The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Patrick M.:

Sorry. Realized I wanted to say more.

Dave Bell @ 43 - " there is no implicit promise to even read a submitted work?"

Nope, though the Tor guidelines indicate a 'fair hearing'. I assume that they use that wording so they are not claiming that they will 'read' your work before rejecting it.

You are selling them something. It's up to the buyer to decide how they determine what and how they will select something for purchase. In this case, they are a reseller since they will turn around and try to sell the book to booksellers.

They may simply be keeping this submission process open in case they need to fill a hole in their schedule when they can't fill it through nepotism. Then they select who ever is on top of the stack. Cross your fingers!

They might be keeping it open because they don't want to give power/responsibility to agents who might be telling authors to re-write perfectly good manuscripts and never passing them to editors, because the agents think they know better.

They might keep it open so they can use the shredded manuscripts to line the bottom of their rabbit cages.

Or, they might actually read them.

Dave Bell @ 43 "If nothing else, the pace of the world has changed."

And yet the pace of publishing has not. :) I defer to my friends who have books coming out 2 years after the initial purchase for proof.

Is your sole argument that they should be faster so impatient writers don't fall victim to scammers?

Unfortunately, they(editors) are under no obligation to protect you as a writer. Most do try to provide the information so that you may protect yourself, but it is on you - not the editors or publishers.

What you should have heard is - the slush pile is not the only door, nor is it the fastest. Look for the other doors. That's what was in PNH's comments @ 27. Be the sibling of an editor. :)

Dave Bell @38

"Six month turn-round, no simultaneous submission: is it any wonder the frustrated turn towards any half-plausible alternative?"

Keep in mind PNH's comments @27 - There's no reason to think that an editor is under any obligation to read unsolicited material - at all - nevermind in a timely manner.

Christopher Davis @46

If you paid me, then people would assume I deliberately screwed everything up. Really, I try my best to make it better and solve the problem, but then you know what happened...

It rained.

It's my fault. You might as well just blame me. I'll try to keep it from raining next time, though.

I offer assistance as a scape goat for if things go horribly wrong.

I'm really not the right person to make any technical changes, but I am really good at owning up to mistakes and taking the abuse for things going wrong.

So, whatever happens, it's my fault. I'm sorry, I just didn't expect things to go this way. I thought we had taken all the necessary precautions, but as you can see, it wasn't enough.

Comment statistics for Patrick M. on the Making Light blog

Total: 5 comments. View all these comments on a single page.