Slush Pile question

[Eldritch]

When publishing houses read through their slush piles, what are the percentages of:
Really crappy manuscripts?
Well-written, but not sellable manuscripts?
"Hmm, this has potential" manuscripts?

[Toothpaste]

There may be a list somewhere of percentages, but from I remember, I believe around 90% of material in the pile is "really crappy". While others post with more info, in the meantime, check out ye olde Slushkiller (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html) article (a must read for any aspiring author).

[Mumut]

Thanks for that link, Toothpaste. It's good to brush up on why publishers reject manuscripts.

[Sage]

I always found Slushkiller really encouraging :)

[Gillhoughly]

If it's the slush I've seen, then

85% are mediocre to crappy
5% are truly, madly, deeply, terrifyingly crappy
8% range from rewrite & try again potential
2% -- my-god-CALL-this-one-before-the-other guys-twig-but-don't-sound-too-anxious-so-we-can-keep-the advance-low acceptable

It gets better: some of that includes submissions from working writers with a long publishing and sales history!

Yikes! :eek:

[David I]

Pat Walsh, the foudning editor of MacAdam/Cage, has these stats about slush in his excellent book 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Get Published (and 14 Reasons it Just Might):

50%: Things tossed out becasue they don't publish that genre
40%: Tossed after 1-2 page read by interns, etc. becasue they are bad
10%: rejected after careful reads, becasue they aren't bad, just not good enough...EXCEPT FOR A HANDFUL

That handful receive requests for full manuscripts.

Of the full manuscripts they request, they publish 1%.

Many people say that if there were a good manuscript in the slushpile, it would shine out like a beacon.

Walsh disagrees. He says, "A good clam will not undo the ills of a plateful of bad ones." In other words, reading slush can be nauseating, and you may suffer from guilt by association.

Macmillan New Writing in the UK takes ALL of its submissions over the transom, and takes only full manuscripts--so although agents are free to submit, everything is read as if it is slush. My numbers are dated, but the last time I heard they had received about 8,000 manuscripts and published 23. One editor there said that perhaps twice that many were "publishable", so publishable manuscripts (after the usual editing, etc) would be something like 46 out of 8,000 in their experience...That would mean that 99.4% aren't even in the race.

[AllieB]

I've read in a few places that agents request partial/full from 1-2 out of every hundred queries they receive. Sounds like what others are saying here.

[Eldritch]

Thanks, everyone. :)

[WildScribe]

This is just a scary thread.

[taloom]

Tell me about it!

[Jeremy]

While reading the Learn Writing with Uncle Jim Thread (currently on pg 40 -.-) I came upon some posts about Slush Piles by James D Macdonald. I saved what he wrote because it really inspired me. When I first heard about slush piles I was pretty disheartened, his post gave me hope.

I didn’t save a link; I just copied and pasted his writing into a document. Anyway here it is:
Today I found myself reading a bit of slush. Here's some advice I want to pass along:

* Spelling counts.
* Agreement of number is important.
* Keep the tense consistent.
* You're allowed to have more than one sentence per paragraph. In fact, you're encouraged to do so.
* Dialog is one of your basic tools. Learn how to use quote marks.
* Don't make your readers guess about the antecedents of your pronouns.
* You've heard of Point of View? Pick one. Then use it.
* Not all nouns need adjectives; not all verbs need adverbs.
* Assigning emotions to inanimate objects is called the Pathetic Fallacy. First, because it's a fallacy. Second, because it's pathetic.

* SHOW, DON'T TELL!


"Does anyone really submit stories like those?"

As I keep telling people, "If you can write two consecutive pages of grammatical English with all the words spelled right, you're already in the top ten percent of the slush pile."

Short answer: Yes, they do.

Even shorter answer: Arrrrgh!

Notice: Publishing isn't a lottery. Yes, major publishers get thousands of manuscripts. The way they select their manuscripts for publication isn't by going into the Slush Room and pulling out three at random then sending the rest back. This is a game of skill, not a game of luck. If you send in a good (or at least competent) manuscript, odds are good that you'll get published. If you send in bad manuscripts, you won't get published no matter how many times you submit.

Now ... if in addition to having the bare bones mechanics of English prose down pat you can tell a story ... you're in the top two percent of the slush heap where the sales come from.

Trust me on this: I promise you that publishers do not have rejection slips that say "Sorry! Too well-written and original for us!" no matter how many times you hear unpublished writers say that their manuscripts were rejected for having exactly those two qualities.

The mass of unpublishable slush is:

a) Badly written,
b) Trite,
or
c) Badly written and trite.

It’s good to know that if you put a lot of work into you’re writing it’s not unreasonable to expect that your work will at least be noticed. That’s why I love these posts by James D Macdonald and wanted to share them on this topic.

[Joe Moore]

Avoiding the slush pile is the number one reason to get an agent

[angeliz2k]

It is encouraging to know that good manuscripts really DO get picked up.

It's also oddly encouraging to read a published book and think that if this crap can get published, then so can I!

[Torgo]

Avoiding the slush pile is the number one reason to get an agent

If you are capable of getting an agent, the slush pile should hold no terrors.

[willietheshakes]

I was pleased to see that, in this iteration of the age-old question, it only took three minutes for a re-direct to slushkiller.

[taloom]

As Steven Brust says about slush piles, "If its good, someone will buy it"

[blacbird]

It's also oddly encouraging to read a published book and think that if this crap can get published, then so can I!

It's also oddly discouraging to read a published book and think that if this crap can get published, and the stuff I write can't, it means the stuff I write must be even worse.

caw

[maestrowork]

if this crap can get published, then so can I!

Aiming a little low, aren't we?

[LianeW]

Aiming a little low, aren't we?

I like to aim low. It keeps the terror manageable. ;)

I'm told by editor acquaintances that the Critters queue looks a lot like their average slush pile (for SFF short fiction, anyway). It's free, so if you're really curious, sign up for a couple of weeks and take a long hard look at what's out there and decide for yourself where your work falls on the spectrum.

[Valona]

Avoiding the slush pile is the number one reason to get an agent

I'm not sure I totally agree with this statement. I think the number one reason to get an agent is because he/she can submit to places closed to us newbes.

That is, assuming you can get an agent. They have their slush piles too.

[Eldritch]

It's also oddly encouraging to read a published book and think that if this crap can get published, then so can I!

Same here!

[willietheshakes]

I'm not sure I totally agree with this statement. I think the number one reason to get an agent is because he/she can submit to places closed to us newbes.


Um... wouldn't that be considered "avoiding the slush pile"?

[IdiotsRUs]

Um... wouldn't that be considered "avoiding the slush pile"?

Avoiding the publishers slushpile, but getting caught in the agent's slushpile.

[willietheshakes]

Avoiding the publishers slushpile, but getting caught in the agent's slushpile.

Maybe I'm being obtuse, but isn't that what a well-crafted query letter and submission package is for (ie, isn't the slush-pile made up of unsolicited full manuscripts?)?

[IdiotsRUs]

Maybe I'm being obtuse, but isn't that what a well-crafted query letter and submission package is for (ie, isn't the slush-pile made up of unsolicited full manuscripts?)?

The slush pile is 'Things I haven't read yet'

In the uk, you send a query and generally the first three chpaters, plus often a synopsis too. It sits there till they get round to itSo agent slushpile is pretty much the same as publisher slushpile.

Even if a partial has been requested by an agent (as in the US), then it's still slush till someone says 'Me likey'