With the radio news and the daily papers headlining the economy every day, it’s a little hard to put the subject out of your mind. That’s led me to think about the economics of the writing life.

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.