Hey all you writers out there...have you heard of HarperCollins' Boing Boing?

[The Poisoned Pen Bookstore]

HarperCollins has opened a slushpile at Boing Boing (read story here)

Getting your book to a Harper Collins editor is nigh on impossible even with an agent...So in an attempt to uncover writing talents and editorial/critical talent HC has set up a site that gives unpublished authors a place to share their work and allows readers to promote their favorite writers, perhaps all the way to a book deal...

"Want to get published?

Or want to make a name for yourself as THE expert and better-than-New-York-Times-critic of Sci Fi books? of Chic Lit? of Memoir? Here's your chance.

With this site, we’re aiming to help unpublished authors promote or publish their work, and encourage curious/independent-minded readers to back new writers and become involved in the decision of what finally makes its way to publication, all in ways that haven’t been available before now. The hope for us is that authonomy will uncover some writing talent for publishing and also some critical/editorial talents. "

[I. J. Parker]

I thought for a moment that the "boing-boing" referred to the approaching collapse of this publishing giant. The news has been full of their lay-offs and the closing of the Collins imprint.
Surely they're not offering to acquire books from the slushpile now. ???
Or maybe that's their way of getting something for nothing. Who knows.