Writing and review

Members write. Editors review. Every piece moves through a clear set of statuses, and both sides can see where it stands. This page follows a piece from first draft to publication.

Writing a piece#

Anyone with a confirmed account and the Write and submit permission can write. On the public site, choose Write for us, then start a new piece.

The editor has a Markdown text area with a live preview. A piece has:

• a title (up to 200 characters) and an optional subtitle (up to 300);
• the body, in Markdown;
• a section and tags, if your publication uses them;
• up to five co-authors, by username or email address, who must have confirmed accounts;
• an optional cover image, which needs a short description for people who can’t see it;
• an optional note to the editors.

Save as often as you like. Drafts are private: only you and your co-authors can see them, even if you’re also an editor.

Markdown#

QuillSail supports the usual Markdown, plus:

• tables, footnotes, task lists and strikethrough;
• links that are typed as plain web addresses;
• code blocks with syntax highlighting, fenced with three backticks and a language name;
• callouts, in three kinds: note, tip and warning.

::: tip An optional title
Callouts make a highlighted box.
:::

Raw HTML isn’t rendered, and every page is sanitized before it’s shown, so a piece can’t add scripts or styles to your site. Extensions can add more Markdown features.

Images#

Upload images from the editor. QuillSail opens and re-saves every image to check it really is an image, applies the camera’s rotation, shrinks very large photos, and removes the metadata cameras add, which can include the location where a photo was taken. The size limit is set by [uploads] max_size_mb in the server configuration, 10 MB by default.

Uploaded images are public once their address is known, even if the piece isn’t. Don’t upload anything confidential.

Revision history#

Each save that changes the text keeps a revision. Open History to see every revision with its author and word count, compare any revision with the one before, and restore an earlier version.

Submitting#

When the piece is ready, choose Submit for review. If your publication asks for it, choose a section first. If there’s a word limit, the editor warns you when you’re over it.

Once a piece is submitted, it’s with the editors and you can’t edit it until they ask for changes. You can still:

• follow its timeline, which shows each status change and comment;
• comment to talk with your editor;
• withdraw it, which stops the editors working on it. Later, Move back to drafts to keep working.

A draft that was never submitted can be deleted. After submission, withdraw it instead.

Reviewing#

Editors with Review submissions find new pieces under Dashboard → Articles. Open one to read it, see its timeline and act on it:

The editorial workflow reference lists every status and which actions apply to each.

A few rules keep things fair and safe:

• Editors can’t publish someone else’s draft before the writer submits it.
• Editors with Edit any article can fix a piece’s text once it’s submitted. Their edits are saved as revisions, with a short summary, and recorded in the activity log.
• You can assign a piece to a particular editor, who’s then shown as responsible for it.

Comments and internal notes#

Comments on a piece’s timeline go to its writer and the editors. An editor can instead post an internal note, which only people who can review submissions see. Use internal notes for editorial discussion the writer shouldn’t read.

Notifications#

QuillSail emails people when something they care about happens:

• writers, when an editor comments, requests changes, accepts or publishes their piece;
• editors, when a piece is submitted or resubmitted;
• people who manage members, when someone asks to join an approval group.

Each person can turn these off under Account → Notifications. Every change is also recorded in the activity log.

Publishing settings#

Editors with Publish articles set each article’s publishing settings in the dashboard:

• Web address: the slug in the article’s URL.
• Who can read it: everyone, signed-in members, or members of particular reader groups.
• Excerpt: up to 400 characters, used in lists, feeds and newsletter summaries.
• Featured: highlight the article on the homepage.
• Section.

Who can read a published article#

Restricted articles never become public summaries. In newsletters and on public lists they appear only with a summary an editor wrote on purpose: the excerpt, the subtitle or an issue summary. Check those before publishing.

Publishing directly#

In Blog and Blog + newsletter modes, people with Publish articles can publish their own posts straight from the editor and edit them afterwards, without a review. Everyone else still submits for review. Publishing a post doesn’t send it to subscribers; add it to an issue for that. See blog and newsletter modes.

Deleting articles#

To delete an article from the dashboard, first unpublish or decline it. Deleting can’t be undone.