In 2003–2004 I served as the assistant editor of Political Theory. During my term I reviewed hundreds of manuscripts, read scores of outside reviews, and communicated regularly with Stephen White (the editor) about the criteria of a successful manuscript and the direction of the discipline. To aid graduate students looking to publish, as well as others, I offer several principles to facilitate writing and submitting a political theory essay.Nicholas Tampio defended his dissertation on The Kantian Problematic in Contemporary Political Theory at Johns Hopkins University in September 2004.For comments on earlier drafts, I thank James Morone, Patricia Nordeen, Jesse Tampio, and Stephen White.