Publishers Quotes - Page 8

Your book may be a masterpiece but do not suggest that to the publisher because many of the most hopeless manuscripts that have come his way have probably been so described by their authors.

Stanley Unwin

Book, May, Way

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A publisher who writes is like a cow in a milk bar.

Arthur Koestler

Writing, Bars, Cows

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I should be sorry to think it was the publishers themselves they got up this entire little flutter to enable them to unload a book that was taking too much room in their cellars, but you can never tell what a publisher will do. I have been one myself.

Mark Twain

Sorry, Book, Thinking

Mark Twain (2014). “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, p.11, Penguin

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I had brought up from Chile a contract agent whose cover was that of a newspaper publisher in Santiago, a young, very talented man, named Dave Phillips, who later on carved quite a career for himself in the agency.

E. Howard Hunt

Men, Agency, Careers

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To aspiring writers, I would tell them that we live in a wonderful time where you're able to make your work visible, easily. If you think about it, even ten years ago or twenty years ago, there was a middle man, there was a publisher, there were studios, there was this world of rejection letters. Now, we're in a place where we have the technology and the ability to go shoot our own movies or to put stuff on YouTube or a blog, if you're a writer, or self-publish.

Diablo Cody

Men, Thinking, Technology

"Diablo Cody Talks YOUNG ADULT, the EVIL DEAD Remake, SWEET VALLEY HIGH, Her Directorial Debut, and a Lot More". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. December 16, 2011.

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In some cases, people are silent; they're being complacent. But we're also seeing people speak out against some of these raids, these arrests. So for example, the Townhouse Gallery - the outreach director gave an interview to Ahram Online, which is a semi-official news agency here. And he sort of dismissed it, played it down. But the publisher from the publishing house - the Merit Publishing House, which was raided - he said this won't scare us; we will continue to dream of a free country, a country with social justice, and this won't silence us.

Leila Fadel

Dream, Country, Agency

"Egypt Expands Crackdown On Freedom Of Expression, Advocates Say". "Morning Edition" with Renee Montagne, www.npr.org. December 30, 2015.

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The most difficult book I wrote was the fourth in a series of linked children's books. It was like pulling teeth because the publisher wanted exactly the same but completely different. I'd much rather just do something completely different even if there's a risk of it going wrong.

Mark Haddon

Children, Book, Risk

"Finding the vital spark". Interview with Nicholas Wroe, www.theguardian.com. September 23, 2005.

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Literary success of any enduring kind is made by refusing to do what publishers want, by refusing to write what the public wants, by refusing to accept any popular standard, by refusing to write anything to order.

Lafcadio Hearn

Writing, Order, Want

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Whenever I go to work I wear a jacket and a tie, because I'm inherently quite lazy, and my books take so long to do, and my publishers don't bug me, so it's so easy to fool yourself into thinking you're working harder than you really are.

Robert Caro

Book, Thinking, Ties

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That's absolutely true, but one problem with the digital revolution, which may tie into what I said earlier, is that there can be a collapse of quality. You may not have liked the decisions made by publishers in the past, you may not have liked the decisions made by magazine editors or newspaper editors in the past. At least there was some quality control

William Monahan

Past, Editors, Digital Revolution

Source: collider.com

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I wrote a little autobiography about how luck has to do with everything. It's called "My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business." A publisher came to me and said write a book so I did. I wanted to call it "Everybody Else Has Got a Book."

Dick Van Dyke

Book, Writing, Luck

"Dick Van Dyke - At 87, Life is Better Than Ever!". Interview with Pat Gallagher, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 11, 2013.

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Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publication, the free press as we know it disappears. Then the spectre of a government agent will look over the shoulder of everyone who reads. ... Fear of criticism goes with every person into the bookstall. The subtle, imponderable pressures of the orthodox lay hold. Some will fear to read what is unpopular, what the powers-that-be dislike. ... fear will take the place of freedom in the libraries, book stores, and homes in the land.

William O. Douglas

Book, Home, Government

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Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it. If you were going to give Rock 'n' Roll another name you might as well call it Chuck Berry. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - Rock and Roll or Christianity.

John Lennon

Jesus, Thinking, Rock And Roll

'Evening Standard' 4 March 1966 (interview with Maureen Cleave).

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I was interested in creating things that I could be proud of and so, you know, I was interested in being an editor of a magazine, things that I could be proud of, and so, you know, I was interested in being an editor of a magazine, but in order to be an editor of a magazine I had to become a publisher as well. I had to pay the bills. I had to worry about the printing and the paper manufacturing and the distribution of that magazine.

Richard Branson

Creating Things, Order, Editors

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By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - have ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled.

John Taylor

Teacher, Children, College

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The real effect of the WTC calamity has been depressed spirits, anxiety, and uncertainty among publishers, and of course those emotions are not restricted to publishers.

Richard Curtis

Depressing, Real, Anxiety

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Never buy an editor or publisher a lunch or a drink until he has bought an article, story or book from you. This rule is absolute and may be broken only at your peril.

John Creasey

Book, Editors, Lunch

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I believe that all brands will become storytellers, editors and publishers, all stores will become magazines, and all media companies will become stores. There will be too many of all of them. The strongest ones, the ones who offer the best customer experience, will survive.

Natalie Massenet

Believe, Media, Editors

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Authors by the hundreds can tell you stories by the thousands of those rejection slips before they found a publisher who was willing to 'gamble' on an unknown.

Zig Ziglar

Rejection, Stories, Found

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You had censorship. If you brought a manuscript to the publisher, you knew he would suggest changes. If you wanted to write and speak what you thought had to be written and spoken, you had to act against all these suppressive rules.

Stefan Heym

Writing, Censorship, Speak

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I am disappointed by this controversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces because I rely on the publishers to define the category that a book falls within and also the authenticity of the work.

Oprah Winfrey

Book, Fall, Littles

"CNN Larry King Live". Interview With James Frey, transcripts.cnn.com. January 11, 2006.

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My publishers will make any kind of a beautiful book I design and send in to them, but ... For poetry they have less use than a rooster would have for skates.

Gene Stratton-Porter

Beautiful, Book, Poetry

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Sometimes many publishers prefer that you write the same book every time, but I have a low boredom threshold so that isn't going to happen.

Dean Koontz

Book, Writing, Boredom

"The Rumpus Interview With Dean Koontz". Interview with Ben Pfeiffer, therumpus.net. December 21, 2015.

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Traditional publishers will be dominant, and they should be because they really do assure quality. But eBooks, which are huge already, are going to eclipse everything. They will save traditional publishing the way DVDs saved movie studios (for a while) and they'll greatly expand the number of readers.

Steven Pressfield

Numbers, Dvds, Quality

Source: goinswriter.com

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I've had good publishers and bad publishers, and you've got to learn when the advice is sensible and when it's not.

Dean Koontz

Advice, Sensible

"The Rumpus Interview With Dean Koontz". Interview with Ben Pfeiffer, therumpus.net. December 21, 2015.

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