Dashboard
Your publishing mission control center.
The Dashboard is the first page you see when opening Inkwren. It provides a customizable overview of your publishing operations through a system of widgets — modular panels you can arrange, show, or hide to match your workflow.
Customizing Your Dashboard
Arranging Widgets
The dashboard uses a two-column layout on desktop (single column on mobile). You can rearrange widgets by dragging them:
- Hover over a widget to reveal the drag handle on the left side
- Click and drag to move the widget
- Drop it on another widget to reorder, or onto a column to place it there
Your arrangement is saved automatically and persists across sessions.
Some widgets — Publications by Year, Story Appearances by Year, and Writing Roadmap — require the wider left column and can't be moved to the right sidebar.
Managing Widgets
Click the Manage Widgets button in the dashboard header to open the widget gallery. From here you can:
- Browse all available widgets organized by category (Overview, Content, Workflow, Actions)
- Search for widgets by name or description
- Toggle widgets on or off by clicking their card — a checkmark means the widget is currently active
Widgets you turn off disappear from the dashboard but can be re-enabled anytime from the gallery.
Widget Reference
Each widget pulls data from your workspace based on specific criteria. Understanding what drives each widget helps you know why items appear (or don't).
Some widgets only appear when the related feature is enabled for your workspace or track: My Tasks (Tasks), Active Projects (Destinations & Projects), and Active Promotions (Marketing). Publications by Year and Story Appearances by Year are available on author-track workspaces.
Quick Stats
Shows key numbers for your workspace at a glance. Click any stat card to jump to that section.
| Stat | What It Counts |
|---|---|
| Total Stories | All stories in your workspace, with how many were added this month |
| Publications | Total publications, with how many currently have content being worked on |
| Submissions | Stories currently out for submission (pending or under review) |
| In Editing | Stories with an active editing status (in progress, not yet finalized) |
Needs Attention
Surfaces items across your workspace that may need action. Inkwren automatically scans your data and flags items based on specific criteria.
What gets flagged:
Editing Stalled — When a story is part of a publication and its editing status hasn't changed in 7 or more days, Inkwren flags it. This catches stories that may be stuck in your editing pipeline.
- High priority (red): Stalled for more than 14 days
- Medium priority (orange): Stalled for 7–14 days
Each item shows the story and publication involved, and clicking it takes you directly to that publication. The widget displays up to 10 items, sorted by priority (highest first).
Resolving flagged items — by advancing the editing status or completing the edit — removes them automatically. Simply updating the editing status, even to the same stage, resets the 7-day timer.
What counts as "in editing": A story appears here when it's in a publication's contents, its editing status is actively in progress (not unstarted and not finalized), and the status hasn't been updated in 7+ days.
Publications in Progress
Shows publications you're actively working on, with progress bars and story completion counts.
What appears here:
- Publications with a status of In Progress
- The publication must have an assigned publisher
- Up to 8 publications, ordered by target publication date (nearest deadline first)
Progress metrics are calculated from the publication's contents:
- Completed stories: Editing status is finalized
- In editing: Editing status is actively in progress
- Progress bar: Percentage of completed stories vs. total
If a publication doesn't appear here, check that its status is set to "In Progress" and that it has a publisher assigned. Publications without a publisher or with a different status (planned, published, etc.) won't appear in this widget.
Recent Publications
Shows your most recently published work — publications with a status of Published, ordered by publication date (newest first). Displays up to 5 publications with their type, publisher, and publication date.
Recent Activity
A timeline of the latest changes across your workspace, showing up to 10 recent entries. This includes:
- Stories created, updated, or deleted
- Submission status changes (submitted, response received)
- Publications created or published
- Tasks created or completed
- Contract activity
Each entry shows what happened, who did it, and how long ago. Click any entry to navigate to the relevant item.
Publications by Year
A chart showing your publication history over time, broken down by type (originals, reprints, translations).
What's counted: Stories that have an acceptance date, grouped by the year of that acceptance date. This reflects when stories were accepted into publications, not when publications were released.
Story Appearances by Year
A chart showing how many of your stories appeared in publications each year, broken down by type (originals, reprints, translations). Available on author-track workspaces and shown in the wider left column.
Writing Roadmap
View your writing plan for any time period — month, quarter, or year. Navigate between periods to see past and future plans.
What appears here: Stories that have a deadline set within the selected time period. Each story shows its title, deadline, word count, and status.
If this widget is empty, it means none of your stories have deadlines set in the selected period. Set deadlines on your stories to populate this view.
Upcoming Deadlines
Shows approaching deadlines for both publications and stories, helping you stay ahead of due dates.
What appears here:
- Publication deadlines: Publications with a target date, in Planned or In Progress status
- Story deadlines: Stories with a deadline set, in Planned or In Progress status
- Covers deadlines up to 3 months out, plus any overdue items from the past 30 days
How urgency is shown:
- Red: Overdue or due within 3 days
- Orange: Due within 4–7 days
- Gray: Due in more than 7 days
Up to 15 deadlines are shown, ordered by date (nearest first).
My Tasks
Shows your pending tasks sorted by priority and due date. Displays up to 5 tasks.
Sort order:
- Overdue tasks first
- Then by priority (urgent, high, medium, low)
- Then by due date (earliest first)
You can mark tasks as complete directly from the widget.
Active Projects
Lists your in-progress projects alongside their linked publications and tasks. Requires the Destinations & Projects feature.
Active Promotions
Shows your running and upcoming promotions — launches, deals, Kickstarters, and more. Requires the Marketing feature.
Quick Actions
Shortcuts for common tasks:
- Import CSV — Bulk import data from spreadsheets
- Export Data — Download your data as CSV or JSON
- Series — Manage your publication series (shown when Series Management is enabled)
- Contributors — Manage contributors
Getting Started
A quick setup guide for new users. Appears by default when you first use Inkwren.
Tips
Customize for your role. If you're focused on writing, you might want Quick Stats, Writing Roadmap, and My Tasks front and center. If you're managing a publication, Publications in Progress and Needs Attention may be more useful.
Rearrange by priority. Put the widgets you check most often at the top of the left column — that's what you'll see first when you open Inkwren.