Why Slush? Why Us?
We believe writers should own their stories and know what to do with them.
Between the two of us, we've spent years writing, editing, marketing, building brands, developing ideas, and coaching people toward big goals. And underneath almost all of that work has been the same thing:
Helping people figure out the story they want to tell and giving them the confidence to tell it.
We’re writers, too.
We've stared at unfinished drafts. We've questioned whether something was good enough. We've navigated editing, publishing, platforms, audiences, marketing, and the wonderfully strange process of taking something that once existed only in your head and asking other people to read it.
And we've experienced the frustration of a publishing world that can sometimes make writers feel as though they are waiting for someone else to decide whether their story deserves a place on the shelf.
We wanted something different.
So we built the thing we wanted to exist.
Slush Pile Collective was created around a simple idea: writers should be able to spend more time writing while still learning how to build a life around their work.
That means understanding the business without letting the business swallow the art.
It means learning how to edit, publish, position, market, and find readers without pretending you suddenly need to become an expert in everything.
It means knowing about the conferences, contests, submission opportunities, events, tools, and conversations happening in the larger literary world.
And it means having other writers beside you while you figure it all out.
Because self-publishing doesn't have to mean publishing by yourself.
We Want Writers in the Room
Our vision for Slush is bigger than an online course or another writing group.
We want to build a collective of working writers—people actively developing their craft, finishing work, publishing books, finding readers, exchanging feedback, sharing resources, attending literary events and conferences, celebrating one another's wins, and opening doors for the writers coming behind them.
A community that is connected to the larger literary world rather than sitting outside of it.
A place where someone can say, “I'm thinking about entering this contest,” and find another writer who has done it. Where members meet at a conference they've been talking about in the Collective. Where beta readers become collaborators. Where writers share what they've learned. Where someone's first published book isn't the end of the journey—it's the beginning of the next one.
We want our members to become not only better writers, but savvier writers: writers who understand their options, know their audience, recognize opportunities, advocate for their work, and make intentional decisions about where their stories go next.
Meet Us
Charlotte Chipperfield
Co-Founder | Story Strategist, Editor & Champion of Intentional Writing
Charlotte Chipperfield has built her career around a simple but powerful idea: the stories we tell, and how we tell them, matter.
A story strategist, developmental editor, book coach, and founder of Her Narrative, Charlotte helps writers move from the big idea in their heads to a story with clarity, purpose, and the power to connect with other people.
With more than a decade of experience in marketing and brand storytelling, Charlotte understands both sides of the modern writer's work: creating something meaningful and figuring out how to bring that work into the world.
Her approach combines creativity with strategy. She helps writers uncover what they really want to say, strengthen the stories they're building, understand the people they're writing for, and make thoughtful decisions about how their work is positioned and shared.
Charlotte is also the author of Write with Intention: A Mindful Journey to Writing Your Book, which reflects the philosophy she brings to her work with writers: writing isn't simply about getting words onto a page. It's about understanding why you're writing them in the first place.
That's the thinking Charlotte brings to Slush.
Erin Donovan
Co-Founder | Writer, Educator & Builder of Things
Erin Donovan has spent most of her career helping people figure out what they want to say, what they want to build, and how to actually get there.
A writer, educator, entrepreneur, and learning designer, Erin holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on literacy and has spent more than two decades designing learning experiences for adults. She is also the founder of Fuel Training Consultants, where she works with organizations and individuals to turn big ideas into practical, usable experiences.
But Slush comes from another part of Erin's story.
She's a writer.
Erin writes character-driven fiction about complicated people, identity, belonging, and the wonderfully messy business of being human. After years of writing, revising, putting manuscripts away, pulling them back out, and wondering what she was supposed to do next, she self-published The Cailini: Sisters, a novel she had first completed more than a decade earlier.
That experience reinforced something she already believed as an educator: people don't need someone else to give them permission to begin. They need knowledge, tools, a process, and people who will help them keep going.
That's the thinking Erin brings to Slush.