You are nice? Maybe I'll believe that. Most publishers are nice? No way. Don't give us hope that our publishers will return a nice and reasonable response to our requests or challenges. They don't. At least, not in my experience!!! When you hold out hope, it just depresses us more when that hope is dashed against the sharp rocks of reality.Okay. I'll grant you that. Not all publishers are nice. In fact, at Booksellers I spoke with several authors who gave me an ear full--not about me, about some of the other publishers.
So, comment away. Tell us all about your crazy, mean and inconsiderate publishers. The only rules are:
- No swearing.
- No identification of yourself (don't want to get you in trouble).
- No indentification of your publisher (don't want to get sued).
5 comments:
I'm not going to rant LDS Publisher but I can feel the pain at the carelessness which can be exhibited by some publishers.
I'm one of the hardest working authors in the business and what did my publisher do? Decide to pull all the books in his company from national shelves. Since I do national tours that hurt! Since I go on speaking tours and promote my books, that hurt! Since I travel to booksignings at every request (if schedule permits), that hurt. I received a lot more requests from national bookstores than I did from LDS bookstores, except for the independents.
So yeah, publishers can be very hurtful at times.
My publisher isn't big on communication. E-mails don't get returned and they don't keep me informed about what's going on with my book. They had originally scheduled my book one month and it got bumped several months, which I understand, but they never informed me of it until it was too late. Due to the delay, I was unable to promote it like I had planned.
I'm not sure why the person who wrote this original e-mail is so against hope. Without hope, there is no joy and I would never want to work in an industry without joy, especially when I write because it brings me joy. It certainly doesn't pay me well enough to consider it a career.
It sounds like this person has had some really bad experiences, and I'm truly sorry to hear that. But to refuse to have hope is to refuse to find joy, and I'm even more sorry for that.
I know that when I e-mail my publisher I will wait 2 weeks for a response. Sometimes, I have two weeks, but often I do not. When it's in regard to getting permissions, for example, for a promotion or other contract issue, I have lost opportunities and missed deadlines. This is even more frustrating because I HATE being the promotion team behind my book and yet have accepted that it is my role. Other authors have told me the publisher does this on purpose, not wanting me to think they are at my beck and call, but it also makes me feel unimportant and causes complications for a job we should be doing together.
Doesn't promotion fall mainly to the author, especially in the LDS market?
What should an author expect from a publisher in the way of promotion?
What's the best way to promote a book?
Post a Comment