Author FAQ

Straight answers before you upload serious work.

RevisionGrade is built to separate manuscript readiness from the publishing black box. This FAQ explains what the system evaluates, what it does not support, how revision works, and where author control remains absolute.

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Current scope

Manuscripts, partial manuscripts, chapters, excerpts, readiness, revision, and publishing-facing preparation.

RevisionGrade evaluates manuscript evidence. It is not a generic document-scoring tool for letters, resumes, academic papers, legal documents, or marketing copy.

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Evaluation basics

What does RevisionGrade evaluate?

RevisionGrade evaluates novels, novellas, book-length memoirs, narrative nonfiction manuscripts, partial manuscripts, individual chapters, and serious narrative excerpts across thirteen story criteria: concept, narrative drive, character, voice, scene construction, dialogue, theme, worldbuilding, pacing, prose control, tone, narrative closure, and marketability. Eligible submissions route to Short-Form Evaluation or Long-Form Multi-Layer Evaluation. The goal is diagnosis, not generic encouragement or a single opaque score.

What doesn't RevisionGrade evaluate?

RevisionGrade is not a generic document-scoring tool. It does not evaluate personal or business correspondence, cover letters, resumes or CVs, academic or research papers, legal documents, contracts, marketing copy, or sales materials. Query letters, synopses, author bios, and other publishing materials are prepared through Agent Readiness™ rather than scored by the manuscript-evaluation engine.

What happens if I submit an unsupported document?

If RevisionGrade determines that a submission is not a manuscript or serious narrative excerpt, the evaluation does not proceed. The system explains why the document type is unsupported and directs you to submit eligible manuscript material instead.

Is RevisionGrade only a score?

No. The score is useful only when paired with evidence, severity, confidence, reader effect, and revision priority. RevisionGrade explains why a manuscript is or is not ready; it does not merely label it good or bad.

Does RevisionGrade guarantee publication or representation?

No. RevisionGrade diagnoses manuscript readiness. It does not guarantee agent interest, representation, publication, sales, market timing, or commercial demand.

Does a strong manuscript guarantee agent acceptance?

No. A craft-ready manuscript still faces list fit, market timing, category preference, agent bandwidth, comparable-title concerns, and individual taste. RevisionGrade separates readiness problems from market-door problems.

Evaluation modes

What is a Short-Form Evaluation?

Short-Form Evaluation is for submissions under 25,000 words. It evaluates the submitted pages against the 13 story criteria. It does not claim full-manuscript continuity, Golden Spine™, or WAVE Revision System™ coverage.

What is a Long-Form Multi-Layer Evaluation?

Long-Form Multi-Layer Evaluation is the active long-form path for new evaluations at 25,000 words and above. It extends the 13 story criteria into manuscript-scale continuity, recurrence, setup and payoff, pacing over distance, character development, structural readiness, Golden Spine™ analysis, WAVE Revision System™ governance, and cumulative reader experience.

What happened to Long-Form Evaluation?

Long-Form Evaluation is a legacy compatibility mode for historical records. New evaluations do not route to it. New long-form work routes to Long-Form Multi-Layer Evaluation.

Does every evaluation receive Golden Spine™ and WAVE analysis?

No. Golden Spine™ and WAVE Revision System™ belong to the Long-Form Multi-Layer path. Short-Form Evaluation remains bounded to the submitted evidence and the 13 story criteria.

Reports and downloads

What do I receive after an evaluation?

A completed evaluation gives you a readable report with scores, evidence-backed findings, strengths, risks, criteria-level diagnosis, and revision priorities appropriate to the selected evaluation depth.

Are downloaded reports professional enough to keep or share?

Report downloads are author-facing artifacts, not machine logs. The PDF is the prestige document; DOCX and TXT exports are utility formats for review, records, or later editing.

Why does the report include confidence or severity?

Confidence and severity prevent overreach. A low-confidence observation is not treated like a proven structural defect, and a small local issue is not handled like a manuscript-level failure.

Why does RevisionGrade show a dialogue/narrative ratio?

The dialogue/narrative ratio is a pacing and texture signal. It shows whether the manuscript relies mostly on scene dialogue, mostly on narration, or a balanced mix. A very low dialogue percentage signals a denser, more interior, descriptive, or summary-heavy reading experience; a very high dialogue percentage signals a faster, more theatrical, or thinly narrated reading experience. The ratio is not a score by itself. RevisionGrade measures it so authors understand how the manuscript reads and whether the balance supports the genre, voice, and story strategy.

Does the report work with a human editor?

Yes. A RevisionGrade report clarifies whether the manuscript needs structure, scene repair, line polish, market positioning, voice protection, or another specific intervention before you hire or brief a human editor.

Revise and TrustedPath™

What is Revise?

Revise turns evaluation findings into controlled repair opportunities. Each opportunity shows evidence, diagnosis, repair options, voice-risk considerations, and an explicit author decision path.

What kinds of items appear in the Revision Workbench?

RevisionGrade routes revision opportunities according to the kind of decision the manuscript requires. Direct rewrites provide A, B, and C options. Larger or interconnected problems route to Strategy, where the author receives a governed repair plan rather than replacement prose. Opportunities without enough evidence or context for a reliable repair route to Held, with the hold reason, missing context, and recovery action.

What do A, B, and C mean?

A, B, and C appear only when RevisionGrade has enough evidence to propose a direct textual repair. A is the recommended repair, B offers a more conservative rhythm or cadence alternative, and C permits a bolder — but still governed — rendering shift. The author chooses to accept a proposal, keep the original, reject the choices, defer the decision, or make a custom revision.

What do Strategy and Held mean?

A Strategy is used when the problem is larger than a safe copy-and-paste rewrite — for example, when repair requires coordinated changes across scenes, character development, pacing, continuity, or story structure. RevisionGrade provides a structured repair plan because a few replacement sentences do not solve that class of problem. A Held item means RevisionGrade has identified a legitimate concern but lacks enough evidence or context to recommend a reliable repair. Rather than guess, it holds the item, explains why, and identifies what is needed to recover it.

Do I retain control over the revision?

Yes. The author retains control: accept a proposed option, keep the original, reject all choices, defer the issue, or write a custom revision. Author control is part of the product doctrine.

What is TrustedPath™?

TrustedPath™ is the governed convenience path for authors who do not want to review every repair opportunity manually. It applies eligible recommended repairs to a protected duplicate draft, preserves the original, and produces a change log.

English Variant

Why does RevisionGrade ask for an English variant?

RevisionGrade supports American English by default, plus British, Canadian, Australian, South African, and New Zealand English. The selected variant governs all RevisionGrade-generated output: reports, recommendations, revision guidance, Revise Queue content, TrustedPath rewrites, and other editorial text. Manuscript quotations, evidence excerpts, and author-written content are preserved exactly as submitted regardless of the selected variant.

How do I change the English variant after an evaluation is generated?

The selected English variant is fixed to the evaluation record and governs all associated outputs for that job. A different English convention requires a new evaluation using the desired variant.

Privacy, security, and author control

Who owns my manuscript?

You do. RevisionGrade treats submitted manuscripts as author-owned creative work. The system diagnoses, organizes, and recommends; it does not claim authorship.

Are manuscripts public?

No. Manuscripts are private by default and are shared only by author action, such as downloading a report or preparing a controlled package surface.

Are manuscripts used to train public AI models?

No. Submitted manuscripts are author-owned creative work and are not used as public model-training material. They are used to generate the requested evaluation, report, revision guidance, and author-controlled outputs.

Does RevisionGrade use external research?

Yes, in bounded contexts. External research supports genre context, public-domain comparison, comparables, market shelf, or factual plausibility. It does not override submitted manuscript evidence.

Agent Readiness and Storygate Studio™

What is Agent Readiness Package™?

Agent Readiness Package™ prepares publishing-facing submission materials such as query letters, synopses, author bios, comparables, and manuscript positioning. It does not evaluate those materials as manuscripts and does not guarantee agent interest.

What is Storygate Studio™ right now?

Storygate Studio™ is a controlled manuscript-access layer for readiness-vetted book projects and verified publishing professionals. Current public scope is manuscript-first and publishing-facing.

Does Storygate include non-book workflows today?

No. Storygate remains focused on books, manuscripts, query packages, synopses, author bios, comparables, and controlled publishing-facing access. Non-book workflows are outside the current public scope.

Does Storygate make my project visible to everyone?

No. Storygate provides controlled access, not open slush or public indexing. Creator approval, access control, and logging govern visibility.

Next step

The best answer is still the manuscript evidence.

Read the methodology for the evaluation model, or begin an evaluation when you are ready to see where the manuscript stands.

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