Who is the Slush Pile reader?

Old Hack

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Please don't worry: it's so tempting sometimes, isn't it? I didn't edit your post in the spirit of punishment, more in the spirit of helpfulness, if that makes any sense at all!
 

Brenda G. Potash

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Wow. that says it all. Isn't that fascinating though? Doesn't anyone in the 95 percent have critiquers, or interested people, who will say "no this is not ready to submit?" I want to write an essay on that. I'm inspired.

This makes me think of people who go on those singing tv shows because their mom told them they sung like baby angels. But everyone has the best intentions, all the way from the person writing their masterpiece, to the person telling them they are good so their feelings aren't hurt. In my opinion, tell me I suck so I can go find a dream that I'll be better suited for. Who knows, maybe I'll make a great librarian, I do like books and they get paid well.
 

Brenda G. Potash

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VERY TRUE

We know. And J.K. Rowling was rejected many times on Harry Potter. In fact the editor who ended up publishing her had already thrown her manuscript in the reject pile. Only his daughter, who liked to poke her nose in, happened to get her hands on it.

Almost everything good was rejected somewhere before it was accepted. C'est la vie.

That's very true, I don't think you can find any author (excluding the super famous of course) that wouldn't get their MS rejected at least a dozen times before someone sees in it what they see.

I mean, even bad books get published sometimes, someone out there is bound to like your work, eventually. As long as you have the decency to get it edited, you might have a chance, maybe. There's nothing more worth to be thrown in the trash pile than something crawling with grammar errors. You don't have to be great at grammar, just find someone who is and pay them, or beg them.
 

Old Hack

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Paying to have your work edited prior to submission is really not needed. Just write the best book that you can, and revise it as well as you can.