Publishers receive manuscripts primarily in three ways:
- Established authors have close relationships with the editors they have worked well with in the past; they often hash out their ideas together before sitting down to write. Once a manuscript or concept is developed sufficiently, the editor then takes the idea to the rest of the company to officially discuss its merits and decide if they should acquire it. These authors may or may not have an agent representing them. Many do, though over the course of an author’s career they may change agents, find themselves between agents, or simply decide to represent themselves. However, this is of no consequence: the author has already proved his or her skill and established a good working relationship with the publishing house.
- When authors submit manuscripts to a publisher with whom they have never worked, they are likely to do so through an agent. An agent is a kind of filter: they know each editor well and have a solid idea of what sorts of stories he or she is looking for. They know what qualities each editor loves in a manuscript and what is likely to turn them off completely, and steer the right work into the right editor’s hands. The agent also knows the author pretty well, and has a good idea of their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their working habits. Editors like to receive manscripts from trusted agents because they know they are more likely to read high quality work from reliable writers.
- Finally, amateurs and brand new writers often send their manuscripts directly to the publisher without having any previous contact, and with no agent acting as an intermediary. This is an unsolicited manuscript, or one that the publisher has not asked an author or agent to send in. Sometimes people refer to these as unagented manuscripts, meaning that they have not come through an agent. Note that there is a difference between an unagented (or unsolicited) manuscript, and one that comes from an established author who happens to not have an agent. In this case, I’m using unsolicited and unagented interchangeably. In pubishing industry jargon, this type of manuscript is more commonly referred to as slush or the slush pile.
