Thought you might like to read this article from Mslexia:

"Indie publisher Snowbooks is blowing the case for open submissions wide open: using their Snowblog, they are inviting prose submissions to the aptly termed 'Snowcase' and are publishing entries on a weekly basis. "We operate an open submissions policy anyway," says Snowbooks' MD Emma Barnes. [hey, that's me!] "But we get about 30 submissions a week and just can't publish them all. The immediate intention was to give the writing a wider audience - and some extra feedback."

And it's working. "There have been some really insightful and thoughtful comments," says Barnes. [hee, 'barnes'.] "People say when they want to read more, explain what they like about the extract - it's fantastic that they are interested enough in the writing to comment."

One possibility, she hopes, is that other publishers will read the writing and contact the authors. Barnes is well aware that Snowbooks' blog is read by people in publishing - and that word-of-mouth is golden: an eye catching entry may easily become next week's lunch topic. "It has connected agents with writers," affirms Barnes. "And all for free! This is the great thing. The publishing industry is wonderful in many ways but one of its shames is how impenetrable it is. We have to keep thinking of ways to break down those barriers."