6

By Chris Meadows

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on the death of the “slush pile”—the old publishing term for the stack of unsolicited manuscripts that would-be authors have submitted in the hope of being selected for publication. (So named because in the old old days, rather than being thrown away, the the waste paper would be rendered down to “slush” for making more paper out of.)

The slush pile has been a fixture of publishing for a long time—or at least it had been. In the “good old days”, they represented a potential “rags to riches” story: writer submits manuscript, publishers recognize its brilliance, and suddenly he’s at the top of the best-seller list.

Film at Eleven?

But according to the article, the last time major publisher Random House published from the slushpile was in 1991. Many publishers do not even look at un-agented unsolicited manuscripts anymore due to legal concerns or tight funds in today’s economy.

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. Most book publishers have stopped accepting book proposals that are not submitted by agents. Magazines say they can scarcely afford the manpower to cull through the piles looking for the Next Big Thing.

The article notes that “[t]he Web was supposed to be a great democratizer of media”, where anybody with the equipment to make a movie or write a blog could become a content producer—but instead, it has become one giant slush pile itself, that media producers are reluctant to touch with a ten-foot pole.

Other Options

Of course, even though the article does not mention it, slush is not dead everywhere. Baen has a slush conference on the Baen Bar, where writers can submit their work for critique by fellow Barflies and consideration by Baen staff. (Though last time I checked, the Baen staff in charge of that consideration were significantly behind due to the large volume of submissions.)

Baen also had a separate slushpile for submissions to the Jim Baen’s Universe magazine, though the magazine has since been cancelled.

But even as publishers have stopped regarding slush, it has also made self-publication as e-books or even print books much easier. Authors such as Henry Melton have taken to independent or self-publishing, and some are apparently even able to earn a decent living from it.

Others, such as John Scalzi, have posted novels for free on the web and subsequently been discovered by publishers—but this kind of success is very, very rare.

Getting Considered

The article suggests several ways for getting stories considered by publishers or movie studios—finding an agent and monetizing, getting your writing out there for people to see, entering contests, and so on—but it seems to me that even if you do everything right you are either going to have to rely on sheer dumb luck or make your own luck by self-publishing.

It would be nice to be able to say that e-books offer a way around this mess, but in the end they are just another medium for regular- or self-publishing: if your work gets accepted by a major publisher, they’ll probably put it out in e-book form—or else you can do it yourself if you self-publish.

 
6