Confessions of a Slush Reader

So you want to be a writer. That’s fantastic.  I love writers. Writers are some of my favorite people.  They’re brilliant and quirky and often tend to daydream (which is why they tend to thrive in their own internal worlds). You have the passion.  You even have a manuscript you know will revolutionize the world.

So why aren’t you published?

Me. That’s why. Well, not me in particular so please don’t stink bomb my house with sparkly vampire poo.

Slush readers.  We’re the legion of readers you have to get through in order to reach the big boss — the Editor aka She Who Sends the Acceptance Letters.

And here’s the thing:  slush readers are loaded in manuscripts.  Hundreds of them, every one submitted under the assumption that it was unique among all the others. The problem is that in the end, they all begin to be the same.  Writers fall into the same traps over and over.  Why?  I’m not sure. Maybe because as a collective unconscious we’ve all watched the same movies, read the same textbooks, been spoonfed the same tropes and mythos.

This blog is for you, the writer, to help you navigate your way through slush and, hopefully, onto Suzanne’s desk.

I’m pulling back the curtain.  Beyond that, good luck.  The FFO staff is somewhere under that mountain of .docs and .rtfs.

In the meantime, keep writing.  And dash off a question or two for me.

Much love.

Anna