Slush Reader

[kibitzer]

Can someone tell me what a "slush reader" is? I've heard the term several times on EA 'casts but I'm not sure what it means. I assume it's a publishing term?

[Sandikal]

I believe that "slush" means unsolicited manuscripts in publishing lingo.

[Heradel]

Basically, they take a first pass through all of the submissions that each of the podcasts get, and then forward those they think are acceptable onto the editors. They don't make the decision to buy a story, but it has to meet their baser standard to get to the other editors.

[kibitzer]

Aha. So they act as the first sieve for the stories. Cool. Thanks -- makes sense.

[DKT]

Basically, they take a first pass through all of the submissions that each of the podcasts get, and then forward those they think are acceptable onto the editors. They don't make the decision to buy a story, but it has to meet their baser standard to get to the other editors.

Just here to pretty much corroborate the above

[Heradel]

I just ran back across our Slush reader explaining how she cuts it down.

I like the idea of an Ann Leckie month--good to see what her personal tastes are.  (And the writer side of me is rubbing his hands together in anticipation--now he'll understand what sort of stories most appeal to Ann so that he can get a manuscript by her!  Mwahahaha!)

I can provide some of the information you want for less effort.    I pass anything that's really beautifully written, even if it's not my sort of thing.  I pass anything that I think Anna and/or Dave would like, even if it's not my sort of thing--so it's better to work on figuring out their tastes than mine.  However, I do have a personal bug about worldbuilding, one that, I think, Anna shares with me.  If your worldbuilding doesn't make sense--either "logical" sense or what I call "poetic logical" sense, that's going to be a strike against the story.  Similarly, if a story is using a culture or a mythos that I'm familiar with and the writer hasn't done their research, that's going to be a hard sell.  For example, sloppily researched Arthurian stories have almost no chance of making it past me.  Of all the Arthurians that have been subbed to PC, only three were clearly by people who knew the literature well, only two have made it past me, and we only bought one.  (That would be the awesome "Cup and Table," which I adore.  But you probably knew that.)