Gray Rinehart ~ Baen Books
Gray Rinehart's fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Asimov's Science Fiction, and elsewhere. In his US Air Force career, he fought rocket propellant fires, refurbished space launch facilities, "flew" satellites, and did other interesting things. He is now the "Slushmaster General" for Baen Books. His website is http://www.graymanwrites.com.
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I presume that most people reading this e-zine know what "slush" means in the publishing industry; but, in case someone clicked into this without even that background, slush is the common term for unsolicited submissions. I've been reading slush for Baen Books (http://www.baen.com), for nearly five years now, and given the unrelenting waves of slush that come in via post and electron, I consider myself lucky to be only marginally more psychotic than I was when I started.
We publish science fiction and fantasy of all types, though we are particularly well known for our military science fiction. It's true that we have published nonfiction, and straightforward military fiction, and some other odds and ends, but science fiction and fantasy are the foundation of the Baen line -- so that's what we expect a newcomer to send us. Don't send us your memoir, your true-crime story, your treatise on the life of Saint Bartholomew, or your mundane-world literary excursion. Send us SF&F.
And don't send us a query letter, if you can avoid it. We prefer to receive a completed manuscript, with a synopsis. So finish your novel, edit it well, check our guidelines and familiarize yourself with the sort of books we publish to see if yours might be a good fit for us, and then send in the whole thing. We operate an electronic submission system that makes the process relatively easy and saves everybody postage.
Once I open your manuscript, my job is to find stories that fit the Baen line. That means I look for stories that are adventurous, fun, and exciting; stories in which characters’ actions make a difference and the consequences make sense; and stories in which recognizably good (but not perfect) guys and girls pursue meaningful goals involving high stakes, where the odds are against them but they persevere and win. We prefer stories with consistent pacing, believable characterization, and realistic action.
Think your story fits those criteria? Make it the best it can be, send it in, and let us see.
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For more about what Gray looks for in a manuscript, you can read his blog posts,
"The View From (Under) the Slush Pile" (http://www.graymanwrites.com/blog/view-under-slush-pile/)
"The Signs of Mediocre Writing" (http://www.graymanwrites.com/blog/signs-mediocre-writing/)
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I presume that most people reading this e-zine know what "slush" means in the publishing industry; but, in case someone clicked into this without even that background, slush is the common term for unsolicited submissions. I've been reading slush for Baen Books (http://www.baen.com), for nearly five years now, and given the unrelenting waves of slush that come in via post and electron, I consider myself lucky to be only marginally more psychotic than I was when I started.
We publish science fiction and fantasy of all types, though we are particularly well known for our military science fiction. It's true that we have published nonfiction, and straightforward military fiction, and some other odds and ends, but science fiction and fantasy are the foundation of the Baen line -- so that's what we expect a newcomer to send us. Don't send us your memoir, your true-crime story, your treatise on the life of Saint Bartholomew, or your mundane-world literary excursion. Send us SF&F.
And don't send us a query letter, if you can avoid it. We prefer to receive a completed manuscript, with a synopsis. So finish your novel, edit it well, check our guidelines and familiarize yourself with the sort of books we publish to see if yours might be a good fit for us, and then send in the whole thing. We operate an electronic submission system that makes the process relatively easy and saves everybody postage.
Once I open your manuscript, my job is to find stories that fit the Baen line. That means I look for stories that are adventurous, fun, and exciting; stories in which characters’ actions make a difference and the consequences make sense; and stories in which recognizably good (but not perfect) guys and girls pursue meaningful goals involving high stakes, where the odds are against them but they persevere and win. We prefer stories with consistent pacing, believable characterization, and realistic action.
Think your story fits those criteria? Make it the best it can be, send it in, and let us see.
___
For more about what Gray looks for in a manuscript, you can read his blog posts,
"The View From (Under) the Slush Pile" (http://www.graymanwrites.com/blog/view-under-slush-pile/)
"The Signs of Mediocre Writing" (http://www.graymanwrites.com/blog/signs-mediocre-writing/)
Attack of the 50' Slush Pile
I, Chila, am a writer first and foremost, but I also run a small press on the side, Port Yonder Press - an award-winning small press, I might add. Yes, we're serious about our work. But like everyone else, we love to have fun, and my latest brainstorm is a weekly comic strip called "Attack of the 50' Slush Pile," with Margy (that's me), Chuck (one of my imaginary authors), my small press friend, Patience, the unpublished Dudley Doowrite (and no, he's not a "dud," no matter what he thinks), Piers, a large press manager who's quite stuck on the thought that bigger is better, one of his authors, Inez, and of course, the disgruntled, angry, author, Dick. 7 very unique and slightly opinionated publishing people. We'll post each new issue on Wednesday on both our Facebook page here and our website here. Feel free to SHARE the comics with others, but since they're copyrighted, you aren't permitted to change them in any way. Enjoy!
January 14, 2013 - Amish Horror
