Comments on: Memo to publishers: Remind us why you exist again?

By: Sam

Sam — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:31:12 +0000

Because different people bring different things to the table. Editors might not be great researchers or creative enough to create fictional worlds, but they can see where writers need to be pushed or held back or encouraged or told to move on so that their vision can be better communicated to a reader. Even great writers need great editors. (Written as someone who has worked professionally as both an editor and a writer.)

By: Aunt Jemima

Aunt Jemima — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:00:03 +0000

@Frosty,
“$elling like hotcakes” is a vague expression. What may be hotcakes to you may be bread crumbs to another person. So fess up and tell us exactly how many you sold.

By: Eu

Eu — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:35:41 +0000

You mean “money bless publishers” for sure, because publishing books is an industry and a business, as there are many, and publishers, editors and so on are just the midlle man who take profit from the author’s work.

By: Frosty Wooldridge

Frosty Wooldridge — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:37:04 +0000

As an author of 11 books, some published by regular publishers and others self-published and all on Kindle, I am thankful for the 21st century and Internet for publishing. For far too long, zinc-hearted and lazy publishers have trashed countless talented writers and did it with relish. Same with agents. Today, great writers will eventually end the publishers’ monopoly. It couldn’t come soon enough from my stand point. My latest book is selling like hot cakes but I couldn’t get one regular publisher to touch it: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World. If you look on Amazon, you’ll see extraordinary endorsements by readers. My book would not have seen the light of day if not for self-publishing and Kindle. To the main stream publishers, I say, “Eat my dust!” Frosty Wooldridge, 6 continent world bicycle adventurer

By: Courtney Vail

Courtney Vail — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 04:02:19 +0000

exactly this!

By: Renee Pierce Williams

Renee Pierce Williams — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:23:39 +0000

Even though saying you have been picked up by a reputable publisher still has it’s allure, I don’t think it’s necessary to try and appeal to an industry that is more fascinated with celebrities. Using the social media route will let you know where u stand as a writer and self-publishing allows you to retain the rights to YOUR work.

By: Paul Cain

Paul Cain — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:05:43 +0000

Why are self-publishing evangelists so intent on continually going on about Publishers being irrelevant or dead. If you truly believe that why not just leave to die out naturally? Why continually ask publishers to justify their existence?

If publishers are really dead why then have Amazon setup a publishing side to their business and going out to sign well known authors with a very similar business model to existing publishers.

As a publisher I agree the current business model is out-dated in the face of the changing world of publishing which is why we are changing and constantly examining what we do and how we do it as the new world evolves. I have nothing against self-publishing it works for some but going by the number of submissions and enquiries we receive there are still plenty of authors who value what a publisher can add to their book as a finished article in both eBook and printed form.

By: Peter Winkler

Peter Winkler — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:23:39 +0000

Very few writers achieve fortune through traditional publishing either. Amanda Hocking writes what you call dreck, but when her self-published books became successful enough, St. Martin’s Press, one of those beloved curators of which you are so enamored, signed her up in a $2 million deal. There goes your premise. The importance of physical books is fast diminishing, making the distribuive value of traditional publishers irrelevant. You have a very rosy view of what you think publishers do, unsullied by any real experience with them as an author.

By: Peter Winkler

Peter Winkler — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:11:03 +0000

Publishers only promote the small number of books that they acquire with six-figure advances. The other titles they publish receive little or no promotion or advertising and are left to flounder. Publishers expect the writer to promote themselves, which they are unable to do. So, publishers do nothing to bring most of their titles to the attention of the reader who might enjoy them. Therefore, all but a handful of authors may as well self-publish.

By: Peter Winkler

Peter Winkler — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:05:19 +0000

What a bunch of bloody nonsense. If most writers can’t write and the editors are the real ggeniuses, why not dispense with writers entirely and just let those supposedly fantastic editors write the books?