This chapter addresses various issues that authors will have to deal with before manuscripts are submitted. It discusses how students initially thought about pre-submission work, how students and researchers experienced in the real world through three cases, and three major concepts related to what the pre-submission phase means, how to pass the initial editorial screen, and how an online journal management system works. It ends with three practical suggestions, including preparing a mature and well-developed manuscript so that it can pass the desk rejection and enter the peer review process, emailing the journal editor the pre-submission inquiry and checking the fit, and asking good colleagues or even senior faculty members to have a pre-submission review.