Slush pile... really!
- Thread starter DennisB
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No, you aren't nuts. You just haven't been a slush reader yet. From my experience, it doesn't usually take very long for disillusionment to set in, especially with novel length slush. In true slush, it's very easy to go months without finding anything worth reading, let alone worth publishing.
It's something like accentance and rejection in writing, especially short story writing Getting an acceptance is thrilling, but if you get five hundred rejections in a row for every acceptance, even that one acceptance doesn't wash the bad taste out of your mouth.
I admit the idea appealed to me for about 10 seconds, but then I think back to the science fair projects I've judged, the scientific papers I've reviewed, etc, and making that decision of yea or nay is not too terribly rewarding, especially in light of the time it takes.
I could see myself spending way too long on the first few and then not enough on the last few before I burned out and refused to do any more.
Most start reading slush with teh intention or reading everything, and probably plqanning to tell each and every writer what they did right or wrong.
After a few days, you give up both notions, and after a couple of weeks, or months, you find some system that lets you live with the job, but I've met only a couple of editors in my life who enjoy reading slush at all.
I might be wrong on this, but I think I read that if you have an error-free, business-tone (meaning no "Hey, Editor!"-type stuff) cover letter or query, you're in the 5%. The rest of the 95% is an instant rejection.
So picture that slush pile, take away 95% of it, and there your letter is. Still a lot of others in the running though.
So picture that slush pile, take away 95% of it, and there your letter is. Still a lot of others in the running though.
Sure. Fortunately, standing out is not at all difficult. But there is a little more to it. Standing out gets you in the top five percent or so. This means your book gets read, you may get some very good rejections, etc. But depending on where you try to get published, you have to be in the top one percent at best, and often in the top one tenth of one percent, or better.
It's getting from two, three four, or five percent down inside that one percent mark that's really tough.
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Exactly. And since that slush pile picture has been making the rounds since 2002, I would hope it's at least changed shape by now.
Exactly. And since that slush pile picture has been making the rounds since 2002, I would hope it's at least changed shape by now.
That explains a lot. I was about to ask why it is a paper pile.
Yeah now they just overload their server, wait till it crashes and deletes all those unsolicited MS and bingo! Slush pile reduced!
Actually that publisher doesn't take e-mail slush, only paper. I wonder the pile has shrunk...or grown since then
Actually that publisher doesn't take e-mail slush, only paper. I wonder the pile has shrunk...or grown since then
I'm an evil bitch... I'd happily read the first two sentences and toss until I got to a halfway decent hook.
But there are still many publishers of books and magazines who request a full via postal service. And then there are those who print out the attachments from the emails.
Either way, whether virtual or hardcopy, the slush piles are huge.
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