Quote:
Originally Posted by Bombphoon
The gentlemanly publisher/author relationship, of old is sadly now a thing of the past.
Whereas authors do it as a labour of love, devoting inordinate amounts of their own time, money and effort, from experience, publishing houses are staffed by staff who are just doing it as a 9 to 5 job and have no real interest in the subject matter, resulting in mistakes, slovenly work (which the reader automatically assumes is the author's fault).
Unless you are a big name author you will not make money out of having a book published. Chances are, once you assess all your expenses, you will have made a loss. So the only real reason to write nowadays is a passion or labour of love.
Bitter? Yes, probably. But speaking to fellow authors, this is a general experience of many writers and we seem to share a low opinion of publishers.
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Sorry to have to quote almost all the message, but I cannot agree more. And it is not simply useless whining, it is a thing tried and tested on the bare skin of many of us... with some scars remaining...
The saddest thing is that those few publishers working like craftmen (or artisans, if you like) have been more and more pushed within the arms of big companies which ends dictating timings, sizes and costs, virtually deciding how a book should be to fall within "cost parameters", notwithstanding if this will need the deletion of "n" pages or photographs, maybe mutilating a work... all usually passing well above authors...
Maybe Nick is right, a nice website could solve all and you won't have your leg pulled when ironic royalties checks came to you...