About Slushpile

Slushpile is a free, static site for writers who are actively sending their work out — to literary agents, to magazines, to anyone who might say yes.

What this site is

A small collection of browser tools and plain-English guides covering the practical parts of submitting fiction and nonfiction: query letters, cover letters, synopses, standard manuscript format, tracking submissions, understanding contracts, and the craft decisions that make a first page strong enough to keep reading.

Every tool runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. The submission tracker stores its data in localStorage, which means it lives on your device until you clear it.

What this site is not

It is not a database of magazines or agents. Those lists go stale within months — editors move, magazines close, agents stop accepting queries. Keeping a directory accurate is a full-time job, and Slushpile is not that. For current markets, the standard references are Duotrope, The Submission Grinder (free), Chill Subs, and Poets & Writers' database for magazines, and QueryTracker, Manuscript Wish List, and Publishers Marketplace for agents.

It is also not a coaching service, a course platform, or a community. There is no login, no forum, no paid tier.

How Slushpile makes money

The site runs display advertising and, in some guides, links to books or software that may include affiliate tracking. We only link to things we think are actually useful. The full disclosure is on the disclaimer page.

Who writes the content

Slushpile's guides are written to reflect commonly accepted industry practice. Where conventions vary — and in publishing, they do — we try to describe the range rather than claim a single correct answer. If something on the site is flatly wrong, the contact page has an email address. Corrections are welcome.

Who it's for

Writers who have finished something and are trying to place it. First-time querying writers who want to know what a professional cover letter actually looks like. Short-story writers deciding whether to send the same piece to three magazines at once. Novelists researching whether an agent is worth querying. Essayists trying to figure out what to put in the first paragraph of a pitch.

If you have never submitted anything before, the query letter guide and the cover letter guide are the two pages to start with.