What’s a typical job trajectory that ends (or passes through a phase) with the employee reading manuscripts submitted to a publishing company by hopeful authors?
And typically, do the people with this kind of job just read, or also actively comment on and correct these manuscripts?
This is a fairly low level position for the initial reader job. Typically right out of college or even during the latter years of college as an intern.
The initial reader is not reading for content beyond a few automatic rejects. They are reading for simple ability to maintain a consistant voice and basic language skills. They do not edit at all. Just determine if it has any potential worth pursuing.
The next level up, people reading for content, marketability etcs, are experienced in sorting through the slush pile.
And the level above that may be the ones making the final decision to purchase a novel from a writer.
Its not a single course career either, you can migrate sideways into another editorial position or into agency.
But the initial job is a simple Bachelors in English to get the job and doesn’t pay what an average college graduate job would pay. The “in” is to attend collegiate job fairs and look for publishers hiring. Checking the websites of the publishing houses wouldn’t hurt either. Job Titles to look for include Junior Editor and Proofreader.
Do publishing houses even read unsolicited manuscripts anymore?
Thanks Pan. Somehow I assumed the particular job duty I described would be held by someone higher up the chain than entry level. I’m glad to know better now.
Why would anyone with any kind of power in the publishing house WANT to wade through hundreds of thousands of pages of dysentery-quality shit of unsolicited manuscripts each year looking for the rare readable ones?
That depends on the kind of publishing house you are submitting to (and, of course, the kind of writing you are doing). One of Nashville’s largest publishing houses is the United Methodist Publishing House. It publishes many different magazines and guides for different purposes and ages. If someone familiarized herself with what is in demand in the various publications and wrote for a specific publication with a specific purpose, the chances of being published if you are literate and talented are reasonably good.
If you are trying to get attention for your first novel at a Fifth Avenue publisher, however, you are probably going to want an agent who knows the ropes.
Yes, you are right, I am an idiot.
As much as it pains wannabe authors, I think I agree with the publishers: “If your work is that good, an agent should be willing to flog your work in hopes of a percentage.”
They use the agents as the real first filters.
Do agencies do editing?
Apologies for the incredibly ignorant questions.
It’s certainly grown increasingly rarer. There are some but they are scattered with no consistent pattern for fields or genres. One of the last major exceptions is the romance genre, where a large number of publishers will take unsolicited submissions. That’s not quite the same as manuscripts, since they usually want one to three chapters and an outline rather than the whole thing.
Similarly, almost all nonfiction works on the chapter and outline system as well. But if you do find a fiction house that will accept them, you do normally need to send a full manuscript just to show you can finish the thing.
The only way to know whether a publisher will accept unsolicited submissions is to check their website, or go to a website that compiles guidelines. And make sure they are up to date because requirements change regularly.
The name given to the first reader is “slush” reader, who reads out of the “slush pile.” You can tell the status just from the name.
Here’s a recent analysis of a slush pile. It’s for romance but reads pretty much the same as every other account I’ve seen so not much ever changes.
Agents generally won’t do editing per se but will work with authors to tell them how to make their manuscripts more publishable. As the above link notes, editing is an incredibly time-consuming task. A paid editor can do it but it’s not really part of an agent’s job. As with everything in publishing, there are numerous exceptions of every possible type to this generalization.
Thanks for the information, Exapno.
So, as you can probably figure out, one option I want to keep open in this time of personal employment panic–if it’s possible to even open it in the first place!–is to get into editing. I figure I’ve got work experience that can at least get me in the door. But I might be wrong about even that! (I’ve been editing documents regularly for seven years as a researcher, writer, teacher and freelance College Writing tutor. Bachelor’s in English Composition. Am I wrong about this experience plausibly allowing me to get in the door?)
So, basically, I’m wondering (not just at you Exapno since you may not be the right person to ask, but at the SDMB in general) how one steps into that industry, so I’ll know where to send out resumes etc.
I would just like to note that YOU said that, not me. I didn’t imply it, and it’s not my opinion of you, from past experience. Please don’t put words in my mouth/hands/keyboard.
Well, whether you intended it or not, the implication of your post was clear, however offhand the sentiment may have seemed. If you’d like to discuss my support for this claim further, we can do it in PMs, or in another thread if you really want to.
To be clear, I do believe you when you say that’s not what you meant.
No PMs necessary. If you took it that way, I apologize. It wasn’t meant that way.
I’m sorry–indeed, I feel bad that–I misread you. (And you really didn’t need to apologize, but I appreciate the sentiment.)
Publishing has been hit hard by the recession and the shift to Internet reading. (Not by ebooks, which are too tiny a fraction to care about, but the general death of reading books that aren’t huge bestsellers.) Experienced people are getting laid off in droves.
Slush readers are minimum wage slaves who live four to one bedroom apartments and eat take out leftovers.
It’s a dying industry. Unless you could find a specialized niche for your particular expertise, my general WAG is that you’re way too inexperienced for an editorial slot and way too expensive for an entry-level position.
Again, just a generality. There may be many particulars I don’t know about since I’m not in NYC.
You might also find the 2002 Salon article “Confessions of a slush-pile reader” to be informative.
Until you personally encounter the crazy slush, and see it in your hands, and stare at it with wild wonder, you will never believe how underexggerated these slush piles tales are.
I had a brief stint as slush pile reader at Weird Tales during college. Out of roughly every five hundred stories, I would recommend one for publishing. Some of the obvious problems-
English obviously not their first language
Obsessed with something (bizarre sex, political message, other)
Never bothered to learn what kind of magazine they were submitting to (We published fantasy and horror stories. You wrote a love story. Why did you send it to us?)
Just plain sucked.
It was a fun job and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.