Quote:
Originally Posted by Worldwalker
It's like job applications.
Vanity presses talk about how few books are ever published by the mainstream publishers, conveniently leaving out one thing: those books are not selected at random. The most important part is entirely under the author's control: writing a book that doesn't suck. Unfortunately, few people (and not even all of the pros all of the time) are capable of doing that.
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You make an excellent comparison between submitting manuscripts and submitting resumes, and I would like to add to it.
In my last position, my manager made me the resume slush-pile reader in her search for a new analyst (position similar to mine). Yes, we got a ton of resumes that were completely unsuitable for our stated requirements, but every now and then, I would find a great candidate--someone who had all the skills and experience we needed, had great references, and interviewed well--and yet, she would still reject them without explanation.
I imagine a similar thing happens in publishing houses: some high quality writing goes unnoticed, even it's a perfect match for the house's needs, just because the pile was too deep that day, or the manager's coffee got cold.
--Maria