When the editors ask for changes

Changes requested is the normal outcome for a first guest post, not a failure. It means somebody read it and wants it published.

How you find out

A notification saying your article needs changes, marked as needing your action. It links straight to the article.

The article's status becomes Changes requested, and it appears under Needs attention on your dashboard.

Where the feedback lives

On the article page, under Feedback from the editors.

Two kinds. Comments tied to a specific sentence or image, which is what a good editor leaves, and general comments about the whole piece.

Before there is any, the section says so rather than being absent, so you know where it will appear.

Read all of it before changing anything. Two comments that look contradictory in isolation usually are not once you have read the third.

Replying

You can reply to a comment rather than only acting on it. Use that for the comment you disagree with, or the one you do not understand.

A reply is faster and better recorded than an email, and it stays attached to the article, so six months later the reason a paragraph reads the way it does is still there.

You can also mark a comment as addressed, which tells the editor what you have already done.

Making the changes

Two routes, depending on how you brought the article in.

If it came from a Google Doc, make the changes in the same document and import it again. The page tells you to: "Make the changes in the same Google Doc, then resubmit — we'll pick up the new version and keep the old one on record."

Keeping the old one on record matters. The editor can see what changed rather than re-reading the whole thing.

If you wrote it in the editor, it unlocks when changes are requested. Edit it there and send it again.

Resubmitting

Sending it back produces a new version, and the editors get a notification that revisions were sent.

Your article goes back to being read, and locks again while they have it.

What each round leaves behind

Every version is kept. Every decision is kept. Every comment and reply is kept.

That record is worth more than it looks. It is what makes an ongoing relationship with a site possible: the second article you write for them starts from a known standard rather than from scratch.

If the answer was no

An article can be declined. The status says so, and the editors' note explains why.

That is the end of that submission with that site. The article is still yours, and nothing stops you revising it substantially and offering it somewhere else.

Where to go next

Tracking your guest posts covers the statuses either side of this one.