Manuscripts
Collect and review the stories authors submit to a publication — the publisher-side slush pile for anthology editors.
What Manuscripts Are
The Manuscripts tab is where you gather and evaluate incoming story submissions for a single publication. It's the inbound counterpart to Calls for Submissions: calls go out to authors, and the manuscripts they send back come in here as your slush pile.
Every submission is one of two kinds:
- Internal story — a story that already exists in your workspace. It links to that story record, shows an In System badge, and can later be promoted into the publication's table of contents.
- External submission — a manuscript from outside your workspace. You log it by title and author, with an optional email for tracking. It can't be added to the table of contents unless it's later linked to an internal story.
Manuscripts is a publisher feature. If you don't see the Manuscripts tab on your publications, your workspace administrator may need to enable it — for the whole workspace, or for a single publication under the publication's Edit → Settings tab. The same setting controls both the Manuscripts and Calls tabs.
This is a different feature from Tracking Submissions, which is the author-side view of stories you send out to markets. Manuscripts is the publisher receiving them in.
Viewing Your Manuscripts
Open a publication to reach its Publication Command Center, then click the Manuscripts tab. You'll see five summary cards, a filter bar, and a table of submissions.
The five cards across the top summarize the pipeline:
| Card | Shows |
|---|---|
| Total Submissions | Every submission for this publication |
| Received | How many are in the Received status |
| Under Review | How many are in the Reviewing status |
| Acceptance Rate | Percentage of decided submissions that were accepted |
| Avg Review Time | Average days from submission to decision, or a dash if not yet computable |
The submissions table has these columns:
- Submitted — the submission date.
- Story Title — links to the story page for internal submissions (with an In System badge); plain text for external ones.
- Author — links to a contributor when one is linked; otherwise the story's authors or the typed-in name.
- Word Count — the manuscript's length.
- Status — a colored badge showing where the submission sits in the review pipeline.
- Votes — reviewer vote tallies (see Reviewing as a Team).
- Notes — reviewer notes.
- Actions — manage reviewers, accept, reject, and move to contents.
Use the status filter dropdown to narrow the table to a single stage, and the Search box to match by story title or author name. The table shows 20 submissions per page, with Previous / Next controls and a page count at the bottom.
The Review Pipeline
Each submission has a single review status, shown as a colored badge in the Status column. There's no board to drag between — you change status with the inline Accept and Reject actions.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Received | A new submission, not yet triaged |
| Reviewing | Actively under review |
| Accepted | You've accepted it |
| Rejected | You've declined it |
| Withdrawn | The author withdrew it |
Adding a Submission
Most submissions arrive on their own, but you can log one manually — for example, a manuscript that came in by email.
- Click Add Submission at the top right of the Manuscripts tab
- Choose the submission type with the toggle at the top of the modal:
- Internal Story — for a story already in your workspace
- External Submission — for a manuscript from outside it
- Fill in the details for your chosen type:
For an internal story:
- Story (required): Search your workspace stories by title or author. The selected story shows a confirmation card you can clear with the × button.
For an external submission:
- Story Title (required): The manuscript's title.
- Author (required): Search your contributors, or type a name to record it without linking a contributor. Linking a contributor auto-fills their email.
- Author Email: Optional, for tracking external submissions.
For both types:
- Submission Date (required): Defaults to today.
- Initial Notes: Any first impressions or context.
- Click Add Submission
Reviewing as a Team
Reviewers can weigh in on each submission with a vote. Votes are advisory — they help you decide, but they don't change a submission's status on their own. You still set the outcome with Accept or Reject.
To cast a vote, click Cast vote in the Votes column for a submission you haven't voted on. In the Cast Your Vote window:
- Choose Accept, Reject, or Maybe
- Optionally add a comment with your thoughts
- Click Submit Vote
The Votes column shows a running tally for each vote type. Click the chevron to expand the full Vote History beneath the row — each reviewer's name, vote, date, and comment, newest first.
Managing reviewers
Each submission has its own set of reviewers, drawn from your workspace members. Use the manage-reviewers action in the Actions column to open the Manage Reviewers window:
- Current Reviewers lists everyone assigned, each with a Remove button.
- Available Members lists workspace members not yet reviewing, each with an Add button.
Click Done when you're finished.
Accepting or Rejecting
To decide on a submission, use the inline Accept or Reject actions in its row. Accepting sets the status to Accepted; rejecting sets it to Rejected. You can change your mind — the Accept action stays available until a submission is accepted, and Reject until it's rejected.
Moving to Contents
Once a submission is accepted, the Move to publication contents action promotes it into the publication's table of contents in one step. This appears only when a submission is both Accepted and linked to an internal story — there's no story record to add for an external-only submission, so the action stays hidden until one is linked. After it succeeds, the story appears in the publication's Overview contents.
Tips
- Sort out internal versus external up front: Only internal-story submissions can be moved into the table of contents. If you're accepting an external manuscript, link it to a workspace story so you can promote it later.
- Use votes to build consensus, then decide: Reviewer votes are advisory — gather them to see where your team stands, but the submission only moves when you accept or reject it.
- Assign reviewers per submission: Reviewers are managed one submission at a time, so you can route each manuscript to the right people rather than the whole team.
- Move accepted stories to Contents right away: Once a manuscript is accepted and linked to an internal story, Move to Contents saves you a trip to the Overview tab to add it manually.
- Pair Manuscripts with Calls: Calls for Submissions sends invitations out; Manuscripts is where the responses come back in. They share the same feature, so enabling one enables both.