Disclaimer

This page covers the editorial, affiliate, and advertising disclosures that apply across Slushpile. It's the plain-language version of the fine print.

General information only

Everything on this site is presented for general informational purposes. The guides describe common practice in publishing, querying, and manuscript submission. They are not legal advice, tax advice, or professional career counseling. Publishing contracts, author taxes, and career decisions are situation-specific; please consult a qualified attorney, accountant, or agent for your individual circumstances.

Accuracy and conventions

Publishing is an industry full of conventions, many of them informal and some of them genuinely contested. Where this site offers a recommendation, it reflects commonly taught advice — but reasonable editors, agents, and writers disagree, and guidance in the market shifts over time. If a specific agent or magazine posts submission guidelines on their own website, those guidelines take precedence over anything you read here.

If you find a factual error, we want to fix it. Email hello [at] slushpile.org.

Affiliate disclosure

Some outbound links on this site are affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and later make a purchase from the destination site, Slushpile may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Commissions are typically a small percentage of the purchase price.

We do not let affiliate relationships decide what we recommend. When a guide links to a book, software product, or service, it's because we believe that resource is genuinely useful in the context we're linking from. Where we mention a product with which we have no affiliate relationship, that's because the right answer didn't have one.

Affiliate relationships in effect may include, but are not limited to, Amazon Associates (for book recommendations) and various writing-software partner programs. The presence or absence of an affiliate link on a specific page does not change the substance of the advice.

Advertising disclosure

Slushpile displays third-party advertising, including advertising served by Google AdSense. Ads are selected by the ad network, not by us, and their presence on a given page does not constitute an endorsement. We do not control which specific ads appear alongside which specific guides. If you see an ad for a product or service that you believe is fraudulent, predatory, or violates Google's ad policies, please report it directly to the ad network and let us know at hello [at] slushpile.org so we can investigate.

No endorsement of named third parties

Guides on this site sometimes name specific resources — for example, QueryTracker, Duotrope, Chill Subs, The Submission Grinder, Poets & Writers, Manuscript Wish List, Publishers Marketplace, Writer Beware, and the major writers' organizations — because these are the references writers commonly encounter. Naming them is descriptive, not an endorsement, and we have no control over their policies, pricing, or data accuracy.

Results

Following the advice on this site will not guarantee that you will be offered representation, published, paid, or reviewed. Submitting work is a numbers game layered on top of a taste game layered on top of a market-timing game. We can help you not shoot yourself in the foot; we cannot help you guarantee an outcome.

Tools and data

The browser tools on Slushpile are provided as-is, without warranty. The submission tracker stores your data in your browser's localStorage — it is your responsibility to export or back up anything you consider important. We will not be liable for lost submission records resulting from a cleared browser, a lost device, or any other storage event.

External links

Outbound links are provided where they add value, but we do not control and are not responsible for the content, terms, privacy practices, or business practices of third-party sites. Clicking an external link takes you outside Slushpile.

Contact

Questions about this disclaimer: hello [at] slushpile.org.