SG10: Is there any sort of written history of this unit?

[Bombphoon]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

My NSG 9 book was obviously too specialist since I'm still having to do the day job!

There is one sense in which writers aren't at the mercy of publishers: get a website and you can write about anything you like. Plus you don't make any money, so it's almost exactly like beng a "real" author!

I'm afraid to say that - bar one or two = APAB (All Publishers Are Bastards). They have you by the short and curlies because they know you want your book published. 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.