What a slushpile looks like!

[Cathy C]

One of the nice moderators on another thread suggested I move this over here because a lot of new writers have never seen a slush pile. I've changed the post a little bit from the topic where it started, because I remembered some other stuff.

Quote:
Although I think in the case of Tor you should query first, if you want to hear back from them in your lifetime. LOL. Because once you get a "yes, please send us your ms" response from agent/publisher, you bypass the slush pile. It's now "requested material" and goes right to an agent/editor's desk. Where it sits until agent/editor reads it, along with all the other stuff he's requested.


Just as an interesting FYI on this -- I write for Tor and asked my editor once what the slush pile looked like at their office. She sent me this picture of the corner of her office:

http://img76.echo.cx/img76/1472/slush22wi.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us/)

Now, keep in mind that this is ONE WEEK'S stack in ONE editor's office. A stack like this arrives EVERY SINGLE WEEK. Every Tuesday afternoon, the entire editorial staff of Tor turns off the phones, grabs their stack and trots off to the conference room where every single one of them will sit around the table and start to read submissions. Then, if they haven't whittled through their portion of the stack, it goes home with them at night until it's gone. Unsolicited queries go with them to conferences, on vacation, and follow them home like puppies.

When I started to think about it, I decided that you couldn't PAY me enough to have her job. LOL! I think I'll just keep writing...

Additional trivia: Another well-known author friend mentioned that when she was writing for either Berkeley or Pocket (she couldn't remember which,) she dropped by her editor's office one day and was about to compliment her on getting a "real" office with a door (since most of them work in cubicles). But when she stepped in the door, there was this little path through piles upon piles of manuscripts in envelopes. She had to squeeze sideways at one point to get by.

"But I thought you'd stopped taking unsolicited manuscripts," the author said.

The editor sighed, moved a stack of envelopes off a chair for the author to sit on and replied, "We did. These are the ones from agents, queries pitched at conferences and contest wins. If you look closely, there's a TABLE under that stack in the corner."

When the author looked, sure enough -- you could tell because the stack was a little bit taller where the table was.

So don't pick on the editors for having to wait for a response. It's a hard life, and the ones who work for companies for years reading manuscripts are really dedicated.

Okay, off my "be nice to editors" soapbox! :D

[azbikergirl]

Now, keep in mind that this is ONE WEEK'S stack in ONE editor's office. A stack like this arrives EVERY SINGLE WEEK. Every Tuesday afternoon, the entire editorial staff of Tor turns off the phones, grabs their stack and trots off to the conference room where every single one of them will sit around the table and start to read submissions. Then, if they haven't whittled through their portion of the stack, it goes home with them at night until it's gone. Unsolicited queries go with them to conferences, on vacation, and follow them home like puppies.

Maybe I'm being too literal, but this paragraph implies that each editor makes it through his weekly stack by the following Tuesday. Judging from the long response times, one must conclude that isn't the case. Surely, they get through only a portion of the stack and what's left over the following Tuesday, gets carried over to the next stack, and the next, and the next...
:Shrug:

[Cathy C]

I probably phrased that wrong. Sorry. Correct, azbikergirl. It's the never-ending story, and it's why there are so many form rejections sent out. When would there be TIME to sit down and write out a thoughtful response on every single ms.? The Tor editors (I don't know about other ones), really do try to at least jot down a note, even if it's only a few words.

[ChunkyC]

I'll vouch for getting a nicely worded rejection from Tor. It's not often you feel like saying 'thank you' for being turned down. As for time, I received a response on my unsolicited manuscript in just under three months ... to Canada, where fleas leapfrog across the country faster than the mail.

[maestrowork]

When I worked at Scholastic, I saw some of the slushpiles first hand. So I kind of saw the other side of the fence, although as a writer I still didn't like it... ;)

[mistri]

When I worked in publishing, we used to get 10 - 20 submissions a day (mostly partials, but some full manuscripts). I kept mine in a big filing cupboard and they soon filled it :)

If I was feeling brave, I'd go through my senior editor's pile, and would frequently find even agented MSs that were a year old in there...

[Shai]

I remember having to pick up the mail numerous days a week for the publisher I once worked for. Often I filled my backpack and two heavy-duty bags with submissions. The slush pile was so big that we had to buy a shelving unit from Ikea. Every envelope was dated and marked with its genre and put into a box about the size of a two-drawer filing cabinet on its side. At one point we were up to five boxes bursting with slush.

Going through slush was probably the most hateful part of the job. Some of the manuscripts were so bad I never got past the first paragraph and just wanted to stab my eyes out. But sometimes there were very amusing submissions, good for a laugh, which helped take the edge off knowing there were still several hundred more envelopes to go through.

But coming across those few manuscripts that actually made you sit up and notice and go "Wow!" made it all worth it.

[batgirl]

My rejection from Tor came in good time too, just slightly under the lower end of their expected time. I wish it had been a scrawled note or such rather than just a form letter, but that's the only crit I could make.
Is that picture from the Slushkiller post, or a new one?

I suggested once on Making Light that they have a webcam of their slushpile so that hopeful writers could track their packages progress to the top - but I suppose that would have led only to more madness of packaging mss in dayglo colours and so on.
-Barbara

[DragonHeart]

Next time my mom complains about me having clutter everywhere I'm showing her that picture lol. She'd have a fit (she's a cleaning freak). XD

Anyway, that's kind of depressing to think about. If I ever complete a novel and somehow find enough courage to actually submit it, I know I'll be having nightmares about that, eh.

~DragonHeart~

[Andrew Zack]

If you are interested in slush, I put the stats up monthly at my website on the following page: http://www.zackcompany.com/submissions.htm

I never thought of taking a picture, but I do try and keep it all in a cabinet!

Best,
Andy

[popmuze]

Regardless of what type of slush pile your manuscript winds up in, can someone give me a general idea of how much of it an editor will read before they send it back.

It would be useful to know, when you get some critical comments, whether this was based on a page, a chapter, or the whole book.

I could be wrong, but I imagine the amount of interest an editor has in the project could be related to how much of the book they are able to finish?

[aboyd]

For the record, my own slushpile took a month to get as high as that photograph depicts. Not everyone has something that massive to deal with. Of course, I was the only person reading my slushpile, so doing it by myself was still an ordeal.

OK, to answer popmuze, I never published or accepted book-length submissions. If I got one, it went back unread. Not a single page was read.

However, if you sent in something that followed my submission guidelines for length, then I read the whole thing. I tried to never, ever reject an appropriate submission until I had read it all. However, sometimes that just wasn't possible. Usually it had nothing to do with time constraints, and everything to do with garbage. If it was awful reading from the start, I'd try to force myself through it, but sometimes I'd get queasy and have to stop.

So, to your point, I think if you've followed the guidelines, you should expect that your work is read in full by at least 1 person before you hear back. If it isn't read in full, you should expect that it was extreme. Either extremely bad and they never want to hear from you again, or extemely good and they're offering you a deal because they're certain you're an amazing writer. That's rare, either way.

-Tony

[Andrew Zack]

Let me tell you a story....

One night, I settled in to read a full manuscript I'd requested based on a query letter. I got ten pages into it, realized it was horrible, and gave up. I went to the pile and got another full manuscript. This time I got less than ten pages and gave up. I went to the pile a third time. I think I read the entire first chapter before I gave up. I went to pile a fourth time.... It was around this time that I decided to just about never request a full ms based on a query letter. Now I request a sample chapter only, since that's about all I read before I rejected most books.

Now I tend to read the sample chapter before the synopsis, because at the end of the day, it's about the writing. Then I request the full ms if the sample chapter blows me away.

[popmuze]

Specifically, in a couple of cases I was asked by editors to send the full manuscript. A couple of agents asked for 40 or 50 pages. I've received five rejections now, several with some glowing adjectives about the writing followed by reservations about voice or plot.

One editor said she read 100 pages; one agent read 40 and skimmed another 20. I don't know about the others. But I've been focusing my thoughts about rewriting on the first 50 -100 pages, figuring, if someone loves the first half, maybe they'd be willing to take the book on, knowing the last half might need some work.

In your experience, do you need to love the whole book from beginning to end before you take on a project?