SlushPile.net

When you work a certain profession, you become acquainted with, and get to know, a lot of other industries. Policemen spend a great deal of time with paramedics, lawyers, and firemen. If you work in advertising, you probably meet plenty of graphic designers, printing companies, and artists. Farmers know the feedman, the blacksmith, and the [...]

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This heatwave is really starting to piss me off. Seriously. I’m beginning to take this personal like. I walk to work and by the time I get to my office, sweat is dripping off my face and pooling in my keyboard. But my grandma always told me to count my blessings so I think how [...]

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I had no idea. All these years, I thought Cool Hand Luke was just a fantastic movie from 1967. I had no idea that it’s actually true and that Strother Martin’s character, The Captain, was not a prison warden but actually a Creative Writing Department Chair. You too? Well, you had it wrong, just like [...]

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Most how-to-publish books are garbage. I’ve mentioned one or two that I like but the vast majority of them provide nothing more in-depth than “target the publishers you submit your work to… don’t submit your horror gorefest about alien foot fungus to Harlequin Romances” and so-called advice like that. I’ve got a shelf full of [...]

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Here’s how the submission process goes when you’re an unknown and the publishing industry hasn’t yet realized that you’re a writer. You spend hours online, or sifting through The Writers Market looking for places where you have a chance of being published. Everyone has their own strategy, their system, and when you talk to other [...]

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Kaye Gibbons wrote an essay for the Winter 2005 issue of the The Oxford American about how amazed she is at the number of people who are writing. Or claiming to write. I feel the same way because it seems every person I meet is working on a novel, story collection, or screenplay. I always [...]

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A form rejection slip came in the mail today which, given the outright silence of so many places I’ve contacted, is actually a welcome sight. Rejections don’t generally bother me. They are a fact of life in this business and you’d better get used to them, like a chef gets accustomed to hot grease popping [...]

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