Bad.
Okay: not terrible. When I got started, they were necessary. But...think of everything you've ever heard about, like, the Music Industrial Complex. I know guys in bands, and how much they complain about the massive majority of profits and control going to some invisible suit somewhere. I counterargue that, at the least--and even granting that you can now slide a song through GarageBand on an iPhone, eliminating the need for the vestigial music industry--anyone not named Billy Joel is doing music as something of a group effort.
As a novelist, I'm exactly the only guy involved.
So, in financial terms, I was always a little perplexed that the book you got for twenty bucks [or whatever, whenever] got me about a dollar and a half; Borders got eight; the publisher got nine fifty; in the wrong place at the wrong time, the sales tax on a given novel was more than I was personally getting from it.
In terms of control, whether it was justified, I really hated being told was was and wasn't good, or appropriate, or in style, or anything but 'we'll take it; here's your ten percent or less'. That I can write anything within legal reason, and throw it up at amazon.com before the eInk is dry, is great. Dangerous; sometimes the publishers weren't exactly wrong about something being a trainwreck of crickets; but great. At least, if I write someone no one likes, I'm now the only one involved; I don't have to guess who made a mistake somewhere.   | | |
Publishers have a completely different perspective than writers, or more correctly, good writers. Good writers are writing with the goal of producing the best article, story, novel, etc. they can. Publishers are publishing with the goal of generating the most revenue. There's nothing wrong with this, but it is bad for the creative process, and keeps a lot of worthy writers from being rewarded for their work. That's because publishers' aims are best achieved with production from writers who are not doing it for creativity's sake, but to earn a buck. Sadly, that means total garbage - stuff like Dan Brown, Stephanie Meyer, Tom Clancy - ends up being the most popular.
So to answer the question directly, my experience with publishers has been difficult. Fortunately, it is not an experience I need to have too often.
Few, I did hardly sent in any excerpts.
never had a bad Experience. I understand that there are a lot of author out there. and i fill lucky to not be self publishing my work. and have old line publishing as my publisher.
Small. I found my publisher fairly painlessly, which from what I've gathered is fortunate. I can tell, however, that my manuscript was not at all read by some publishers I set it to. That kind of hurt - that my first pages were that low-quality to someone...!
I've had nothing but great experiences with publishers. On the whole.
I haven't had any experience with publishers! A friend in the USA is a very successful author through e publishing so I asked his advice and I haven't looked back. There is a wonderful freedom to e publishing. You know with a publisher you would be asked to make certain changes yet I get to decide what stays or gets cut and it's very liberating.
I work for one, that's all I want to say.
I haven't had any experience with publishers because I've been self publishing. I'm not sure whether I will ever go to the traditional ways.
They are 100 years behind times and until they recognize that the world is passing them by, they will continue to become more irrelevant every day. They need shots of business adrenelin.
None.
The only publisher I have worked with has been Amazon, and they've been marvelous.
I've published with Liquid Silver Books and Freya's Bower so far, and I've had generally good experiences with both.
The ones I have worked with so far aren't once recommending in terms of their support towards authors. Pustak Mahal (the previous publisher) are wolves under ship skin and many indigenous publishers are no different. |
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