Welcome to the Slush Pile

Posted by Scalzi about 1 year ago | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here’s the latest in a long series of articles put out by readers of “slush piles” – in which some poor assistant editor at a publishing house approaches an unsteady tower of unsolicited manuscripts hoping to find an undiscovered gem, and then realizing over (a short amount of) time that these gems are unlikely to be found in the slush at all. My favorite quote:

I hated that it was my job to shatter people’s dreams of being published, but I also hated that so many of them had such illiterate dreams.

Speaking as a writer: meow, man. However, speaking as someone who has spent time working more than one slush pile over my career: Yes. Lots of folks want to write; somewhat fewer are writing stuff worth reading.

Which is one of the nice things about here: Practice, practice, practice. It makes a difference, it does.

Comments

  1. Jon Rosebaugh's Buddy IconJon Rosebaugh

    Posted about 1 year ago

    I find the comments on that post hilarious, particularly the slush pile authors who think the publisher should write them a personalized letter explaining exactly why their unread masterpiece has remained unread, or that somehow there is a clique devoted to keeping these writers down.