As I write this, the current "blast from the past" at the top of SOL's home page is Paul Gable's "In Bondage Schoolgirl". If you read the teaser, it ends with "...even if they are forced into it by their piers." Uh, was she raised in a shipyard, that she's concerned about what a bunch of inanimate wharfs are going to do?
Sure, Paul isn't active, he hasn't posted a new story here in 14 years, but it's a fine example of how to turn prospective readers off. If you can't even get the teaser right, how can anyone expect you to write a coherent story?
Writers, please, please, please take the time to make sure that your title and teaser, at least, are interesting and advertise your skill as writers. I mean, advertise it in a good way. I don't know Paul Gable, never noticed his work before, but now I know that I'm not interested in it. Not if that's his level of writing skill. There are too many other writers here who _can_ construct a coherent sentence.
-ZM