We’re happy these two houses have signed on with Creative Byline! Lyons Press, skirt!, and Globe Pequot Press Life are all imprints of Globe Pequot Press, which publishes many types of nonfiction, including books on health, style, fishing, nature, gardening, travel, and art. Zest Books, an imprint of Orange Avenue, publishes nonfiction books on teen issues and challenges.

With these additions, we now have more than 50 editors open to manuscripts submitted through Creative Byline! You can find out more in our press release.

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 behind” (28%), and “Being cast as the evil editor” (21%). Thanks to everyone who participated!

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!

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 outline would be acceptable. So the outline is actually a compromise of sorts.

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.)

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 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.”

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 administrative details, St. Martin’s will be accepting manuscripts through Creative Byline.

Don’t wait to sign up—it’s still free! Once you’ve uploaded a manuscript (or even just the title of your project and the genre) to Creative Byline, you’ll automatically receive an e-mail telling you which editor is looking for the kind of manuscript you’ve written. Sign up now, work on your profile, and get your manuscript into the system so that when the editors are ready, you are, too.

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 what author Robin Koontz said: “I received feedback from Creative Byline quickly and it was helpful with lots of good ideas on how to flesh out the biography I’m writing. I knew the manuscript was incomplete, but wasn’t sure how to proceed so this was a big help. Once I finish up my current project I will be revising and resubmitting it to Creative Byline.” Thanks, Robin!

If you have comments or suggestions, send us an e-mail.

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 clothes by hand, or a power screwdriver is a shortcut to using a manual screwdriver, or an e-mail is a shortcut to sending a letter, which is itself a shortcut to traveling to see the recipient in person. It’s a better way, folks. That’s all.  It doesn’t cost a cent to take the tour and see for yourself.

The writing, of course, still must speak for itself. And when it comes to good writing, there truly are no shortcuts.

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 start with our list of writers’ resources, which is accessible to members (membership is free right now).  Read a book on plot, attend a relevant conference, take an online class, find a critique group. After you’ve applied what you’ve learned to your manuscript, you can submit to Creative Byline again, for a fee. Basically, every other time is free, and you can submit to Creative Byline for as long as you want, continuing to get feedback every time.

We want you to succeed—not just to become a published writer but to become a better writer. Toward that end, we’re working to make the “writer” section of Creative Byline more robust. Stay tuned.

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 publishing contacts and show them Creative Byline.

Speaking of publishers, we work only with legitimate publishers, not vanity presses. And if a publisher is listed on our site, it means we’ve met with them personally and have a contract with them. It means they agree we might have built a better way to handle submissions and they are willing to try it.

Writers, too, are trying it. Before we even started advertising, they somehow found us on their own and started signing up. Clearly, everyone wants a better way to submit and handle submissions. Here’s to that better way, Creative Byline, in 2008!

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 question that hasn’t occurred to us yet. Creative Byline is a complex and powerful system. “Beta” is just our way of acknowledging you might find a minor kink. If so, let us know! We’ll fix it, pronto. If you think of a way to improve the system, tell us. We’re all about process improvement.

Why will an editor read things submitted through Creative Byline when she already receives so much slush via snail mail? Two big reasons: 1) The only manuscripts she’ll get through Creative Byline are ones that meet the criteria she has selected (e.g., “fantasy,” “young adult”), and 2) Creative Byline’s first readers pre-qualify manuscripts so the editor knows she’ll be viewing fewer manuscripts. Furthermore, the ones she does view will, as a group, be higher quality than the ones she receives via mail. You can find out more here.

How can someone outside the industry change the submissions process? Of course we can’t be objective, but we think that being outside the industry uniquely suited our CEO Brad MacLean for the job and enabled him to come up with a new submissions model that benefits writers, editors, and publishers. You can find out more here. (Also, his wife is a well published author, so he didn’t come to the industry stone cold.)

Finally, it seems that some people think Creative Byline is just another posting board for editors to search through. It’s not. Creative Byline actually sorts manuscripts and matches them up to editors who have told the system what they are looking for. The system presents a list of editors who are looking for the kind of manuscript the writer has written. The writer then decides which editor to submit to. The writer retains control over where the manuscript is submitted.

For a limited time, you can sign up for free and see what editors are looking for right now, even if you decide to submit via snail mail. What do you have to lose?