They’re Afraid of Your Slush

This WSJ post claims it’s the death of the “slush pile.” It seems publishers like Random House once reviewed unsolicited books for consideration. Not anymore.

“Getting plucked from the slush pile was always a long shot—in large part, editors and Hollywood development executives say, because most unsolicited material has gone unsolicited for good reason.”

Now there’s a new fear. “Film and television producers won’t read anything not certified by an agent because producers are afraid of being accused of stealing ideas and material. Most book publishers have stopped accepting book proposals that are not submitted by agents.”

“The Web was supposed to be a great democratizer of media,” writes Katherine Rosman. “Anyone with a Flip and Final Cut Pro could be a filmmaker; anyone with a blog a memoirist. But rather than empowering unknown artists, the Web is often considered by talent-seeking executives to be an unnavigable morass.”

Rosman suggests you find an agent or enter contests. I’d argue that the web is still a vibrant place for talent to find an audience, and would look no farther than the top YouTubers. Are they moving to television and films? No. Are they gaining audiences and making money? Yes. Dozens and hundreds.

So maybe being at the top of the slush pile is better than being “plucked” from it?

7 Replies to “They’re Afraid of Your Slush”

  1. Yay for using the word “morass”. It’s the second time I’ve seen that word today.

    Oh wait…that’s was a quote, wasn’t it? For a second there I foolishly thought Kevin was starting to learn new words.

    Actually, the majority of the post was a quote. You stole their idea!

  2. at this rate chancres of winning the lotto are better than what’s going on a2z – in a way the internets nullifies everything, there’s so much information what can you do with it all? and if you don’t keep in contact, because your in contact with so many how can you ever do anything worthwhile? and who wants to respond to that?
    life and relationships on the net become some kind of abacus with different patterns and piles you stack one on top of the other, where does that go? and what happen to mdj and sukatra? is it proper internet etiquette to drop off the planet and never heard from again? Is that how it works? is it all just one quid pro quo? soon as I find me a free web site I’m going to link it all and just walk away then mdj will crawl out of his dark and haunted piney woods and say, “see I toldjas!”

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