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Is Amazon the new slush pile?
I've just read a great blog on Cheryl Shireman's website: www.cherylshereman.com 'Indie Publishing the New Slush Pile?'
It brought it all back to me, when I first started sending manuscripts to publishers. The slush pile if you don't already know is the place where most manuscripts end up when sent to main stream publishers. In my early career you had to post the mss to a publisher. This entailed writing a covering letter, a synopsis and normally three chapters of your books - all sent in an A4 Jiffy bag with an SAE inside (so you could receive the rejection without the publisher forking out the money for postage).
Cheryl explained perfectly in her blog what it was like waiting for the postman to bring you the good or bad news. The publisher would take the unsolicited manuscript to one side (unsolicited; meaning not sent by an agent) and dump it on the slush pile, with all the other so called 'no hopers.' I have so many 'Rejection slips' it's unbelievable, and the normal letter was sent with it - This is not for us, or it's not what we're looking for, but some other publisher may want it. Don't give up dear...
With indie author/publishers now, anyone with a good writing skill, or not is some cases, can put their work straight on Amazon. The Amazon brand being the biggest platform in the world for authors. And, the biggest slush pile.
As Cheryl explained, agents and publishers can sift through the top selling or just keep an eye for a good novel, and pick them straight up.
Goodbye slush pile, hello to getting your work noticed.