Book Review Sammy Looker Something Nasty In The Slushpile

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2014 Constable Press A very funny book written by a leading publisher about some of the ludicrous book pitches, proposals and manuscript cover letters he has received through his many years in the business. They include a writer demanding that he be known by a string of codes and passwords because he has undisclosed enemies everywhere. Another wants permission to climb Everest despite zero climbing experience and for the publishers to accept a book on his adventures before he has embarked on any planning or preparation for the trip to Nepal. One writer sent a manuscript in wrapped in wallpaper, and when it was rejected, he resent it encased in astroturf. The publisher was once offered a book called Lord Of The Rungs, a complete history of ladders. One sure fire winner offering doomed to cruel instant rejection was a book on drinking your own urine, complete with illustrations, (mercifully not included in this book). One manuscript arrived impenetrably encased in multiple layer of tape and security tags that caused the publisher to give up trying to open it at all. When line one of the cover letter promotes the book as being the adventures of a private detective who is also a foot-fetishist, I do feel strangely inclined to see at least a few pages of the masterpiece itself, and this collection of no hope whatsoever literary submissions is great. Just glad not to see any of my own submissions to any publisher included. Arthur Chappell