What made American Songwriter/American Songspace decide to create an opportunity like this? "The Pub Deal" evolved from American Songwriter's Lyric Contest. We thought, "wouldn't it be cool if we played a larger role in guiding someone's career?" We already run contests to help give songwriters a leg up -- grand prize of our Lyric Contest includes a guitar, a dream co-write, a professionally recorded demo, and lyrics printed in the magazine. For the winning songwriter, that's a ton of great material to work with. But, even with those great advantages, there's still a chance of ending up as a star songwriter on the sidelines. We really wanted to create something that would help put someone right in the game. And giving away a publishing deal, as we are in the Pub Deal, puts you right to work, writing songs and earning a living doing it. Most people considering a career in music have heard about record deals, but fewer know about publishing deals. How would you describe the difference? Both are investments that nurture talent, hoping it will become profitable. And sometimes one type of deal leads to the other. A major difference between a record deal and a publishing deal is that you don't necessarily have to be a performer to have a publishing deal -- and you don't have to be a songwriter to have a recording contract, either, but they work together. The publisher markets the songs you've written, trying to get them recorded by performing artists,