New Capabilities @CreativeByline.com

December 17, 2009 – 4:30 am

Periodically, I revisit the question, “What business is Creative Byline really in?”  Over the summer I realized that our real asset is the technology (patent-pending) that allows a large number of documents (or any type of files, really) to be sorted, winnowed, and routed automatically—all based on the rules that the user specifies.  And, yes, we could provide publishers with tools to help manage the flow of incoming manuscripts more efficiently, but we can also apply the technology to solve other types of problems.

Today we are launching a new service that allows writing contests, competitions, and festivals to use our technology to filter, sort, route, and display entrants’ submissions to judges or reviewers.  No more copying and mailing writing samples – Creative Byline manages the whole thing.  So, whether your contest judges are all in one place or halfway across the globe, we’ve got you covered.  You can find more about how it works here.

I’m very pleased that our first client for the new service is the 2010 Festival of Faith and Writing (press release).  Writers attending the festival are provided with the option of submitting a manuscript to attending editors, and this year we’ll be managing their process online.  We’ve  worked closely with the Festival to mimic a process that works for them, but we know that we haven’t covered all the varieties of contests and festivals.  Are you responsible for managing a flow of manuscripts or writing samples?  Would an online system to manage the entire process be helpful?  Let us know.

By creativebyline | Posted in About, Authors, Contests and Festivals, Industry, News | Leave a Comment

Smart about Business

September 15, 2009 – 2:38 pm

When we launched Creative Byline early last year, one of the underpinnings of the value proposition was that writers (and really any creative type) are a smart lot. They don’t need to be talked down to about the business of writing and publishing.  In fact, as the digitization of the written word continues, the need for writers to be knowledgeable about the writing/publishing business will only increase.

Or, as M.J. Rose says in this excellent post about the current relationship between authors and publishers, “After all, we’re doing more than writing our books, we’re business partners as well.”
 
Writers have and will continue to have more and more options for monetizing their writing. Understanding which options are best at any given time requires knowledge of the business and landscape of the ever-morphing world of publishing. To help, we’ve done some small things in our new site release: adding industry news to the writer’s home page and doing more articles, essays, and interviews about the business of writing. We’ll be adding features that help track what’s happening in the marketplace. 

That’s why I am so pleased with our announcement yesterday of a marketing agreement with Bowker’s PubTrack. Bowker is a well-respected information provider in the publishing industry. Their PubTrack data offers excellent insight (based on a monthly sampling of 12,000 U.S. consumers) into buying trends and the demographics of book buyers and readers. On the Creative Byline site, whenever a writer’s manuscript is presented to a subscribing editor, we’ll do a “mash-up” of PubTrack data on how that particular genre is performing in the marketplace and typical buyers in that genre. (The PubTrack information is fascinating, and we are presenting only a small portion of what is available from Bowker.)

Equally exciting is that this same data is available to our writer members! Being able to see the business side of the publishing industry—the shape of the market, typical readers—will help writers understand the kind of responses they can expect from editors, and to plan their next projects.
 
One of the other underpinnings of Creative Byline is that by getting the manuscript submission process online (versus snail mail), there are many “mash-ups” we can do to enhance the experience for both writers and editors. Stay tuned, as the Bowker PubTrack announcement is just the beginning.

By creativebyline | Posted in Authors, Industry, News, Technology | Leave a Comment

Welcome Chicago Review Press

August 12, 2009 – 3:56 pm

We are always pleased when we approach a publisher and find them open to meeting with us and learning about Creative Byline. But it’s really nice when a publisher learns about us, checks out the web site, and contacts us. I’m delighted that Chicago Review Press contacted us and has become a client of Creative Byline. They publish general nonfiction, including popular science, history, biography, and travel; reprints of classic novels; and an award-winning line of children’s activity books.

Chicago Review Press also publishes under three imprints:

  • Lawrence Hill Books specializes in nonfiction on topics of African American and Latino interest, progressive politics, civil and human rights, and feminism.
  • A Cappella is an arts imprint specializing in music and film.
  • Zephyr Press publishes educational resource materials and professional development titles for inspired educators.

    • Chicago Review Press editors will have profiles available on the Creative Byline system in mid-August.  Welcome, Chicago Review Press, to the Creative Byline community.

    By creativebyline | Posted in Industry, News, Publisher reference, Publishers | Leave a Comment

    Finding Someone with Specific Skills on the Web

    July 30, 2009 – 3:06 pm

    Over the last couple of months it has become much easier to find a particular person on the web. Facebook’s early June implementation of vanity URLs, as well as Twitter and LinkedIn indexing profile pages for search engines have made this easier than ever.  However, if you are trying to find someone with very specific skills… forget it. For example, one of our publishing clients recently was trying to find “a writer with experience running a home-based personal training business.” They were ready to offer the right writer a contract, but—although search capabilities keep getting better—this was still too complex to google.

    When we interviewed writers earlier this year, we confirmed that most of them have experience writing in a variety of media (blogs, magazines, newsletters, scripts, and, yes, books).  They are writers first, book authors second.  Putting this together with our publisher client’s challenge with finding a writer with very specific experience led us to conclude that we could help our writer members (and our publishing clients) with a new set of tools on Creative Byline.

    These new tools allow writers to develop a robust online portfolio of their writing background and experiences. This is matched with a sophisticated search capability for editors and publishers to find exactly the type of writer they are looking for.  There are a number of other “profile” capabilities on the web for book authors to create a platform and attract readers, but ours is focused earlier in the process… attracting editors who may be interested in acquiring a writer’s content.  We’ll roll out this and other exciting enhancements to Creative Byline soon.

    By creativebyline | Posted in News, Publishers, Technology, author | Leave a Comment

    No Such Thing as a Perfect Plan

    July 21, 2009 – 4:05 pm

    Raising money is just part of life for an Internet entrepreneur—and an opportunity for a lot of interesting questions from potential investors. The one that baffles me most is when they pore over our business plan and then ask a detailed question about the financials out in year five. 

    Year five? It’s not that what’s in the business plan isn’t my best estimate of what will transpire: It is. I spend a lot of time making make sure all of the information and figures are congruent and consistent, even out in year five. But the odds of us actually hitting the year five plan as written are 1000:1.

    It’s not because I’m bad at forecasting. It’s because we’re starting a new venture, and we’ll learn things along the way that will enable us to adjust our path. Which I think is a good thing and part of the fun of building something new: You’ve got to be willing to adjust along the way—and get good at it!

    It’s not enough, of course, to be willing to make changes to the business plan. It’s critical that you’re gathering feedback from customers and using that information to make adjustments to your products and services. Over this past year we’ve received great feedback through Creative Byline Client Services (and one of the pieces of feedback is that you love our Client Services service. Thanks!). 

    So a couple of months ago we set out to determine what we could do to make Creative Byline a more valuable tool for connecting writers and editors. We did surveys and phone interviews with writers, we spoke with editors, we brainstormed, we tried to get a sense of where the industry was headed (both for writers and for written content). Then we adjusted our plan.  And we think both our publishing clients and our writer members will like where we’re headed.

    So, in August we’ll formally drop the “Beta” from our site name and introduce new capabilities and services for both writers and publishers.  I doubt these are the last changes we’ll see for Creative Byline before we get to year five of our plan, but for right now, they’re feeling right on target. We’ll share more details over the next few weeks.

    By creativebyline | Posted in Industry, Publishers, Technology, author | Leave a Comment

    Personal Filters for Creative Media

    July 16, 2009 – 4:16 pm

    As I suggested in the last post, publishers have played the role of gatekeeper in the book industry. They filter millions of potential books (in the form of manuscripts) down to ones that they stake their reputations (brands) on. There are other filters in the book publishing eco-system: agents, brick-and-mortar bookstores (they can’t stock all titles), and probably others. They filter down all the potential books to provide a specific set of options for consumers to choose from, and stake their reputation on making the right choices. Large retailers (Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart) stock their shelves with products primarily from traditional publishers because they’ve demonstrated their ability to successfully filter; their ability to choose winners mitigates risk for stores.

    In addition to those institutional filters, consumers employ personal filters – the way they go from all available book choices down to the ones they purchase or consider purchasing.  There are many types of personal filters: a specific genre (“I only read sci-fi”), books reviews (or perhaps a specific reviewer), specific authors, recommendations from friends, the book jacket (if browsing at a store), online recommendations (“if you like Life of Pi, you might also like…”), and so on.

    Bowkers PubTrack Consumer (a monthly survey of 3,000 consumers regarding their reading and book buying habits), confirms the strength of the institutional filter: More than three times as many people become aware of a book because of a store display than through a recommendaton from another person. The data does provide insight into personal filters, too; as reasons for purchasing a book, readers said:

    • Recommendations, 5%
    • Character/series, 7%
    • Adding to collection, 8%
    • Type of book, 8%
    • Topic/subject, 17%
    • Author, 17%

    As their own filters make publishers’ reputations, personal filters affect people’s reputations as readers or book selectors. When a consumer decides that she is not getting good recommendations from a friend, she’ll look to different sources. When a reader is disappointed by an author, loses interest in a topic, or whatever, he’ll reshape his filters—and recommend different books to his friends.

    Note that I’m not addressing the creation portion of the book, that is, the work of the author; nor the fulfillment side (purchase transaction, delivery [print or electronic]).   I’m not including these in the discussion because I believe there will always be authors creating content, and if anything they are increasing their power in the equation. And much has been written about the fulfillment side (everything from the influence of Amazon or Google, to POD, and the never-ending discussion of print versus ebooks).  Frankly, I see the filter discussion – and the connection of authors to readers – as much more interesting, and less predictable.

    So, combined, institutional filters and personal filters are the current mechanism for sorting all of the book content that could be available, down to the book that a consumer will take to the beach on their summer vacation.  An important characteristic of how these two filters work is that they both have their “book recommendation reputations” at stake each time they endorse a book – the choices they make have an impact on the long-term success of the filter itself.

    By creativebyline | Posted in Authors, Industry, Publishers, Technology | Leave a Comment

    “I’ll steak my reputation on it”

    June 22, 2009 – 5:19 pm

    A local restaurant owner uses this tagline to promote his small chain of (of course) steak houses. This kitschy slogan made me think about traditional publishers and their value proposition: selecting manuscripts and turning them into books that people want to buy, and doing this consistently. In a way, they stake their reputations (brands) on and endorsing each manuscript that they select and decide to publish. The average reader might not know who publishes a given book, but likely believes that if “MacMillan” is on the spine, the book will meet a minimum level of writing quality, doesn’t contain typos, has all the pages (in order), and so on. Every reader might not like every book MacMillan publishes, but would, for the most part, agree that everything MacMillan produces is quality work.

    But to be successful (i.e., turn a profit consistently), MacMillan (or any other traditional publisher) needs also to pick books that people want to buy; let’s call this buyability. With their endorsement, publishers ensure both the quality of the book and its buyability. Obviously, it doesn’t work for every book, but publishers stake their reputations on doing this—on enough books and repeatedly over time. It’s because of this endorsement, and thus reputation, that the large retailers (Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart) stock their shelves with products primarily from traditional publishers. It doesn’t mean that a self-published book can’t make its way onto the shelves at Barnes & Noble, but it’s fairly unusual. Most self-published books are sold online.

    According to a presentation given by Kelly Gallagher of Bowker PubTrack at the Making Information Pay 2009 conference, “41% of all book purchases are in a retail setting, versus 27% online.”  Likewise, Bowker finds “37% of books purchased are due to the title being on the shelf/spinning rack/display.” Traditional publishers pretty much “own” the brick and mortar channel for books and do just fine online as well. The online self-publishing industry appears to be flourishing, but for authors who want to make money, books need to be in traditional retail outlets (at least for now).

    So, even though it is possible for an author to publish a book himself (by LuLu, CreateSpace, etc.), create buzz (FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace), and generate sales (online retailers like Amazon), writers still flock to traditional publishers to get their books published because the publishers’ “endorsement value” still translates into the surest way for an author to maximize the monetization of their work. The “endorsement value” of a traditional publisher—coupled with the continued power of traditional retail—still holds. It’s not the only way for an author to make money any more, but for now it’s still the most reliable. I’ll stake my reputation on it.

    Next: The Online Impact of Quality and Buyability

    By creativebyline | Posted in Authors, Industry, Publishers, Technology | Leave a Comment

    Sports Teams, Authors, and Publishers

    March 25, 2009 – 4:46 pm

    There are complex brand issues that emerge from the “author-as-brand” versus the “publisher as brand” evolution (assuming the publisher was ever really the true brand). To me the central question is: What’s the relationship between the author’s brand and the publisher’s brand? In what model might they coexist in the marketplace? Hold that thought.

    At the same time, authors (and publishers) are seeing advantages in building an online presence for an author—to attract a following who will buy books, content, and other stuff. But building an online presence and the following takes full engagement from the author for content, conversation, and engagement with readers; it’s not a one-time event, like a book release. The traditional book contract, however, revolves around the event of the book’s release.

    Perhaps in the future, the relationship between writers and publishers will be more like professional athletes and the clubs they are under contract with—defined by a specific time period. Let’s say an author is under contract to Tor for two years. During that time they will blog on Tor.com, speak at the SFWA annual meeting, do a promotional tour with other Tor authors, and write a book. Perhaps they get a stipend for being on the Tor roster, in addition to bonuses for achieving certain goals (weekly blog reads, book unit sales, whatever). The author is free to work on other deals outside of his or her contract (movies, video games).

    This analogy also models a good co-branding strategy. LeBron James is a brand, but so is the Cleveland Cavaliers. There are things that the two brands do together under contract (play basketball games, participate in certain charity events) and things they do separately (James has endorsements, and the Cavs sell Cavs merchandise).  Just like the author and Tor (well, kind of).

    Does anyone know of time-based author contracts (versus book-based)? To carry the analogy one step further, publishers could also have farms clubs where young writers could develop… never mind.

    By creativebyline | Posted in Authors, Industry, Publishers | Leave a Comment

    Technology Pushes the Envelope of Traditionally Defined Publishing “Rights”

    March 12, 2009 – 2:39 pm

    One of the themes mentioned by just about every keynote speaker at the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference last month in New York was Digital Rights Management (or DRM). This is software that prohibits unauthorized copies of media (songs, e-books, etc.).  Cory Doctorow of boingboing.net fame gave an impassioned keynote titled “Digital Distribution and the Whip Hand: Don’t Get iTunesed with your eBooks.”  His central point was that the music industry has handled the whole DRM thing poorly (suing college students?), and that Apple swooped in with an awesome product (iTunes) that allowed it to be a dominant platform in the industry. The latest news, of course, is that Apple is dropping DRM on songs offered on iTunes. 

    Doctorow’s pitch (as well as other keynoters’) was that publishers should insist on no DRM on their products to prevent third-party intermediate platforms (like the Amazon Kindle, which has a propriety DRM) from controlling distribution. Will people copy electronic files without DRM? Sure, but they already do. Check out PirateBay.org. As long as there is technological curiosity and cheap labor, there won’t be a way to stop copying files (with or without DRM). Of course, it was the evolution of technology—the Internet—that made DRM an issue.

    The accompanying rights issue that floated to the top of the blogs over the last few weeks is the fact that the new Kindle Reader has a text-to-speech converter that the Authors Guild claimed infringes on the audio rights of its authors (discussed in this New York Times op-ed piece).   After the initial tussle, Amazon backed down and said that the publisher/author could decide whether the TTS function is enabled on a per-title basis.

    But the debate isn’t over. Cory Doctorow addressed the TTS issue, saying that you can’t stop the technology from advancing.  I don’t believe so either: The computer voices will continue to get better, voice inflection at the right place in the text will evolve, and so on. Before long you’ll be able to pick the “voice” you want to “read” your book—James Earl Jones or Pee Wee Herman—which will raise a completely different set of rights issue. But I digress.

    Neither publishers nor the Authors Guild will be able to stop the march of technology that consumers want; they’d better get in front of the freight train and put some energy into redefining what traditional rights mean, instead of clinging to past thinking. That’s what happened to the music industry. Let’s not let it happen to word publishing.

    By creativebyline | Posted in Industry, News, Technology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

    What We’re Reading: A Sampling

    March 6, 2009 – 9:58 am

    We at Creative Byline subscribe to many newsfeeds, blogs, and newsletters about publishing and writing. As a result, we come across many interesting perspectives and new insights about the business. Here are a few from the last week or so:

    • On her blog, Gretchen McNeil featured an interview with agent Ginger Clark about the trends in the YA fiction arena, and why writers should care about trends.
    • Author Hope Vestergaard makes a guest appearance on Alice Pope’s CWIM blog. Publishing professionals typically provide advice to writers; she turns the tables by providing dos and don’ts to editors, and then to agents.
    • Although I don’t agree with everything in this TheBigMoney article, it’s a good read on why devices like the Kindle Reader can have a significant influence on the industry.
    • According to The New York Times, a new alternative-incarceration program “allows felons and other offenders to choose between going to jail or joining a book club.” No comment.
    By creativebyline | Posted in Author tips, Industry, News, Publisher tips, Technology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment