A Brush With Slush

Five Strategies to Keep Your Manuscript Out of the Slush Pile

I won’t lie to you. Vaccinations on the horizon and a hint of warm weather outside made me think of springtime and slushies and that was the inspiration for today’s article. I don’t always get my Shelf Life inspiration from food but when I do it’s junk food. You’d be surprised how often Shelf Life is inspired by thinking of food, which is fortunate since I am always thinking of food.

If you’re a writer aspiring to become a published author, or if you work in or around the publishing industry in any capacity, then you know about the slush pile. For those who aren’t familiar, I will fill you in on this industry mainstay. It’s not something you find on the floor at your local 7-11 but to be honest it’s not much more appetizing than that. The slush pile is the pile of unsolicited query letters and manuscripts that every publisher has lying around somewhere and it is a place you want to make sure your manuscript never lands—if you can help it.

Don’t worry, I am going to tell you how to help it.

First, I’ll quickly explain the difference between solicited and unsolicited manuscripts. If an editor or publisher reaches out to you and says “hey, we would like to publish your next book,” the manuscript of that “next book” is solicited. When a famous person decides to write a book and there’s a bidding war to see which publishing house can pay for the privilege of publishing it when it’s ready, that manuscript is solicited. When a writer has sold a few manuscripts and they’ve done well in the market, there is every likelihood that their next manuscript will be solicited by the editor who bought the last few—and maybe by other editors, too. When the publisher comes to you asking for your manuscript, that’s a solicited manuscript. 

Every other manuscript is slush.

Real quick: Vanity and subsidy presses may reach out and ask you for your manuscript and then present you with an estimated cost you’ll have to pay them to publish it for you. That’s a predatory practice—not every manuscript solicitation is cause for publication celebration.

When a literary agent, editor, or publisher receives a manuscript that they did not ask for and were not expecting, it goes in their slush pile. Some companies tell you right up front that they don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts at all—see HarperCollins’s submissions page. Other companies tell you to go ahead and submit your manuscript but if an editor hasn’t asked for your manuscript it’s still considered slush. Baen, for instance, is famously open to submissions but look carefully at the URL of their submissions form page. Many publishers fall in between and are open to receiving unsolicited query letters from authors—see, for instance, Persea’s submission guidelines—and will solicit a manuscript if they like a query.

Whether a company is closed or open to submissions, if no one at that company has asked you personally to send them your manuscript, then your manuscript is slush and it’s going in the slush pile.

You may be picturing the lifecycle of the unsolicited manuscript: 

• I submitted my manuscript to an agent or editor;

• It was unsolicited so it went into their slush pile;

• The person I sent it to will read it when it gets to the top of their pile;

• That person will then decide whether or not to publish it!

While that may be what happens at very small publishers and agencies, or at new companies building up their stable of authors, it’s not representative of the usual process. If your manuscript goes in the slush pile, it’s got one of two destinies in store for it:

• It will get read when the editor or agent is completely out of solicited material to review; or

• It will eventually be read by someone—but not the person you intended.

Most of the time, editors and agents do not read the material in their slush pile. Their time is devoted to considering manuscripts they have requested or that have been presented to them by an agent or by someone who reads manuscripts out of the slush pile on their behalf. 

The lowest-paid available person with an eye for knowing if a manuscript has potential reads slush manuscripts. Sometimes this is an enterprising intern, sometimes an editorial assistant reading it in their copious free time (usually outside of work hours), sometimes a junior agent or editor hoping to stumble across a gem, and most times it’s a freelance slush reader—someone who gets paid a per-manuscript rate to read unsolicited manuscripts and alert the editor or agent who hired them when they see something that might be worth a second look.

Now you know what the slush pile is and that you don’t want your manuscript to go there. Here are five ways to ensure that your manuscript never hits the slush pile and instead goes directly to an editor with the ability to sign you. Some of the below methods are easier than others—but all of them are better than throwing your manuscript into a bottomless well of slush and wishing.

Get an Agent

Easier said than done, right? 

An established agent has spent their career building relationships with editors at publishing companies and demonstrating their ability to pick winning manuscripts. When an agent brings a manuscript for consideration by an editor with whom they have a good relationship, that manuscript is not going to be treated as slush—a good agent’s enthusiastic representation carries a lot of weight. An agent is also the only way to get your manuscript considered by a publishing company that is closed to submissions, like HarperCollins. 

So how do you find an agent and get them to consider—and then agree to represent—your manuscript? Start by finding the right agent. Don’t pull a name out of a hat—it’s easier now than ever to find someone who is looking to represent exactly what you have to offer. 

A great resource for this is QueryTracker with its large, searchable database of agents and tools for keeping your queries straight. Another great place to start is ManuscriptWishlist, a site where agents and editors create a profile to tell authors who they are, what their credentials are, and exactly what manuscripts they are looking to receive from authors. ManuscriptWishlist came about through the #mswl hashtag on Twitter, which remains a goldmine to check regularly if you are trying to sell a manuscript. 

For instance, I just now went to the #mswl hashtag and saw that an established, senior literary agent is opening up for queries in May. This agent tweeted that authors should check her MSWL before querying. Between her previous tweets tagged #mswl and her profile on ManuscriptWishlist I was able to establish exactly what she is looking for, so I know if I have anything that fits the bill I should have my query letter polished and ready to send her in May. Till then, I can browse some stats on her response time, rejection rate, and other metrics on QueryTracker to make sure I know what to expect.

Whether you’re finding an agent or going directly to an editor, the next tip is equally critical.

Query a Real Person

If you want someone to look at your manuscript, make sure you don’t send them your manuscript unless (like Baen, for instance) they have specifically asked you to do exactly that. Don’t be an overachiever and send an entire manuscript. Send a letter ahead first to see if the editor (or agent) you are trying to sell this manuscript to is interested. This is your query and you need to do your level best to send it to an actual person. “To Whom It May Concern”? “Dear Sir or Madam”? “How Are You Gentlemen”? All your query are belong to slush.

You have probably been told at some point in your life that when you are applying for a job, you should do everything you can to address your application or inquiry to a person who works at the company. The hiring manager is best if you know who that is, the recruiter is also a great bet if you have their name—just get the name of any actualhuman being associated with the job you’re applying for and try to put that name on your application cover letter. Companies make this harder and harder all the time, and it’s exceptionally difficult when you’re new to a field, but it makes a big difference to reach out to a real person instead of just tossing your application into a pile.

Query letters are like that, too. Some publishing companies rely on a generic inbox that queries go to and others only accept queries via a web submission form, which can make it challenging to get your query to the right person. If you’ve done your research on #mswl or Publishers Weekly or the publisher’s website—or wherever you’re doing research—then you probably know exactly which editor you want your manuscript to go to. Make sure you do everything you can do to send that query to them either via a direct email (better) or by addressing your cover letter to them before uploading it or pasting it into a web form.

The more closely you can tailor your query letter to the editor you’re sending it to, the better. Again, this is like sending out a cover letter to get your resume read. Yes, you’re going to be submitting this query letter to dozens of agents and editors, but that doesn’t mean you make dozens of exact copies and spam them around. Make sure you personalize your query to reflect the editor’s MSWL, other books they have signed/published, their specific expertise, and so on.

Participate in a Pitch Party

Listen we’ve been socially distancing for a year and it’s time to party. Don’t worry, these parties are virtual and held on social media, they are safe even if you aren’t fully vaxxed yet. If you hate everything about social media (you know who you are) then I am sorry, today’s article references a lot of it.

A pitch party is something like #PitMad, #WMPitch, or #PitDis. The concept: On prescheduled, specific dates, agents and editors scour Twitter for pitches carrying the relevant hashtag. Authors with unpublished, polished manuscripts ready to go tweet their pitch (the full pitch must be contained in the 280-character tweet along with the hashtag). Spectators who like a pitch can signal boost it using the retweet function. Agents and editors who wish to be sent the manuscript use the favorite function to indicate their interest. If you throw out a pitch with the #PitMad tag on June 3 (#PitMad happens four times annually) between 8am and 8pm Eastern time and an agent or editor likes your tweet, congratulations—your manuscript has been solicited. It is no longer slush. 

Just make sure your manuscript is ready to go before you put a pitch out into the world during #PitMad, because editors expect to receive that quickly after they favorite your tweet. Participating editors and agents will have tweeted out their own submission guidelines at the beginning of the pitch party so you can quickly see exactly what they want to receive and how you can get your manuscript to them. If you’re not quite ready to pitch but you want to practice or gauge interest in an idea, there’s a #MockPit event a few weeks before each #PitMad.

Win an Award 

No big deal, just bring home the Booker—right? Just kidding, the Man Booker Prize is only for published manuscripts. But there are plenty of contests out there specifically for unpublished manuscripts. Some of them are just for the prestige—you can put the name of the literary prize you won into your query letter—but many confer a prize of publication from a sponsoring press or publishing company. 

Entering your manuscript in a contest is a major decision, because you may not be able to submit it anywhere else while you are awaiting results. You also need to take care to ensure that any contest you submit to is independent from any vanity or subsidy press or any other venture that is linked to taking money from you other than an entry fee. While it’s reasonable to pay a small entry fee to participate in a contest, be wary of any contest that requires you to pay for an ongoing membership, participate in a class, or purchase editing in order to participate.

Submit to a Small Press

Finally, consider submitting your manuscript to a publishing company or agency that is small enough—or new enough—that they’re not already drowning in slush.

The Big Six publishers get so many submissions that most of them take new manuscripts only through agents. This is because people see Stephenie Meyer swimming around in a vault full of gold coins and they think, “Man, I could write Twilight it wasn’t that complex!” and they see it was published by Little, Brown (Hachette Book Group) and that’s how they pick the publisher they want to go with.

That’s not going to work for most manuscripts. If it works for your manuscript I’m very happy for you and I wish you and your millions of dollars well.

When writers tell me they don’t want to self-publish and they don’t want to work with an agent but instead want to go directly to a publisher, I suggest they follow this route to amass a list of publishers to try:

1. Create a list of comps for your manuscript (I have already written on how to do this)

2. Look up the first traditionally published book by the authors of your comps

3. Put the publisher who published their first book on your list

Plenty of authors start out with a small or independent press, demonstrate that their manuscripts can sell books successfully, and then move to a bigger publisher for later books. You don’t need to remain tied to just one publisher for your whole career. Stephen King has published with different imprints around Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster as well as smaller publishers like Grant and Hard Case. You can do whatever you want.

Small presses can be every bit as selective as large presses—moreso, even—but you won’t be competing with the sheer volume of submissions that the major trade publishers receive. Look for a small, independent press that specializes in the type of book you have written and take a chance on them. Small publishers can put out huge books. As always, make sure you do your diligence to verify that a small or independent publisher is not a subsidy or vanity press.

I hope I brought you some good ideas today to get that manuscript sailing onward to publication! Always remember that even with a polished manuscript it’s normal to send dozens of queries before you get a nibble—don’t give up after a few rejections. Someone out there wants that manuscript you’re sitting on. Keep looking till you find them.

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