writerjenn

This is for any writer whose work has spent time in the slush pile.  (Umm, which is nearly all of us, I suspect.)

Melissa Bank's book of connected stories, THE WONDER SPOT, contains a chapter about working in the publishing business.  This chapter, "20th Century Typing," is practically as long as a novella, but it's well worth the read.  The whole book is worth the read, but freelance writers have special reason to appreciate this chapter.

Bank's fictional publishing company employs a long-suffering editorial assistant whose job it is to read slush.  And yet this assistant, Francine Lawlor, is not jaded.  She ploughs through manuscript after manuscript, year after year, always in the hope of finding gold amid the slush.  When the main character asks Francine why she's continuing to read well into a manuscript that hasn't shown much promise, Francine answers, "Every author deserves a chance."
Obviously the editorial assistant of every writer's dream.

To find out what happens when it looks like the right manuscript may have finally come along, I encourage you to read the story.

And if you're thinking, "Well, that's all very nice, but this is fiction after all," you can read (or reread, as the case may be) this post from Editorial Anonymous:
http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/2007/11/thrill-of-capture.html