Happy Labor Weekend to all our TIPM readers in the USA. Today’s TIPM Morning Brief covers a real mixed bag; an odd competition challenge by Joe Konrath to independent authors; a very mediocre article from the New York Times telling us nothing we didn’t already know; and self-editing in preparation for professional editing.

First up, Joe Konrath decided to rise to the challenge of writing, editing, creating cover art and publishing a book in the space of one hour, and drunk into the mix. He didn’t publish the book under his own name and he was surprised to find the book did earn him a few dollars. Konrath has an established name, so I’m not sure why this was a surprise. He extended the challenge to his blog readers, while also extending the time period to eight hours through a kind of competition. While the results were naturally erratic, yet fascinating, I’m still baffled as to what the real point of this exercise was. Kind of like playing literary chicken on a busy train track. Sometimes you will get hit and sometimes you will get away with your literary life intact. Beyond that, it’s pretty much all you will learn. Teleread has to synopsis and link to this news story.

There has been countless publishing news articles on J.K. Rowling’s ‘The Cuckoo Calling’ and the deliberate or accidental disclosure of Rowling’s authorship of the book, as well as the endless debate as to how much an author’s name leads to the success of a book. I’ve pretty much heard all the arguments, so when the New York Times published a piece by James B. Stewart, I did expected to either learn something new or at least read an article with a unique take on the wider subjects under discussion. Instead, we get a cobbled-together piece insistent on telling us the obvious all authors have know for the past two to three decades about the world of book publishing.

Fortunately Joel Friedlander is pushing the envelope for authors, specifically those independent authors who still insist on using MS Word when undertaking a DIY publishing project. That said, Friedlander’s excellent BookDesignTemplates.com has done an excellent job of pushing MS Word to its maximum capabilities. This week the site unveiled a new template for picture books.

Sarah Kolb-Williams, a freelance book editor, guest posts on TheCreativePenn.com with a piece on self-editing. The title of the piece is a little cheeky and misleading but the article does stress that this is a preparation to releasing your work to beta readers and the all-important professional editing stage.