We spent about two years researching the industry. We wanted a thorough understanding of the traditional (paper) submission process so we could come up with an electronic process that satisfies everyone’s needs. Here are a few of the things we learned.

• Publishers say they are able to discard 80 – 85% of unsolicited manuscripts within a few minutes of opening them. Of these, about 75% get rejected because they are poorly written. The remaining 25% are inappropriate to the house (e.g., a house that publishes only novels receives a nonfiction manuscript)—a mistake that, editors say, even agents make sometimes.
• Hoping to streamline the submissions process at their own houses, a few publishers have tried setting up specific e-mail addresses for e-submissions but quickly abandoned the idea when submissions seemed to increase exponentially and overwhelmed the system.
• Publishers may say they are closed to unsolicited manuscripts, but each editor actually determines that for himself. The problem is, under the current system it’s hard to find out which editors are exceptions to the house rule.

It was all pretty interesting and helpful when it came time to build the software that would make the submissions process easier on everyone.