Can Publishers Accepting Unsolicited Manuscripts Win Big?

Dec 18
09:29

2012

William Yatscoff

William Yatscoff

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Publishers accepting unsolicited manuscripts can gain a huge advantage over traditional publishers if they can screen the slush pile better than other publishing companies.

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Most authors have trouble navigating the waters of the publishing world. They need to work through the uncharted waters of agents,Can Publishers Accepting Unsolicited Manuscripts Win Big? Articles editors, and rejection. I think it is a shipwreck waiting to happen and it happens often. Many authors are frustrated by the process and get lost in the waves. This is partially because publishers accepting unsolicited manuscripts are hard to find if not impossible. If they are found then there quality is sometimes suspect as well, or they aren’t actual publishers, but vanity publishers.

The publishing industry has been stuck in the mentality of not accepting unsolicited manuscripts for so long I am not really sure they will ever go back to thinking about changing their policy. Even though in this day and age, publishers accepting unsolicited manuscripts are needed more than ever.

Self-publishing has only just started to shake the publishing industry. We haven’t even begun to see the effects this will have on books and publishing. Who will really be the publisher in 5 or 10 years from now? Will there be there giant publishers dictating what we read or will it be single authors printing books and marketing deciding what we read. I think it must be somewhere in between. The big publishers standard of not accepting unsolicited manuscripts and the unregulated self-publishing can’t stay around forever.

There needs to be a shift and change in the industry and the shift needs to occur from either individual authors or the big publishers. Although either doing this is doubtful.

If publishers accepting unsolicited manuscripts begin to create a system where they can efficiently sort through the pile of manuscripts they are receiving there is a good chance they will prevail in the publishing industry while others fail. If they can build a reputation while they do it.

I hope to see some positive changes in the publishing industry in the future, but will hold my breath since I doubt that there will be any changes.