It just dawned on us here at Slush Pile Reader HQ that we have a site comprised of amazing writers from all walks of live and from all over the world. Basically we are sitting on a goldmine of talent. We have a teacher from Virginia, a journalist from India, homemaker from England and a college student from Alabama. We have doctors, a policeman, full time writers ad even a massage therapist, all of whom, regardless of background, share one thing – their love of reading and writing.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am curious about the Slush Pile Reader members. What brought you to our community, what got you started writing, what are your dreams and ambitions. Who are you?

I know many of our members have specific knowledge Some are particularly experienced and talented at editing and have an abundance of information on the subject. Others are great at developing plots, whereas some excel at typecasting or scenery. Others are English teachers with an astounding knowledge of literature. Some are experts at crime writing others at Sci Fi. All of you have some particular talent.

So here’s my thought – wouldn’t it be great to know more about your fellow Slushers? Wouldn’t you love to share their knowledge and benefit from their experience? I know I would.

This is an invitation to all Slush Pile Reader members to share your story and your expertise with the Slush Pile Reader community. The Slush Pile Reader blog is open for contributions. The subject matter is free – write what you know, what you are passionate about and want to share.

Do you want to tell us about yourself, and why you write? Do you have the chops to write a tutorial on editing, we would love to read it. Do you want to talk about the development of crime plots in the Internet era, or the Elizabethan novel, or the future of Manga, or whatever it is you love, please do! If you have a blog entry in you, write it down and email it to me. I will post them in the order they arrive. I can’t wait to see what you got.

A few weeks back Karen Bessey Peace, one of the most prolific members of the site and longtime contributor to the Writers’ Tag wrote an excellent and much appreciated piece. When the official Writers’ Tag was launched, Eugene Saint, Writers’ Tag instigator and pro extra ordinaire, contributed with a detailed background and explanation of the Tag. So following in their footsteps, who wants to have a first go as Slush Pile Reader guest blogger?

Well, here we go again. Once in a while, lengthy articles on the state of publishing pop up in the most reputable of magazines. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for it and the articles are great – well researched and thought provoking and much needed. The only thing is – they are kind of repetitive and, well old. What they are saying is nothing new, at least not to us, the team at Slush Pile reader, or for that matter to you, the Slush Pile Reader’s authors and readers. If it were, you wouldn’t be here, would you?

The latest article is wordy, but worth a read. It dwells a bit too much on e-books and the wonder of the iPad (What do you all think of that one?! Is it the second coming or just another fabulous marketing ploy by Jobs et al?) but it touches upon quite a few very relevant topics. The best quote I believe is the one by Tim O’Reilly, of O’Reilly Media who believes that the publisher’s model is fundamentally flawed: “Publishers never built the infrastructure to respond to customers.”. In other words, the old school publishers have forgotten one simple little thing – asking the customers what they want to read. In extension, no matter how obsolete some want to make out brick and mortar book stores to be, without them publishers wouldn’t have a clue on how to sell or to whom, since that is the only market data they have to go on. Basically publishers do no market research, have no data on their customers, and basically publish books based on nothing more than feeling and instinct, kind of like putting your finger up to the wind to see where it blows from.

The opposite of what Slush Pile Reader is all about…

Here’s the deal – everyone complains about the low margins and the decreasing profitability of publishing. Publishers do not like Amazon’s pricing and they get their knickers in a twist over it, claiming they absolutely need e-pricing to be higher since they are already losing money. How on earth can they loose money on a 9.99 e-book is beyond me? If people can make money on a snickers bar, they can make money on a virtual product that has already been vetted and produced in the off line world. E-books is just another outlet – it doesn’t entail greater costs. The reality is – it is not pricing that is flawed but costs. It is possible to lower costs (fancy offices, meetings, oodles of staff…) and make the profits higher for everyone, including the author, without whom there would be no publishing industry after all (which many publishers seem to forget and often they act as if they are indeed granting authors a favor simply by gracing them with a second of their time). By selecting books based on facts, not on gut feeling or the picking of manuscripts based on who knows who and who is the best cookie pusher – but on, gasp, literary merit and what the readers actually want to read, more books would be sold; costs cut, profits increased and everyone would be merrier for it. N’est pas?

Change is slow, especially when it comes to an existing giant of an industry that has been run the same way basically since Gutenberg came along. Ignoring the way it has always been done, and sticking to ones guns is vital. Remember change seldom, if ever, comes from within an industry. E-book readers were not invented by the giants dominating publishing. With authors and readers like all of you here at Slush Pile Reader change will come from the customers themselves and finally books will be published based on merit and demand, not arbitrary reasons such as luck, nepotism and some more luck.

We are happy to unveil a number of new features to the Slush Pile Reader site! We have been working behind the scenes to improve the site and to construct new features that you, our esteemed members, have asked for. We are so glad that we have been able to realize these new additions to the site and we hope that you like them and that they live up to your expectations! We certainly think so…

The first new improvements concerns the ease of manuscript consumption and we have added the following to the manuscript pages:

• Line numbering for easier commenting.
• Full screen mode – makes it easier to read a manuscript.
• Formatting options for reading in full screen – also for ease and comfort of reading.
• The ability to bookmark not only a certain manuscript but also a specific place in that manuscript so you will always know where you left off.

For all you authors we have added the following to the management of your manuscript:

• Statistics about your readers – who reads your manuscript? Now you will know!
• The ability to insert a chapter mid stream or rearrange the order of existing chapters.
• Disabling of easy copy/paste – following the discussion and subsequent popular vote in the forum.
• The automatic save of work that is being submitted – once you begin submitting, your submission will be saved even if something goes awry, like an energy outage or a computer crash…
• Manuscript badges – badges to help promote your manuscript outside of Slush Pile Reader. Select the badge you wish to use, copy the code and place it on your site, blog or in a forum post and let people know that your manuscript is available for reading and voting on Slush Pile Reader. They can simply click on the badge, and voila, they are transported directly to your manuscript. The manuscript badges come in two varieties: Linked Image can be used in emails, on websites and blogs and BBCode can be used in forum posts.

To check out these new manuscript management features go to ‘my profile’ and then to ‘ manuscripts’.

We have also added the following features:

• Personal badges – for members without manuscripts or members with manuscript with age classifications: If your manuscript is classified with age restrictions, then anyone following your badge will have to be registered before they can read your manuscript. In this case we suggest you use the ‘personal badges’ that direct people to a registration page with a personal recommendation from you instead. When you have posted a badge you can log out from Slush Pile Reader and click on the badge yourself to test what other will see. Personal badges are found under the manuscript tab and under ‘Invite friends‘.
• Personalized top lists – Follow the Slush Pile Reader top lists on your personal site or blog. You can generate code to paste a top list with settings that suits your need (colors, genre, sorting, etc.) and post on your site or blog. The top list always displays the current Slush Pile Reader ranking according to your settings. For instance you can make a top list of the five latest romance novels that have been posted on Slush Pile Reader or the ten highest ranked science fiction manuscripts or top three unfinished short story collections – what ever suits your needs.
• Survey – we have added a survey feature to help us understand who likes what and why. If we know more about who likes which manuscript we will be able to better market selected books and get better results – benefiting the author by helping us know more about the reader. Once again, we will never, ever use any information gathered for any other purpose than explicitly stated on the site and we never spam our members!
• A comments tab – under ‘ my profile’ we have added tab that will let you keep track of all your comments. We have also added the ability to subscribe to manuscript comments.
• ‘Share’ or ‘AddThis’ button – we have added an ‘AddThis’ button for ease of inviting friends to Slush Pile Reader in general  or directly to a certain manuscript on the site. You will find it in the top right hand corner of every page. This button is for sharing the page you are currently on with your friends and connections via e-mail and/or almost any social network there is. Just click what means you want to use sharing the page and follow the instructions.
• Karma points in manuscript comments – you can now collect good Karma through commenting on manuscripts as well as through your forum posts. Collect Karma, dose out Karma to your fellow Slushers and who knows, it might come back and reward you one of these days….

And finally we have improved on various minor design features and tried to fix some bugs that have, indeed been bugging you all. We have tested and retested everything before launching, but as always, code is code and sometimes it seems to have a life of its own. We test everything in different browsers on different computers and in numerous environments but sometimes mistakes occur and weird things happen as a result. So please, let us know any problems you encounter and we will fix them! We hope you will enjoy the new improvements and we appreciate all your comments and suggestions – please keep them coming. There is always room for improvement….

P.S. As for the badges, please tell us what sizes you want and if you have suggestions on how you want them to look. The badges that are available now are only examples. Do you have a design of your own you think we should add? Let us know.

So here’s the deal, the low down if you will: Once you write a text you have full immediate copyright to that text – you own the rights to that material. That is all there is to it really. You do not need to file any claims, pay a lawyer to claim copy right for you or pay any fees to anyone or any government body. You do not even need to use the little copyright symbol, ©, even though most people do, and it is customary to do so. You write it – you own it. That is the bottom line.

However, I understand that many writers worry none the less. A writer spends months, years, sometimes decades on perfecting a manuscript. Of course he or she is going to have concerns. Posting a manuscript on any site, or for that matter sending it off to an agent or a publisher, or deciding to self publish is not something to be taken lightly. Of course a writer wants to feel secure that the manuscript will be safe. Legalities aside, there is still the feeling of insecurity. Is my text, or in the case of Slush Pile Reader, is my manuscript safe? Can someone copy it and pass it off as their own? Can someone sell it? If they try to, what rights do I have?

Well, basically, the reality is that if you post something, anything, on the Internet anyone can theoretically copy it and do what they want with it. But, and this is a big but, why would they?

History and research has shown that it does not happen. (Of course it can happen, anything is possible.) but is is not a common occurrence. It is not a threat to publishing and it is not something that the publishing industry worries about. Manuscripts and other texts simply do not get stolen. One obvious reason is that anyone who did steal a text and try to sell it would have to prove that they wrote it. And since the date that the real writer first posted it is logged and available and can be used as proof, not only on this site, but on most sites, there is basically no way an impostor can say that he wrote it. The real writer can always pull out a log and say ‘Hey I posted this on Slush Pile Reader in January 2010. What proof do you have of an earlier posting? And the answer is of course – none.

Another reason is the reality of publishing as KJ Kron so astutely pointed out in the forum – it is virtually impossible to get published these days. If you as the legitimate author can not get your manuscript published, despite it being a great manuscript and despite all your efforts, what makes you think a thief would fare any better?

Lets get back to the legalities just to make sure we have it down correctly: There is no legal need to register copyright. Period. However, many chose to do so anyways. Should any concerns ever arise or a copyright violation occur, despite all evidence to the contrary , a writer can always take the extra precaution of registering copyright (check with your local government – they will tell you how to go about it in your country). Registering copyright also gives a writer lesser chance of being limited in the damages if any infringements were to occur. When a manuscript is about to be published it is customary to register copyright – and it is often up to the author to do so. Copyright is strongly regulated by International law – the Berne convention – and by laws in (almost) all countries. In the US there is the U.S. Copyright Office through which you can register copyright and also read more on copyright.

There has been some discussion in the forum regarding the possibility to copy and paste text from manuscripts. Some members were worried that this would be misused. Even though, as shown above, there is no need to worry, we will disable the copy and paste function. This also disables the ‘right click function’ for those of you who use that, but popular vote always wins…

Finally, a couple of people have expressed concern that posting a manuscript in its entirety here will make people read the manuscript on line and not buy the book if and when it is published. Well, some people probably will read the manuscript on line and not buy the book. But if the manuscript is really that great, as that person will tell his friends about it who will in turn tell their friends and the manuscript will receive votes and it will be published. Once it is published it will no longer be available through the site. So new readers will have to buy the book, in whatever format they choose. Et voila, all is good that ends good!

And another thing for that matter – when remarkably best selling author Paulo Coelho made a number of his books available on-line for free it actually increased sales of his books. It turned out that people read free stuff on line and if they really love it they want to own it. It turns out the free on-line books works as marketing. So having your manuscript, or book, displaying your work on line can only increase interest in it. If it works for Coelho, it can’t be all bad, can it?

I guess you know the story by now, of how the Harry Potter series became the bestselling children’s books of all times? How J.K. Rowling finally got an agent and how that agent shopped her manuscript around to publisher after publisher, but with no luck. They all turned it down until finally, one beautiful day, an editor happened to bring the manuscript home where his eight year old daughter just happened to read it, and viola, the manuscript was published. Not because of the skill of any editors – they ALL turned it down, but because of the wants of a reader, a consumer, a book buyer and voracious little reader. Ultimately the best selling children’s book series of all times was discovered not by the established publishing houses and by any of their ‘taste judges’, but by an ordinary reader, just like you and me.

The examples of great literature that has been turned away from the publishing houses are too many to list. The enormous struggle to get published, not just in the present age, but historically too, is outlandish, especially when one considers the greatness of many, many authors who were ultimately after years of trying eventually picked up and published. Thank God they didn’t give up. But the question remains – why is it so difficult and why are so many talented authors turned away? Does it not make you wonder what else is turned down and not discovered in the end? Many authors tried their best, over and over again, and finally gave up. Like John Kennedy Toole with his sublime Confederacy of Dunces (he gave up, but his mother did not and finally managed to have his work accepted). Others take matters into their own hands and start out by self publishing, like John Grisham, who practically invented the lawyer/crime genre.

If you are interested in an amusing, but ultimately quite sad read, pick up a copy of ‘Rotten Reviews and Rejections’ where the following cute tidbits can be found:

“It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA”

Excerpt from rejection letter for: Animal Farm by George Orwell

“The girl doesn’t, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the “curiosity” level.”

Excerpt from rejection letter for: The Diary of Anne Frank

“It does not seem to us that you have been wholly successful in working out an admittedly promising idea.”

Excerpt from rejection letter for Lord of the Flies by William Golding

“It would be in extremely rotten taste, to say nothing of being horribly cruel, should we want to publish it.”

Excerpt from rejection letter for: The torrents of spring by Ernest Hemingway

“…only mildly interesting…it contributes nothing new to either language or form.”

Excerpt from rejection letter for: The World according to Garp by John Irving

The question is thus – what does it take to get published? Do you have to have extreme talent? No, it doesn’t seem so. When not even established literary greats seem to be able to get published today, then what hope is there for novices? A few years back V.S. Naipul’s manuscript to “In a Free State” and “a Holiday” by Stanley Middleton, were sent to 20 publishers and agents. All but one rejected both manuscripts and even worse, none of the professional publishers recognized the manuscripts for what they were, namely the works of an author who is considered one of Britain’s greatest living writers and that of a Booker prize winning author.

When Doris Lessing submitted one of her manuscripts to her very own publisher, but under a pseudonym, she too was rejected. And when Jane Austen’s manuscripts were submitted under a false name, with key names and titles changed, not only did 18 editors reject them but only one recognized her work. Come on people, how can you work in publishing, with English as the major language, and probably as most editors be an English lit major, and not recognize that famous first sentence; “It is a truth universally acknowledged….”?

So really what is going on here? Are editors not only grossly uneducated as to English literature but also incapable of realizing when they do have good literature in their hands? Or is that they are overworked and underpaid (are they really?), or is it that that the Slush Pile is too high and that they have to read far too many manuscripts?

Well, my answer can hardly come as a surprise. I simply believe that editors are not representative of the readers. Editors and publishing houses do not posses special talent and greater taste than the rest of us. What one editor likes or dislikes is not always, if ever, relevant to the majority of readers. I believe in my core that readers do not need editors to tell them what to read. I believe readers can discover that for themselves and, of course, Slush Pile Reader is the way to go about it….

Sources:
All rejection quotes are from “Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections: A History of Insult, A Solace to Writers” (Literary Companion Series)
Jane Austen fan submits her work anonymously to publishers… and receives a dozen rejections
Publishers toss Booker winners into the reject pile

A bunch of famous authors including Lionel Shriver, Philip Pullman and Roddy Doyle were asked to pick their favorite books of the decade in a recent British survey. In Holland, a similar survey was carried out and the results were quite similar, even though the Dutch survey included more non English books.

I found the lists quite interesting – so this is what these best selling authors themselves like out of all the wonderful books out there. Many choices are quite predictable and stuffy, whereas others surprised me pleasantly by their lack of pretensions. Of course someone had to throw Parmuk’s Snow in there. It is so called deep and commonly accepted as cultural, and of course he is a Nobel laureate (and honestly compared to some recent laureates he is very readable… Muller, Jelinek, Oe…I rest my case).

Others on the list though, I do not get, such as Mc Carthy’s the Road, I am sorry, I know its the hottest thing out there but I simply do not see the greatness. Frankly I think it is damn unoriginal and uninspiring. I actually think it resembles the movie ‘28 days‘, and that second rate movie was far more scary and had a more interesting narrative. The Road, of course, has all the bits and pieces; serious elements of doom, personal tragedy yet still hope, but in comparison to other future dystopia, it is pale. Think Atwood’s Oryx and Crake , Orwell, Nevil Shute’s On The Beach, all which I found far superior. Mostly when reading the Road I felt I had read and or seen it a million times prior.

Another choice I do not get is Platform, Michel Houellebecq’s, 2000 bestseller. I know French writer Houellebecq is huge in Europe and that the French love him (they would, wouldn’t they now…) but seriously, I haven’t read anything this kinky since, well I don’t know… never… and it is not a good kinky, just pretty nasty and soiled. Then again, maybe that’s what people like about his books? Houellebecq makes someone like Henry Miller seem like he fits right in at Sunday school. (They both wrote from Paris and they both explored, whatchamacallit, sex, from a ‘novel’ perspective, hence the comparison)

Of course British sensation (I was about to write teen sensation but not any more, so) Zadie Smith was on the list with both On Beauty and White Teeth. I actually liked White Teeth very much and I also enjoyed On Beauty, but On Beauty also seemed old, like it has been done before. Writers like David Lodge and Robertson Davies have both done the academic, scholarly thing before and better at that. I was pleasantly surprised to see Jonathan Franzen’s Corrections on the list. That is one book that I adored. I did try a couple of his other books hoping they would stack up, but unfortunately I never had the same Franzen experience with them

Ok, so this is what the so called pros thought, and of course my thoughts on what the pros thought. What do you think? Help me out, let’s compile Slush Pile Reader’s very own books of the decade. Give me your thoughts and well have a very unscientific poll, compiled and controlled by me. I will start out: of all the books from 2000 to 2010 my favorite is…. Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld. No wait, it is Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, or perhaps the Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion…or of course, the Kiterunner by Khaled Hosseini…