I can give you some direction here, given that I was in charge of looking at, evaluating, and responding to outside submissions at Sierra On-Line for some years -- and, btw, in the history of the company, only one game was produced via outside submission. That all ended in the mid-90s, when, for legal reasons, the company stopped looking at them and started sending them back unopened -- which is what you're up against today at almost all publishers and developers of any size.
First of all, a complete design document is not only unnecessary, but unwanted. People submitting game concepts work under the misconception that the more thoroughly documented a concept is, the more valuable or attractive it will be to a developer. It's just the opposite. No developer is in the business of taking somebody's complete design document and executing it. And few employees have the time, energy, or desire to read a design document on spec, especially one that comes from a non-employee.
As a corollary to that: people in the industry, especially decision-makers, have short attention spans. If you can't wow them with your idea in two paragraphs, you're not going to wow them with a 100-page design document.
Although some people here (Steve Ince, for one) may disagree, it's my feeling that great design ideas are fairly common. Why do you see so few of them, then? Because groundbreaking ideas have a much tougher row to hoe when it comes to getting produced than do "tried and true" (read: same 'ol, same 'ol) design concepts. Tried-and-true are lower-risk, and the money people are often risk-averse.
At development companies, there are writers, artists, designers, and programmers. They all have ideas, some of which are good and a few of which are more than just good. And they're all better positioned to get THEIR ideas developed than somebody from the outside. (The exception is if the "somebody from the outside" has special credentials, such as being published or produced in other fields...books, Hollywood, etc.)
So the question remains: what SHOULD you do?
Let's assume you CAN find some way to get into the door at a developer. Any good developer is going to insist on signing documents with you before looking at anything. These documents will hold them harmless should they come out with a game that, in any way, resembles what you showed them. Yes, generally, they have all the power in these situations. You have to find someone you trust.
And you have to have a demo.
If you can't produce one on your own, your best bet is to put up notices at local colleges, universities, and trade schools, looking for artists/programmers to produce a demo. This way, you give them something they can use for a school project, and you get a functional demo out of it (ideally).
--Josh
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