Tuesday 25 August 2009

On Talent, Rising To The Top

If you want to know how editors feel on the rare occasion they find a good book in their slush-pile, then read this lovely post from Making Light which compares the feeling to that moment in Britan's Got Talent when Susan Boyle began singing and Simon Cowell's usually-cynical face lit up with joy.

(What isn't mentioned in the article is the months of auditions that the Britan's Got Talent judges had to endure before they discovered Susan Boyle among the ranks of the hopeful. Because while the televised highlights make those auditions seem cringingly funny you have to remember that they are only the highlights. Most of the auditions are talent-free, embarrassingly bad, and just plain boring. Just like most of the stuff in the slush-pile.)





2 comments:

Stephen, the-freelance-editor said...

This is so true-- a brilliant comparison and one I'm glad to have seen made. I don't know that I want to imagine the majority of the auditions, but if they can be compared to the bottom of the slush . . . OMG!!

Thanks for sharing,
Stephen, the-freelance-editor

Jane Smith said...

Coming back late to my own party here--Stephen, most unfiltered slush is even worse than the bad auditions that you see on X-Factor because not only is the slush bad, it's also very boring.

At least the bad auditions we see on the X-Factor are funny (and yes, I know that's mean of me, but they are: sorry).