Save a tree–and money!–April 25 - May 2

Did you know each ream of paper used requires about 6 percent of a tree? While we believe it’s worthwhile to produce books, when technology can minimize the natural resources we use in the submission process, as is the case with Creative Byline, it just makes sense to use that technology.
That’s why, in celebration of [...]

Fast facts: What you told us

Based on our poll results, the biggest gripe writers have about the old, paper submission process is “interminable response times” (60%), followed by “rejections that don’t give useful feedback” (23%). What do editors most dislike about the old process? “Having to slog through 100 manuscripts. . .before finding one that shows promise” (35%),  “Feeling perpetually [...]

Why is an outline required for novels?

There’s a good reason Creative Byline requires writers to include an outline as part of the submission package. While we were in the development stage of Creative Byline, editors told us they would prefer to know the manuscript is completed, but because a chapter-by-chapter outline shows the writer has thought through the entire story, an [...]

Welcome, Tor Forge!

Tor Forge, the largest publisher of science fiction and fantasy in the world, is the latest publisher to sign up for Creative Byline. Earlier this week, we trained more than 35 editors at St. Martin’s and Tor Forge and some are already able to accept submissions through Creative Byline. Others will be doing so soon.
Our [...]

St. Martin’s Press signs on!

St. Martin’s Press is our first client that publishes adult fiction and nonfiction, and we’re guessing lots of writers are as excited as we are–especially since St. Martin’s is normally closed to unagented writers. You’ll see their logo on Creative Byline’s front page under “Coming Soon,” which means that as soon as we finalize some [...]

An author weighs in

We spent several years researching the submissions problem, and then we built the best manuscript submission system we knew how. Now we’re eager to know how we did–and people are telling us. We don’t mind constructive criticism (that’s one way we’ll  know how to make it better) but we also don’t mind when clients take the time to tell  us we got it right.
Here’s [...]

On shortcuts

Someone on a discussion board referred to Creative Byline as a “shortcut” in a derogatory way. The definition of shortcut is “a method, procedure, policy, etc., that reduces the time or energy needed to accomplish something.” So yes, Creative Byline is a shortcut—in the same way that a washing machine is a shortcut to washing [...]

How many times can I submit?

One of our early clients gave us kudos in his comment and asked a good question: If after two attempts a manuscript still doesn’t pass our first reader’s quality check, what next? We recommend that you take some time to hone your writing skills in the areas that first readers mentioned in their feedback. You can [...]

Now we’re really cranking!

In order for this new submission model to work, we need to get publishers as well as writers on board. We recently began working with a New York-based sales team who will do just that. Between them, they have 50 years of experience in the book industry, and they are keen to meet with their [...]

We love questions!

There’ve been some questions popping up on various discussion boards that we want to answer here.
If Creative Byline is in beta, can I trust it?  Yes! Beta means different things to different people. To us, it means that the site is fully functional but you might occasionally find a broken link or think of a [...]