Ten Tips for Getting Noticed in the Slush Pile

There are many articles and books about how to submit manuscripts and stand out in the slush pile. The conventional wisdom from agents themselves is write well and follow guidelines. Not a bad place to begin, but it’s simplistic to think that this is the magic doorway, even though this may sound like heresy. (To see the rest of this post, click “Read More” below.)



Submitting work is a frustrating experience, and if you’re counting on agents to conform to their own advice or protocols, you need to read my earlier posts, The Agents We Love to Hate, Part 1 and The Agents We Love to Hate, Part 2. Agents are good people, but many can’t even return manuscripts when they are accompanied by an SASE. As I said before, entire manuscripts go missing, so when Miss Snark says in a blog entry that There is no secret to getting noticed in the slush pile—poor results stem only from bad writing and not following submission guidelines—I must politely tell this grand high guru to start submitting material to her colleagues under an assumed name and see what she gets back.

Jeff Herman has had many fine articles on how to gain a competitive advantage in the slush, and I myself learned a few tricks that tipped the odds in my favor. Some are new, while others are "oldies" I have tweaked a bit. Here goes.

1) Okay, I concede that you must have a well-written story and follow the rules, at least in most cases. More on rules later.

2) If you use a brown manila envelope for your manuscript, you will, like a chameleon, blend in nicely with the other ten thousand queries. Try using a white 10” x 12” mailer or some other color. It draws the eye to your submission.

3) Make distinctive letterhead on crème-colored or light gray stationary. Once again, good presentation stands out against the 95% who use white paper and poor headings.

4) Today’s market unfortunately does not allow a story to develop in the early chapters. As agent Noah Lukeman says in his book The First Five Pages, make the opening pages count or else you’re wasting your postage. You’ve got about two to five minutes to get an agent’s attention.

5) It’s true—don’t write a cover letter longer than one page. Writing the novel is far easier, and adhering to this is like root canal work, but you’ve got to find a way to keep your hook brief and snappy. Therefore be creative with your spacing and margins. You can fit more than you think on a single page. Reduce the space between "Sincerely" and your signature. Start the letter a wee bit closer to the top, where your letterhead info is. Don't worry if the "Encl" is a bit closer to the bottom. Play with this a bit, but if it looks neat ...

6) Gimmicks are frowned upon, but I found one that really worked well. I put my bio on a separate page and typed it up in the format of an entry from Writer’s Digest. It not only stuck out, but it essentially said, “I’m a professional, too, and I’m willing to stand toe to toe with you.” I did the whole enchilada: name (in large bold letters where the entry begins), recent sales, how to contact, terms, contracts (“yes, I’ll review one”), tips, multiple submission policy, etc. All from my point of view.

7) Get stamps made at Office Depot. Don’t provide extra incentive for your manuscript to get thrown away by the powers that be. Always stamp your mailings in blue or red with QUERY or SASE ENCLOSED or REQUESTED MATERIAL ENCLOSED. It makes the mailing looks professional, plus it’s a subliminal message to the agents or their assistants that you don’t take kindly to being accused at a later date that “YOU DIDN’T FOLLOW THE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES, YOU AWFUL PERSON!”

8) Find a junior agent from the agencies website, someone who gives a little bio and who may be building a client list. State in your cover letter why you selected that person. People love to be noticed, and if you overtly say that you did your homework, you score big points. As we all know, they get tired of receiving submissions for work they don't handle.

9) Nest to “Encl” at the very bottom of the query, I put three lines of text: SASE; sample chapter; hope aplenty. That you are enclosing hope with the manuscript is a legitimate, unobtrusive way to sneak in a little humor and let the agent know that you are friendly and real. Find some kind of phrase, therefore, that might humanize you a bit more and stick it next to "Encl."

10) Under limited circumstances, break the rules. I know of a writer who typed his sample chapters single-spaced and wrote that he was poor and had to save paper. (It was true, not a gimmick.) The book became a huge bestseller. Even Jeff Herman notes that there are times to use your instincts to deviate a bit. Do so when you feel touched by the Spirit of God.

BONUS TIP: Email responses are answered far more quickly, and usually by the agent rather than an assistant, but you often forego the opportunity to submit a sample chapter since attachments are rarely allowed for obvious reasons. Weigh your options on this one.