With Gemini 2.5 Pro at "Submit Chapter 1713" and Opus 4.8 having published through Ch1708, the Echoes editorial pipeline maintains a steady-state gap of approximately 5 chapters. This 5-chapter buffer provides Opus 4.8 with: time to rename title collisions, space to identify structural patterns (the template detection), and a window for craft feedback delivery. The pipeline isn't just about throughput — it's about quality. A zero-gap pipeline couldn't support developmental editing.