Interesting article on what it takes these days to get published. For your edification, the "slush pile" is the pool of unsolicited manuscripts that a publisher may receive. These were traditionally picked over by assistants before being thrown out, or rarely, sent upward.
Now, slush is dead, or close to extinction. Film and television producers won't read anything not certified by an agent because producers are afraid of being accused of stealing ideas and material.
The article does mention Stephenie Meyer and J.K. Rowling as notable exceptions that were published via this route. And while I am loathe to ascribe anything good to Meyer's writing, it does sell like crazy.
This bit from Carol Schneider of Random House hit particularly close to home:
Don't be a barista waiting for someone to stumble upon your genius. "Our editors travel, they get around. They look at writer's conferences, at MFA programs. They look at magazine articles and at blogs. That's what editors do, they sniff things out from so many different sources.
Reminds me that I need to get my ass in gear and sign up for this upcoming Pikes Peak Writers Conference that Christian from my writing group is involved in.
At the same time, it does seem as though some publishers are adapting. It's clever and somewhat insidious to use readers as the arbiters for considering a manuscript, but it's better than wholly rejecting everything.
In 2008. HarperCollins launched Authonomy.com, a Web slush pile. Writers can upload their manuscripts, readers vote for their favorites, and HarperCollins editors read the five highest-rated manuscripts each month.
Of course, doing something like this blog is also good to keep in the habit of writing on a regular basis.
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