zeekie: take two.

For the uninitiated, the slush pile is the stacks and stacks of unsolicited manuscripts that sits by the interns' area.

In the history of Tor, only "two and maybe a few more" manuscripts have ever been published from the slush pile. And today I learned why.

In order for the manuscript to even make it out of the interns' area, it has to be read in full by all the interns. And it has to earn the support of all said interns.

And even then it has to be read in full by the editor's assistant. And if the assistant doesn't believe in it then it's back to the writing board for the author.

I guess I really was naive before. I kind of see why it's so important to have big names stumping for you now. To achieve publication, an unsolicited manuscript has to be read in full by and win the support of so many nameless people that the odds are really terrible.