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.

• 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.

This makes a lot of sense, but it also brings up two other points. First, will publishers earn the same margin on different formats? Clearly, publishers are thinking not, because Amazon offering e-books for $9.99 seems to be raising a stink. Recently, Carolyn K. Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, told the New York Times. “I don’t believe that a new book by an author should ipso facto be less expensive electronically than it is in paper format.” Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, argued to the contrary, saying, “readers are going to demand that [e-books are cheaper than printed books], and they are right because there are so many supply-chain efficiencies relative to printing a paper book.”

Secondly, as the popularity of varying formats grows (dedicated e-reader, mobile devices, traditional format, audio) what do authors need to consider that wasn’t important before?  For example, e-readers have crisp screens that can be read in just about any light, but they are [now] monochromatic. In nonfiction, color photographs won’t have the same impact; charts and graphs need something other than color to be meaningful. Or, for a fiction author, what are the pacing implications of reading a novel on an iPhone with smaller page sizes? Scott Meyers gave a great talk (“Authoring Challenges in a Multiplatform World”) on this at TOC.

I believe in addition to challenges for authors, these expanded platforms offer opportunities for new types of authoring that weren’t possible before (blog post).  E-books and e-readers will continue to gain popularity, but they will also push traditional thinking about books, publishing, and authoring.

One topic that gets less press, but likely will have the greatest impact on reshaping traditional publishing (all forms) is the impact of having lots of creative content available on the web. I read many of the articles that discuss changes that are taking place in the publishing industry–it’s important to our business, because we believe we are part of the change!  But there hasn’t been much prognostication about creative content on the web, I think, because it’s very unclear exactly what will happen. A recent essay in Time magazine (of all places) does a pretty good job of laying out a model for the role the web and publishers might play in the new frontier. What do you think?

There’s a fine line between being tenacious and bull-headed when trying to create something new. I quickly dismissed the unflattering comments (denial) in the article, and started thinking about the “creating” elements of entrepreneurship–is it a creative endeavor? Are there parallels to other creative crafts, like writing? Conversely, do creative writers (or other creative types) need to “be in denial or in ignorance about the huge challenges [they] face” in their work at creating?

It’s one thing to be hired to write an article or a brochure and to be paid immediately when it’s done. It’s another to write a novel or a memoir and then to spend time looking for a buyer. Unlikely as it seems, this reminds me of my experience leading product development teams in my past life.

Our goal was always to get as quickly as possible from the investment in development (materials, time, equipment) to the income (dollars from people buying the product). I learned this motivation in Econ 101 as the “time value of money,” which said, in short, that money now (when I can do something with it, perhaps making more money) is better than the promise of money at some future date.

Which brings me back to writers, and the logic for Creative Byline. Once a writer has finished her manuscript, she wants to have a sale as quickly as possible. Whether it’s the writer sitting on the project, the hurdle of locating an agent, or waiting for an editor to respond, that “time value of money” starts to add up as a cost.

Getting a fast response matters. Nine out of ten writers using Creative Byline know within three weeks whether an editor is interested–ten times faster than responses to unsolicited submissions through the traditional process.

Keith M, from Illinois, said, “I am very pleased with the Creative Byline experience.  I’d like to thank whoever my first reader was. That reader was impressed by my chapters and gave great encouragement as ‘clearly having a gift of language.’”

Carolyn S, from Alberta, Canada, said, “Just a note to tell you how delighted I am with the constructive, helpful, and friendly advice from your first reviewer.”

Carol V, from Michigan, said, “This is to say how fantastic and HELPFUL your service is! …Not only did the critique come back blazingly fast—I finally have helpful professional specific advice regarding tweaks and changes I should make. You have no idea how truly helpful your service is with constructive criticism! Yet—even while I was given suggested changes and a solid critique, I was also given very encouraging comments.”

Den G, from Connecticut, said, “In the two reviews I received, I learned tremendously valuable techniques from my reviewer/editor…. S/he always balances the constructive criticism with the positive aspects of my work. I just thought you should know what a good job s/he is doing, and how much I appreciate it.”

And when manuscripts are approved by the first readers as being ready to be directed to editors (and 20 percent are, assuring the kind of quality that makes Creative Byline worthwhile for those editors), we can see that writers are getting feedback from editors much more quickly than in the traditional process.

Eighty-seven percent of manuscripts are looked at within three weeks of being submitted to an editor. And those editors work with well-respected publishers, we’re happy to say; some of them don’t normally accept unsolicited manuscripts.

As far as we know, a writer has yet to sell a manuscript through our process, but we’re keeping tabs on a few that are receiving serious consideration. We’re looking forward to that next Creative Byline milestone and will be the first—okay, maybe the third—to celebrate–after the writer and editor! Until then, we’ll continue to focus on making it easy for writers and editors to connect.

By the way, we’ve shortened those response times a bit. Currently, for those writers whose manuscripts are accepted by our first readers, it’s averaging less than three weeks from the first time they submitted their manuscripts to Creative Byline until they hear back from an editor.  If you have a manuscript ready, clearly would be a great time to submit it!

Not all writers write from an outline. But if your novel is done—which is what the editor is really hoping for—then it’s just a matter of summarizing what happens in each chapter.  Even better: In the process of writing the outline, you might spot a few weaknesses in your manuscript that you can then fix before submitting it. There’s information on how to write an outline on our “resources” page, but you must be logged in to access it. (Signing up doesn’t cost anything.)

Our sales team, book industry insiders Jeanne Finestone and Maureen Golden, will be working to bring other publishers on board quickly. Meanwhile, word is spreading among writers that there’s a new, faster way to get submissions seen by editors at the major houses; the number of published and unpublished writers registering is growing every day. In the words of Kronk, “Oh, yeah. It’s all coming together now.”