In conventional manuscript assessment (manuscript appraisal, manuscript evaluation), authors receive a report on their manuscripts but are given little or no opportunity to raise questions with their assessor or seek clarification or extension of the points raised in the report. End of story. This is frustrating for authors and it remains one of the most consistent complaints made against assessment services. Flood Manuscripts reverses this situation. It makes authors active participants in the process and invites them to play a role in directing the assessment (appraisal, evaluation). It makes assessment (appraisal, evaluation) a two-way conversation, a genuinely consultative process. It is only through an interactive encounter that an author's work can truly grow. Flood Manuscripts is committed to talking with, not at, authors.