Earlier this week, Publishers Weekly ran a feature story about Inkubate’s innovative plans to pair writers with publishers, editors and agents. In “Inkubate Plans to Digitize the Slushpile,” Senior News Editor, Calvin Reid reported that the search tools we’re developing will enable subscribers to quickly identify literary works of interest. Publishing professionals use Inkubate to “Discover” content any number of ways, including by author, genre, literary form and writer-generated tags. Inkubate then helps them make contact with the author in a secure and copyright respectful environment.

At Inkubate we see our technology transforming the proverbial mailroom slushpile into a valuable, minable raw resource and we’re clearly not alone. Bruce Shaw, President and Publisher at the Harvard Common Press commented on Reid’s piece, writing, “I'm willing to give it a chance...if it is really well organized, and simple to see what is there (before delving further, if so desired), it could be very helpful...And I’m looking forward to seeing more and talking with them more about it.”

Many other industry professionals, including acclaimed authors, Dianna Hutts Aston and Betsy James, and literary editor & producer, Jody Feagan have concluded that our model just makes sense. Brendan DeMelle, Executive Director and managing Editor of DeSmogblog.com writes “Inkubate is likely to be a win-win for everyone.”

Consider, too, the growing demand for high quality content to feed the eBook business models of major publishing companies and it becomes clear that Inkubate is undoubtedly timely. After all, there simply are not enough editors or agents working in the industry to engage in the process of traditional “Discovery” while simultaneously managing the volume of new work that will be required to fill this emerging market. To remain competitive and relevant, publishing companies need to be able to differentiate their eBook content from that of the online aggregators like Amazon and Google and self-publishers, otherwise they will not be able to command the premium price points that curated works deserve. The sheer volume of eBook publishing that has publishers salivating (750,000 eBook titles in 2010 on top of the nearly 300,000 traditional books) makes it obvious that the old way of initiating Discovery just won’t be sustainable. Inkubate is the engine that will drive this emerging market.

We are excited to be the only company committed to building solutions for writers, publishers, editors and agents as they transition to meet the challenges (and opportunities) of a rapidly evolving industry.