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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

All about first readers

Someone recently asked us who our first readers are.  Eighty percent of first readers have some type of advance writing or literature degree. They work at the direction of Creative Byline’s editorial director using specific criteria, which we’ll talk more about in a later post. We’ll supplement those readers with readers who have specialties. Most large [...]

How to submit a manuscript using Creative Byline (when it goes live)

Creative Byline’s online manuscript submission service won’t launch until later this fall, but when it does, here’s how the process will work for writers.
Step 1: Join Creative Byline (free, for a limited time) and post your writer profile—whatever you want editors to know about you. You can post a bio, credentials, awards and memberships, and (if you’ve already been [...]