No, I’m not some sort of internet vigilante, eagerly smacking my chops at the prospect of exposing yet another scam site targeted at authors.
In fact, sometimes I think that there’s a tad too much hysteria surrounding sites that may be well-intentioned, but are simply naive or hare-brained. Lots of them around, fersure.
Nevertheless, I’ve just received yet another irritating email from PUBLISHER’S DESK... So. Here. Goes.
Publishers' Desk: Desk Day Has Come!
There’s a kind of messianic zeal to this headline that drops into my inbox roughly every six weeks. Like I’m supposed to shudder in rapt anticipation of... what, the rapture? Or the literary equivalent thereof?
Never mind. This is a site that in essence is simply a manuscript display site. You, the muggins author, pay 60 bucks to “display” your work on the site. Me, the muggins agent, gets free access to... what, exactly?
Well, one big pile of slush. That’s what.
A decade ago or more, several folk inside and outside publishing had the notion that it would be a spiffing idea to centralize everything – the slushpile in one place, where agents and publishers could sort out the chaff from the... worse chaff.
It was a naive idea, and never going to work.
But I can see the attraction from the author’s point of view. One simple payment, and hey presto - no need to do any of that awkward submission business. Publisher’s Desk will take care of that... won’t they?
And that’s really my beef with this site. I don’t know anyone in the trade who uses it. Worse, they list my agency under the “Agents List” section- clearly implying that by paying their fee, you’re submitting to me.
No, you’re not.
Personally, I wouldn’t go near the site. Save your money.
Desk day most emphatically has not come.
In fact, sometimes I think that there’s a tad too much hysteria surrounding sites that may be well-intentioned, but are simply naive or hare-brained. Lots of them around, fersure.
Nevertheless, I’ve just received yet another irritating email from PUBLISHER’S DESK... So. Here. Goes.
Publishers' Desk: Desk Day Has Come!
There’s a kind of messianic zeal to this headline that drops into my inbox roughly every six weeks. Like I’m supposed to shudder in rapt anticipation of... what, the rapture? Or the literary equivalent thereof?
Never mind. This is a site that in essence is simply a manuscript display site. You, the muggins author, pay 60 bucks to “display” your work on the site. Me, the muggins agent, gets free access to... what, exactly?
Well, one big pile of slush. That’s what.
A decade ago or more, several folk inside and outside publishing had the notion that it would be a spiffing idea to centralize everything – the slushpile in one place, where agents and publishers could sort out the chaff from the... worse chaff.
It was a naive idea, and never going to work.
But I can see the attraction from the author’s point of view. One simple payment, and hey presto - no need to do any of that awkward submission business. Publisher’s Desk will take care of that... won’t they?
And that’s really my beef with this site. I don’t know anyone in the trade who uses it. Worse, they list my agency under the “Agents List” section- clearly implying that by paying their fee, you’re submitting to me.
No, you’re not.
Personally, I wouldn’t go near the site. Save your money.
Desk day most emphatically has not come.
