Writers Workflow Guide

This guide walks you through sending a piece to Mere Thelema and everything that can happen after: review, a request for changes, acceptance, editing, an optional proof, and publication. You do all of it on the site, and we email you whenever it’s your turn.

The map

The top row is your piece being considered; the bottom row is it being edited for publication. The shaded boxes are the moments we hand it back to you. Each comes with an email and a link, and none of them is required unless we ask.

Before you start: which way in

There are four ways to bring us your writing. Pick the one that fits where you are.

About accounts. Signing in is free and uses the Thelema Foundation account you may already have. An account lets us credit you properly, and lets you follow your piece, revise it and answer us. Your Contributor area opens once we accept a piece of yours or approve your application; from then on you submit from there.

About names. A piece can appear under your own name or a pen name. You can have up to five pen names, created from your Contributor area (New pen name). You choose the name for each piece when you submit, and you can change it later, until it’s published.

Step 0 · Write your piece

1. Look at the scope of Mere Thelema to ensure that you are writing for the right publication. It is a broad scope, but that doesn't mean everything is a suitable match.

2. Make sure to review the Submission Guidelines.

3. Use the Ashlar as your style guide.

Step 1 · Send your piece

• Title and type. Article, Review, Poem, Artwork, Correspondence, or Other.

• A short summary (optional, but it helps the editors and reviewers).

• Your piece in full. In the Contributor area, you write or paste into a full editor that keeps your formatting, footnotes, and citations; your work saves to your account as you go, and unsent drafts are kept for 30 days under Your drafts. The open-call form takes plain text: leave a blank line between paragraphs.

• Artwork: up to six images (JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF, up to 5 MB each, at least 200 pixels on a side), plus a short statement in the text box.

• Publish under. Your own name, or one of your pen names.

• Two honest answers. Has the piece appeared elsewhere (and if so, where and when)? Did you use AI in writing it (no, AI-assisted, or AI-drafted)? Neither answer rules a piece out; both help the editors.

• Four agreements. That you hold the rights, that you’re open to revision requests, that acceptance doesn’t mean immediate publication, and that submission doesn’t guarantee acceptance.

• Open call word limits. If your piece is outside the call’s limits, the form tells you by how much. You can trim it, or tick Send it anyway.

• Press Submit for review (Contributor area) or Submit your piece (open call).

You’ll get: an email, “We’ve received your submission”, with a private link to your piece’s status page. Keep it: that link is how you check in, and it’s where you act on the piece later.

Step 2 · While it’s being read

Your piece is read by one or two reviewers, then an editor decides. Review is blind: reviewers never see your name. You’ll see the status move from Received to In review.

• Your status page shows where the piece is, with a meter of our typical response time.

• Taking longer than usual? Once you’re past our typical range, the status page offers Query this submission, with room for a short note. The editors see it straight away and reply by email.

• Changed your mind? You can withdraw at any time before a decision: Withdraw on your Contributor area, or from your status page once you’re signed in with the account you submitted from. A withdrawn piece can’t be put back or resubmitted.

• Contributor area timeline. Show the timeline under each piece lists each step with its date.

Step 3 · If we ask you to revise

Sometimes the editors like a piece but want changes before deciding. You’ll get an email, “Revisions requested”, with their note in full and a Revise your submission button.

1. Open the link. The editors’ note sits at the top of the page.

2. Revise. A piece from your Contributor area opens in the same editor; an open-call piece opens on a page beside your status page (sign in first, with the account you submitted from). You can change the title too.

3. Your changes save as a draft only you see. The editors keep reading your earlier version until you send.

4. Add a note for the editors if you like: what you changed, or what you decided not to change and why.

5. Press Send revision. Once sent, it can’t be changed until the editors respond.

The editors then decide, may ask for another round, or may send it to a reviewer again. If you’d rather not revise, you can withdraw instead.

Step 4 · The decision

After acceptance:

• Check the name the piece will appear under. To change it, use Manage your author name on your status page (signed in); you can pick your own name, a pen name, or add a new one, any time until publication.

• Look out for your Contributor area: acceptance opens it if you didn’t have one.

Step 5 · Editing: if we ask you to revise the article

The editors now prepare the piece for publication. They may make changes themselves, and they may send it back to you with notes. If they do, you’ll get “Revisions requested” with their covering note and a link.

1. On your Contributor area, press Revise this piece (or use the link in the email).

2. The editors’ note heads the page, and their comments are highlighted in the text. Click a highlight to read the comment. Comments are signed “Editor”.

3. Edit the prose. The title, categories and other details stay with the editors.

4. Reply under any comment to answer it: agree, explain, or ask. Your replies reach the editors with your revision.

5. Add a note for the editors if you like, then press Submit revision.

While you hold the piece, the editors don’t edit it, so nothing you write is overwritten. Your changes save as you go. If the editors take the piece back before you finish (for example, to meet a date), you’ll get an email saying nothing more is needed; anything you saved is kept.

There may be more than one round. Only credited authors and co-authors can revise; translators and other credited roles can’t.

Step 6 · Checking your proof (if we send one)

Before scheduling, the editors may send you a proof: your piece as it will be published. It’s optional, and they may not send one for a light edit. You’ll get “Your proof is ready”, with any note from the editors.

1. Press Check your proof on your Contributor area, or use the link in the email.

2. Read the piece through, as a reader will see it.

3. If it’s right, press Approve proof.

4. If something needs changing, press Something needs changing, write what needs fixing (quote the words you mean, so the editors can find them), and press Send notes to the editors. They’ll make the change and may send a new proof.

Step 7 · Scheduled and live

• “Approved”: the piece is ready and on its way to publication.

• “Scheduled to publish”: with the date it goes live. If the date changes, you’ll hear.

• “Now live”: with a link to the published piece. Share it.

After publication, your Contributor area shows the piece’s reads, and your public page (View your public page) lists it under your name.

The emails you’ll get

Every email comes from us and links straight to the place you act. You only need to act on the ones marked your turn.

Pitches have their own short emails: we confirm we’ve received it (with a link to its status), may say we’d like to talk, and tell you whether we’ll take it forward. An accepted pitch isn’t a submission; the email tells you how to send the finished piece. 

Good to know

• Use one account. Sign in with the account you submitted from. Your status link alone lets you look, but revising, answering a proof and withdrawing all need you signed in, so a forwarded email can’t act on your behalf.

• Review is blind. Reviewers don’t see your name, and editors’ comments are signed “Editor”.

• Answer honestly about AI and earlier publication. Neither disqualifies a piece; a surprise later might.

• Can’t find an email? Check spam for anything from Mere Thelema. Your Contributor area and status page always show where your piece is.

• Questions? Reply to any email from us.