Written Right: a writer's guide to more than writing

Some of the sheer tripe that makes it through a publishing house's filters is amazing. If you know someone, or someone who knows someone, then you are going to get read. If you are just flat out talented, but unrepresented and unconnected, you can pretty much forget ever really making it as an author. It's all a giant game of politics and bum-patting. Seriously. I WORK in publishing and see it first hand. I work for a very large, very important house. None the less, I see all around me how it is less about finding talent than netting the next big paycheck or social coup.