diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 11979fbc..beae3a1b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -383,13 +383,15 @@ Note the `-s` option on the second command, which sets the dyno size for the run
 
 ### Publishing a single thesis
 
-You can publish a single thesis that is already in `Publication review` status by passing the `thesis_id` to a rake
+You can publish a single thesis that is already in `Publication review` or `Pending publication` status by passing the `thesis_id` to a rake
 task:
 
 ```shell
 heroku run -s standard-2x rails dss:publish_thesis_by_id[THESIS_ID] --app TARGET-HEROKU-APP
 ```
 
+Note: `Pending publication` is allowed here, but not expected to be a normal occurence, to handle the edge case of the app thinking data was sent to SQS but the data not arriving for any reason.
+
 ## Preservation workflow
 
 The publishing workflow will automatically trigger preservation for all of the published theses in the results queue.
diff --git a/lib/tasks/dss.rake b/lib/tasks/dss.rake
index eb06af62..882d9890 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/dss.rake
+++ b/lib/tasks/dss.rake
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@ namespace :dss do
       thesis = Thesis.find(args.thesis_id)
 
       # Our publication job expects to be only sent theses that are ready to be published so we need to check here
-      if thesis.publication_status == 'Publication review'
+      # `Publication review` is the normal status for theses entering this process, but we also allow
+      # `Pending publication` to allow us to bump jobs that didn't make it to the SQS queue for any reason.
+      if ['Publication review', 'Pending publication'].include?(thesis.publication_status)
         DspacePublicationJob.perform_now(thesis)
       else
         Rails.logger.info("Thesis status of #{thesis.publication_status} is not publishable.")