps steps 6-8 and 12 above in the "Literature" instructions, and you're done.


    • Are you using a mobile browser (phone) or DeviantArt's phone app? Well, this tutorial cannot help you. Go to the description for the link to both of my phone submission tutorials--on the DA app and on your phone's browser (I'm not adding it here; this tutorial is already too long as it is).

    Also, please note: I've been able to include html or hyperlinks in my test literature but doing so sometimes causes issues, like not saving the literature or dA's bot converting it to a Journal instead of a Literature deviation. Your most effective and easiest way to include links for your readers to click on is to put them in the description of the work.

    This tutorial should make it easy to submit literature if you follow it precisely. You shouldn't have issues or end up having your work go to Sta.sh Storage. The only way for that to happen is if you didn't click on the "Submit Now" button at the end of the process (the second submit request). If that happens, dA automatically (and thankfully) saves your deviation to Sta.sh Storage, just in case you didn't mean to leave before clicking Submit Now.

    Again, if you unintentionally exited before finishing the submission but after clicking Submit (the first submit request), and you want to retrieve and/or edit, and submit your saved work, you must now use the Sta.sh Storage. You find this by hovering over your profile icon and clicking on Sta.sh Storage.

    Below in the description is a link to a tutorial on how to use Sta.sh and how to submit via your mobile phone (I used an Android phone--Samsung Note 9--but I assume it will work similarly with an iPhone or other mobile device).

    Hope this helps ^_^

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    Comments: 439

    PoisonousTiger In reply to ??? [2018-06-27 04:58:05 +0000 UTC]

    Hope it cleared things up

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    SylvyMilky In reply to PoisonousTiger [2018-06-27 20:13:37 +0000 UTC]

    Yeah it did

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    Cyberlisk In reply to ??? [2018-06-05 18:48:15 +0000 UTC]

    Uhm...I submitted a prologue to a story I'm writing but it doesn't seem to show up in any searches anywhere and still has zero views and other stories that released after mine in the same genre already have some views. Did I submit my story wrong? I don't understand ;;

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to Cyberlisk [2018-06-26 19:29:00 +0000 UTC]

    Two questions:


    1) Did you give it a "searchable" unique name? If you just typed "Prologue" as the title, there are too many hits that would happen with that search item.

    2) Have you submitted it to any fan-page or deviant group galleries? (this will give your prologue some hits)


    If you submitted it wrong, you can always check on that by checking to see if it's in your gallery or still stuck in Sta.sh. Resubmit it if you made an error. Also, if you can't see it, try clearing your cookies (sometimes the cookies keep you from seeing changes)

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    saicrit In reply to ??? [2018-05-18 21:26:38 +0000 UTC]

    Edit: scratch everthing I said; I made a dumb mistake, my fault, my fault.
    What I will still say is THANK YOU for creating this tutorial!

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to saicrit [2018-06-26 19:50:41 +0000 UTC]

     oookaayy, due to my inactivity, I didn't see what was here before, so I'll just say no prob

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    KingShovelton In reply to ??? [2018-04-25 01:15:45 +0000 UTC]

    When I copy and paste something from my Google Drive, does the quality of the text change, or is it the same as if I wrote it here?

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to KingShovelton [2018-06-26 19:33:12 +0000 UTC]

    Quality of your text shouldn't change unless your monitor's imaging suddenly decreases in quality. LOL jk However, your font most likely will change unless you submit it as a pdf. dA has a default font and it takes a lot of playing around with their font html codes to get the font to change in size and appearance (there are plenty of tutorials on font html codes for dA; just search for them).

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    KingShovelton In reply to PoisonousTiger [2018-06-27 05:47:15 +0000 UTC]

    Thanks for responding. Can you please tell me how to upload a story as a pdf file? I might try that out.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to KingShovelton [2018-06-27 06:04:42 +0000 UTC]

    It's method #2 above, but I'll try to simplify/shorten it.


    First, write up your story in the word processing program of your choice. Most of them have a feature where you can save the document as a pdf, but if not, you can use cutepdf writer as a "printer" to create the pdf.


    Then you'll follow the same directions as you did above for "Submit Art", so follow steps 1-2 except you'll need to click on the button "Choose a file to upload" or you'll need to drag and drop the pdf onto the screen where it says "drag and drop your art here."


    When you upload the pdf, a green progress bar will appear.


    To proceed after submitting the .pdf file, you must submit a preview pic. To add the preview pic, click on the pencil icon to the right of your literature thumbnail and select "Change preview image". Browse your computer for the image and open it up. You will see a green progress bar to let you know how much time you have to wait.


    After that follow steps 7-10, & 13 above in the "Submit Art" instructions, and you're done.


    You can see the Sta.sh way of uploading a pdf above in the tutorial.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    KingShovelton In reply to PoisonousTiger [2018-06-27 06:39:35 +0000 UTC]

    Oh, right. It's been so long since I checked this out. I suppose I could have looked it over again.

    Still, this is very helpful! Thank you for explaining this.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to KingShovelton [2018-06-27 06:41:49 +0000 UTC]

    No problem. I hope my reiterating it didn't make you feel foolish. That wasn't my intention.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    KingShovelton In reply to PoisonousTiger [2018-06-27 07:02:07 +0000 UTC]

    Not at all. It helped. ^^

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    Olyimpus In reply to ??? [2018-03-15 06:32:13 +0000 UTC]

    how do you add multiple parts to a series that are seperate? it would be so helpful to know Thanks!

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to Olyimpus [2018-06-26 19:57:44 +0000 UTC]

    If I understand your question correctly:


    Create each part as its own submission, then put hyperlinks to these parts in the other submissions' description see my fanfics for examples.


    dA actually has a FAQ created to help learn how to do this. You'll want to read the section called "Text Linking". BUT tldr is to just put the hyperlink directly in the description, like this www.deviantartsupport.com/en/a… but if you'd rather have it look nice (like mine do), then you'll want to you'll want to give your link a name like the "Text Linking" tells/shows you in the FAQ (so go read it! LOL). It's easy to do once you get the hang of it.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    Olyimpus In reply to PoisonousTiger [2018-06-30 08:03:12 +0000 UTC]

    Thank you so much, I will do! Will also check out your fanfics

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to Olyimpus [2018-07-03 07:10:41 +0000 UTC]

    You're welcome (and while I wasn't trying to promote my fanfic for reading--I merely wanted to show how the text linking worked-- I hope that it's an enjoyable read for you ^_^ It's about the anime, Axis Powers Hetalia, so if you're not familiar with the canon/world or a fan of that anime, you might not understand what's going on...but you might still enjoy the read...)

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    20thcgamer In reply to ??? [2018-03-01 05:10:39 +0000 UTC]

    Ugh! I wish the website made typing stories more easier basic and simple like Word docx instead of coding it. But again thank for the tips

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to 20thcgamer [2018-06-26 20:00:03 +0000 UTC]

    I get it. BUT This is how it's been done for years (I posted this tutorial 2+ years ago), and dA improves all the time (you should have seen it when I joined back in the day). If you want your stories to have special formatting or fonts, follow the pdf portion of the tutorial after creating a pdf in word of your story. But you're welcome ^_^

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    ThatAbsurdGuy In reply to ??? [2018-01-30 22:15:40 +0000 UTC]

    This was very helpful

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to ThatAbsurdGuy [2018-06-26 20:00:13 +0000 UTC]

    Glad it helped

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    xxxYuenxxx In reply to ??? [2018-01-08 07:37:27 +0000 UTC]

    Thank you very much!<3

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to xxxYuenxxx [2018-06-26 20:01:19 +0000 UTC]

     

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    Hana-chan02 In reply to ??? [2017-12-20 17:52:58 +0000 UTC]

    OH MY GAWD YOU ARE AN ANGEL FOR WRITING THIS TUTORIAL <3 <3

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to Hana-chan02 [2018-06-26 20:02:38 +0000 UTC]

    Aww shucks. 

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    BlueAngelStudios In reply to ??? [2017-12-01 17:04:35 +0000 UTC]

    I'm glad I read this as it helped me so much.  

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to BlueAngelStudios [2018-06-26 20:02:59 +0000 UTC]

    I'm glad too

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    illusoryOne In reply to ??? [2017-11-17 04:09:34 +0000 UTC]

    This was helpful, and that's coming from someone who has been posting lit on da for years (I stopped using my lit acct. last year, and have mainly focused on photography lately.). I am a very lazy person, so I normally use the copy paste route. It is very challenging to format on dA, or I just need to learn more about it. Writing a book series, posting a preview here on dA, and need to learn a lot more, so potential readers aren't intimidated by a plain wall of text.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to illusoryOne [2018-06-26 20:04:31 +0000 UTC]

    I hear you there, but in dA's defense, they've come a long way since they first started when it comes to formatting (for example, ctlr/cmmd B bolds the font Ctrl U underlines and ctrl I italicizes just like in a Word document. Before you had to use the <> html code things.)


    Perhaps the pdf portion of the tutorial would be the best route for your preview? That way you can control the formatting and font appearance? In addition, it has a clean white background instead of the light grey/default text of dA

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    GirlFlash13 In reply to ??? [2017-10-05 07:05:14 +0000 UTC]

    How do people that write Lit. have that preview that has a snippet of the story that moves down and allows you to read it when you hover your cursor over it? I'm a new deviant and I'm not so sure about this stuff.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to GirlFlash13 [2017-11-05 06:55:35 +0000 UTC]

    That is something already programmed into the code here at dA. You don't have to do anything but submit your work. Once someone puts it in a collection or a gallery, the code in dA's website automatically starts that scrolling function. If you want to test it out, put your work into your gallery and then hover over it. Keep in mind: it won't show the entire work; it will only show a "preview".

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    GirlFlash13 In reply to PoisonousTiger [2017-11-05 10:07:05 +0000 UTC]

    Thanks!

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    AU-Writer In reply to ??? [2017-09-23 02:11:35 +0000 UTC]

    I think this has cleared up a lot of questions for me. I'm glad you made this!   

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to AU-Writer [2017-09-28 02:02:23 +0000 UTC]

    I'm glad it helped ^_^ I had a previous deviant say it didn't make sense and I was worried I needed to rewrite it.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    AU-Writer In reply to PoisonousTiger [2017-09-28 02:33:38 +0000 UTC]

    I think you did great on it!
    I knew one girl who had a King James Version Bible and everyone in her class had some newer version of the Bible. They kept telling her to get a new Bible because they couldn't understand a word she was reading. One day when she was reading a verse for the class, she chose to replace all "thou"s and "ye"s and what not. Everyone thought she got a new Bible. She told them no, just that she "dumbed it down" for them.
    Maybe you should do the same with this? Maybe make a shorter, condensed version? I don't know. I'm just throwing out suggestions! XD

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to AU-Writer [2018-06-27 05:09:27 +0000 UTC]

    Oooh. Kind of like a TLDR? (too long didn't read). I'll consider that. I'm not sure how to make it more simple...maybe make it like a powerpoint pdf? then they can visually see each step? That will take a long time to do. I'll need to wait for summer break for that (which doesn't start until the end of July...stupid school with its three semesters a year...)

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    spike1970 In reply to ??? [2017-09-02 21:45:31 +0000 UTC]

    I don't like sta.sh. It's file size requirements are too tiny (no bigger than 64kb of info? really?). Therefore it's obsolete to my needs. Give me fanfiction.net anyday.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to spike1970 [2017-09-13 08:43:34 +0000 UTC]

    I also write/publish on fanfiction.net, but I wanted to reach a larger audience so I decided to publish on both sites.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    Lilbob2000 In reply to ??? [2017-07-15 16:13:31 +0000 UTC]

    I can't read and/or understand any of this.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to Lilbob2000 [2017-09-13 08:42:32 +0000 UTC]

    Technology issue? or just TLDR? If it's the later, I'm sorry but I think that instructions should be thorough and many have agreed with me on that. So if you're unwilling to read it, you can experiment on your own (like I did) to figure out how to (1) submit it directly through dA through "submit art", (2) submit with a .pdf, or (3) submit it through Sta.shWriter. Good luck with that.

    If it's a tech issue, I wish I could help you but I don't know how to make it more mobile friendly.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    Lilbob2000 In reply to PoisonousTiger [2017-09-13 19:55:52 +0000 UTC]

    Will it work with Word 2013?

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to Lilbob2000 [2017-09-28 02:08:01 +0000 UTC]

    You can't directly upload it in a Word document, *but* if you save the Word doc as a pdf you can submit it using method #2

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    Leydanwolves In reply to ??? [2017-06-06 18:05:34 +0000 UTC]

    Thanks a lot for the help you provided. I am new at DeviantArt so I had no idea how to post a fanfiction. But thanks to you not only I can post a fanfiction but also I come to know that I have to convert my document into pdf file. I have no knowledge of that. Now I think I can post a fanfiction.
    And once again, thanks a lot for providing help😁

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to Leydanwolves [2017-06-16 17:30:38 +0000 UTC]

    ^_^ glad to help. I know how confusing it was for me when I started posting at dA

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    xXShowtime99Xx In reply to ??? [2017-05-21 22:00:50 +0000 UTC]

    Hi! I'm new to DeviantArt and I recently started working on my first piece of Literature on a Word document. As you can see, I've already taken the necessary precautions! The way I see it, I could simply use any of the three presented methods to submit my work, but I would gladly hear out your personal preferences regarding this issue. Since I'm writing a Fan Fiction divided in chapters, my first question would be: can I upload each chapter separately, or should I upload the entire work once it's done? I've seen others doing the former, but I'd like to hear from another person with experience with such things. Second, I'd like to know if the preview pics should be drawn, or if I could just simply take screenshots from the game on which story I'm working on and then edit (photoshop) them well. And one more thing: what's this Literature Author Tag in the Public -> Identity -> Settings menu in the user's profile? Is it something I need to boost my work's effectiveness?

    I honestly thought I was going to ask one thing, but things kinda escalated a bit. Still, thank you in advance for taking the time to help out. I'd appreciate it so much.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to xXShowtime99Xx [2017-06-16 17:54:03 +0000 UTC]

    Sorry I didn't answer sooner. Work has been awful. This reply might not even be relevant anymore to you but I'll do it just the same

    I prefer to write it on my own word processing document (like Word or LibreOffice doc) b/c I've had too many pieces of writing lost (even with the improvements on the site, some of the text still gets lost if the browser or site crash happens after the autosave)

    As for uploading chapters, as you can see from my own fanfics, I prefer to upload them one at a time--as soon as they're finished with the final edit--and my readers prefer that too because then they don't have to wait. The only danger in that is what you also see with my fics: I'm in the process of trying to get into an MFA program and working full-time as well and I haven't updated for a couple years now. So if you think your life might even get the littlest bit busy in the future, I'd say get it all out before that happens. There isn't a time that I come here to dA to check my messages and feel guilty for not continuing my stories.

    As you can see from my fics, some of my preview pics are just stock photos. I don't have the talent for drawing, so I've commissioned to have one of my stories drawn, but we've kind of stagnated with that (ugh my life is too busy!). So I'd say if you have the confidence or talent for drawing your preview pics do it. If you don't, there's no shame in doing a photo. People don't mind as long as the pic is relevant to the story (nothing annoys me more as a reader to click on a story with a preview image only to find that the story has nothing to do with the image :grr: I don't like being tricked into thinking the story is something other than what it is).

    That literature tag is just if you want to add an image to your tag rather than let the default image be there. You'll see some writers who add a rose or something like that.

    Hope these answers aren't too late for them to be useful to you. This is the first day off I've had in a while so I thought I'd check my messages.

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    xXShowtime99Xx In reply to PoisonousTiger [2017-06-17 12:03:43 +0000 UTC]

    Wow! Thank you for the reply nonetheless! It's really helpful and I'm greatful that you took the time to answer my questions! And no, it's not too late. I've been experiencing the same problem you have, only difference is you're working full-time and I'm having a "blast" at school studying for exams and working on projects and all... But now I have an idea of how to continue my story-writing in the future. Sincerely thank you, once again! 

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to xXShowtime99Xx [2017-09-13 08:46:58 +0000 UTC]

    You're welcome. And Good Luck with your stories!

    👍: 0 ⏩: 0

    IndigoMetropolis In reply to ??? [2017-04-24 01:20:16 +0000 UTC]

    Thank you, you help wonders.
    Some will say that summarizing instructions will get the point across, but I find that a thoroughly explained document works much better

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1

    PoisonousTiger In reply to IndigoMetropolis [2017-04-30 04:19:12 +0000 UTC]

    I think so too, especially for something like this, which can become really complicated really quickly if you do something wrong.

    👍: 0 ⏩: 1


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