How to decline a chapter and leave notes

Declining a chapter is how you indicate that a submitted chapter is not the right fit for a book in its current form. This option applies to community books and private group books, where multiple contributors are working together and submitted chapters affect the direction of a shared project.

When a chapter is submitted, it appears as pending in your dashboard task list and triggers a navigation alert so it is easy to find. To decline a chapter, open the pending submission from the book or directly from your task list and review the chapter in full.

When you decline a chapter, you leave notes for the author explaining your decision. These notes are meant to be constructive and informative. Declining a chapter does not mean the writing is poor or unusable. It simply means the chapter does not align with the book’s needs, structure, tone, or direction at this time.

A declined chapter is not included in the book and does not become part of the chapter sequence. Once declined, the chapter exits the active review flow and returns to the author. At that point, the author can decide how they want to proceed.

Authors have several options after a chapter is declined. They may revise the chapter and submit it again, taking the feedback into account. They may choose to step away from that chapter entirely. In many cases, they may also choose to clone the book.

Cloning allows an author to create a full copy of the book up to the point of the declined chapter and continue the project independently. The cloned book is created as a new community book, separate from the original. This allows contributors to explore a different creative direction without disrupting the original book or other collaborators.

Cloning behavior depends on the type of book.

Private group books have cloning disabled by default.

Community books may allow cloning, but a subscriber who creates a community book can choose to disable cloning when the book is set up. This setting exists for projects where forks or alternate versions are not appropriate.

When a book is cloned, all contributors retain credit for their work. Authors of chapters included up to the cloning point remain credited for those chapters in the new book. Their intellectual property is not lost or reassigned. The original book also retains its full history and credits.

Book owners and editors are credited as well. Editors who created the original book and reviewed chapters up to the point of cloning remain credited for that work in the cloned book. Cloning does not erase editorial contribution or ownership history; it simply creates a new project that builds on an existing foundation.

Declining a chapter is different from returning a chapter with edits. Returning a chapter is used when the overall direction is sound and revisions are needed before approval. Declining is used when the chapter should not move forward in its current form, even with edits.

Personal books do not use chapter declining or cloning. In personal books, submission runs platform checks, but chapters remain fully editable by the author, and no collaborative review workflow applies.

Declining chapters exists to protect the shared vision of collaborative books while still giving authors flexibility, attribution, and meaningful options for continuing their work.