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.
