Slush Piles

The term "slush pile" is commonly used within the publishing industry and refers to the submissions that a literary agent or publishing house has received, but not yet gotten the chance to review for publication. Historically, writers would put paper copies of their work in envelopes and send them directly to agents and publishers who would then put these works in a pile to possibly be reviewed at a later date. While postal submissions are not as common in modern times, publishing houses and literary agents still have digital slush piles where they keep all of the unsolicited manuscripts they've been sent. Oftentimes, they receive submissions through emails or through platforms like Submittable.