Comments on: Stylin’ Manuscripts http://fritzfreiheit.com/blog/2008/02/21/stylin-manuscripts/ A bit of blogging about reading, writing, and few other things. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:03:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Fritz. http://fritzfreiheit.com/blog/2008/02/21/stylin-manuscripts/#comment-37 Fritz. Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:22:24 +0000 http://fritzfreiheit.com/blog/2008/02/21/stylin-manuscripts/#comment-37 Here it is <a href="http://www.speculations.com/?t=189391" rel="nofollow">Sweeping Back the Slushpile</a>. Here it is Sweeping Back the Slushpile.

]]> By: Fritz. http://fritzfreiheit.com/blog/2008/02/21/stylin-manuscripts/#comment-36 Fritz. Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:13:46 +0000 http://fritzfreiheit.com/blog/2008/02/21/stylin-manuscripts/#comment-36 Uli- I certainly won't dispute the fact that the slush pile is a tough filter to get through and that getting the manuscript format is worth paying attention to. There is a great article (I'm sure I have it bookmarked, so I'll include a link later) giving advice on how to read through the slush pile. - Fritz. Uli- I certainly won’t dispute the fact that the slush pile is a tough filter to get through and that getting the manuscript format is worth paying attention to. There is a great article (I’m sure I have it bookmarked, so I’ll include a link later) giving advice on how to read through the slush pile.
- Fritz.

]]> By: Ulrika http://fritzfreiheit.com/blog/2008/02/21/stylin-manuscripts/#comment-35 Ulrika Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:00:29 +0000 http://fritzfreiheit.com/blog/2008/02/21/stylin-manuscripts/#comment-35 "It can't hurt," is rather too weak a claim. People who read slush read an *ungodly* number of manuscripts. And they know that Sturgeon's law most definitely applies to the slush pile, in spades. And people who read slush also know that somewhere in that daunting stack of bad manuscripts they have to winnow through, there's a chance that something really excellent is lurking. Publishing doesn't generally pay well enough for people to be there just to turn a buck, so most of your slush readers are true believers. They *want* to find something good. But they are gonna have to wade through a lot of bad to find it. So they develop techniques for identifying the spot where they can give up on a particular manuscript, stop reading, and move on to the next one. Often, they stop after only a few pages. Because experience tells them it isn't going to get better if it starts out bad. What all this means to an unpublished, un-agented writer is that it's crucially important that first impressions are impressive. That means not faffing about with a lot of tedious and confusing set-up in the first ten pages, but getting on to something interesting Right Away to suck the reader in and make them go on. But even before you get to content, it means not shooting yourself in the foot by looking unprofessional. There are good reasons for pretty much all of the requirements of manuscript format, they aren't hard to learn, and they will keep you off the discard pile that little bit longer. After that, it's up to you. Or so says every publishing pro I've ever read or talked to on the subject. “It can’t hurt,” is rather too weak a claim. People who read slush read an *ungodly* number of manuscripts. And they know that Sturgeon’s law most definitely applies to the slush pile, in spades. And people who read slush also know that somewhere in that daunting stack of bad manuscripts they have to winnow through, there’s a chance that something really excellent is lurking. Publishing doesn’t generally pay well enough for people to be there just to turn a buck, so most of your slush readers are true believers. They *want* to find something good. But they are gonna have to wade through a lot of bad to find it. So they develop techniques for identifying the spot where they can give up on a particular manuscript, stop reading, and move on to the next one. Often, they stop after only a few pages. Because experience tells them it isn’t going to get better if it starts out bad.

What all this means to an unpublished, un-agented writer is that it’s crucially important that first impressions are impressive. That means not faffing about with a lot of tedious and confusing set-up in the first ten pages, but getting on to something interesting Right Away to suck the reader in and make them go on. But even before you get to content, it means not shooting yourself in the foot by looking unprofessional. There are good reasons for pretty much all of the requirements of manuscript format, they aren’t hard to learn, and they will keep you off the discard pile that little bit longer. After that, it’s up to you.

Or so says every publishing pro I’ve ever read or talked to on the subject.

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