Publication readiness

Coaching always finds something — that is what it is for. Publication readiness is the other half: a way to tell whether what is left actually stands between you and sending the work, or is just more that could be done. It answers "is this ready?", not "is this perfect".

Where to find it

Open the Editor panel in the editor. Under its header you are asked what you are preparing this draft for; choose one and the verdict appears at the top of the Comments panel, above your comments, and updates each time you look. The same question is asked when you confirm a Full editorial pass. The full picture — including the Editor’s overall recommendation on whether to publish — comes from running that pass.

Choose where it is going

Readiness is always readiness for something. Sending to literary agents, self-publishing, sending to beta readers, entering a competition, submitting to a journal, handing in coursework — these are different bars for the same manuscript, so you pick the one you are aiming at. Until you do, there is nothing to measure against, and no verdict is shown. You can change what the draft is for at any time from the Editor panel, or from the verdict’s own “change” link.

Some project types have no publication bar — a scratch pad or an open canvas is not heading anywhere in particular — so readiness simply does not appear for them.

What gets checked

Most of it is objective and runs free: word count against the range that destination expects, placeholder markers still in the text, chapters that were created and never written, unresolved comments, a missing title, front and back matter, and citations. Each check tells you the actual number, so a "not yet" is always something you can act on. If a check could not run, it says so — it is never counted as a pass. Word count measures your whole document, while the AI pass reads the first stretch of it — so a long manuscript is fully counted but only partly read.

Blocking and discretionary notes

Every note from an editorial pass is now one of two kinds. Blocking notes stand between you and this destination. Discretionary notes are ones you may disagree with and publish anyway — they are real feedback, but they are not work you owe anyone. You can be ready with discretionary notes outstanding, and that is the normal state of a finished draft.

Setting a note aside for good

When you dismiss a note, it stays dismissed. Later passes will not raise it again, and the pass tells you how many it left alone. Editors call this "stet" — let it stand. It means disagreeing with a note is a decision you only have to make once.

The Editor’s recommendation

Run a Full editorial pass from the Editor panel and it closes with a recommendation: whether this is ready for the destination you chose, why, and the question only you can answer. The checks alone update for free whenever you open the panel; the recommendation is part of the pass.

When it tells you to stop

After a few passes, Oghma reports how the blocking count has moved — 3, then 2, then 2, then 2. If more passes have stopped reducing it, it says that plainly: the remaining items are not going to resolve by running the pass again, they need a decision from you. And when nothing is blocking, it says the work is done and that further passes are polishing.

Marking it ready

When you decide, mark the document ready for that destination. The state is saved and visible, so you can see you already decided instead of working it out again every time you open the file. Marking ready for one destination does not mark it ready for a harder one — a novel can be ready to query without being ready to self-publish. You can reopen it at any time; nothing is locked away from you.