Publishers Quotes - Page 9

• Ebooks have many advantages - publishers don't have to make guesses about how many books to print, books need never go "out of print", and hard-to-find books can be easily available. So far, the only limitation seems to be finding a way for the writer to be paid.

  Kate Grenville

  Book, Way, Needs

  Source: www.compulsivereader.com

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• I was in a pharmacy and I saw the warnings on the backs of poisonous substances, and I thought, "Well, that's what I can do." So I wrote a list of ingredients in the book, and warnings that they shouldn't consume those ingredients. The editor and the publisher thought that it was a great way to go in terms of reverse psychology, but it honestly hadn't occurred to me that it was reverse psychology. I just thought that it was sort of an honest assessment making clear that if you were timid or easily disturbed, you could turn away.

  Daniel Handler

  Book, Editors, Assessment

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 16, 2005.

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• I object to publishers: the one service they have done me is to teach me to do without them. They combine commercial rascality with artistic touchiness and pettishness, without being either good business men or fine judges of literature.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Men, Judging, Done

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• No publisher should ever express an opinion of the value of what he publishes. That is a matter entirely for the literary critic to decide.

  Oscar Wilde

  Matter, Opinion, Should

  Letter in 'St James's Gazette' 28 June 1890

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• I enjoy the hell out of writing but don't like what follows: promotion and publicity, which I always strive to keep to a minimum, sometimes to my publisher's dismay.

  Dean Koontz

  Writing, Publicity, Sometimes

  "Interview with the Master of Suspense, Dean Koontz (part 1)". Interview with Trisha Sugarek, www.writeratplay.com. June 28, 2014.

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• You can't sell a book in America if you don't dump on Bush. That's the cheapest shot in the world. You cannot get an advance, and you can't sell a book because the publishers are all people who hate Bush and hate Republicans.

  Roger Ailes

  Hate, Book, America

  "Fox Business v. CNBC; Ailes v. The Critics; My Programming Suggestions:'Failure Is Never Pemanent Unless You Accept It'". www.hughhewitt.com. October 8, 2007.

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• Back in the pre-internet age there were pirate publishers, especially in the third world, who would print physical copies of books, sell them, and never inform the author/their agent/their publisher just trousering the money. I think we can agree that this was piracy?

  Charles Stross

  Book, Thinking, Pirate

  Reddit AMA, www.reddit.com. July 02, 2012.

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• No one wants to see a play called 'Lady Windermere's Fan'. It's going to be called 'Cocks in Frocks II' or I will find another publisher

  Oscar Wilde

  Play, Fans, Want

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• A publisher is simply a useful middle-man.

  Oscar Wilde

  Men, Middle

  Letter in 'St James's Gazette' 28 June 1890

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• Publishing is no longer simply a matter of picking worthy manuscripts and putting them on offer. It is now as important to market books properly, to work with the bookstore chains to getterms, co-op advertising, and the like. The difficulty is that publishers who can market are most often not the publishers with worthy lists.

  Olivia Goldsmith

  Book, Important, Matter

  Olivia Goldsmith (2014). “The Bestseller”, p.370, Diversion Books

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• Publishers are all cohorts of the devil; there must be a special hell for them somewhere.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Special, Devil, Hell

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• No author is a man of genius to his publisher.

  Heinrich Heine

  Men, Genius

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• Launching Collins in the U.S. fulfills the original vision of the 1989 union of Harper & Row and William Collins. Publishing has clarified the many benefits of working as a global company. I believe that a true 21st century publisher is a global publisher. Harper Collins is well on its way.

  David D. Friedman

  Believe, Vision, Benefits

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• I don't read reviews any more, but I'm told by my publisher who gives me an account of what people have been writing and it's been a very split kind of response.

  Paul Auster

  Writing, People, Giving

  Interview with Lotte Hansen, www.timeout.com.

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• When the publisher here in America wanted to put the word "memoir" on the title page [of 'Winter Journal'] and on the cover, I said, "No, no, no, no, no, no." No genre whatsoever. It's an independent work not really connected to those things at all.

  Paul Auster

  Independent, Winter, America

  Interview with Wayne Gooderham, www.timeout.com.

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• My publisher had mailed [Bret Easton Ellis] Richard Yates. And when I talked to him he said he had read all my prose books. And he said something like, "You got a lot of mileage out of Dakota Fanning."

  Tao Lin

  Book, Like You, Said

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I can understand the allure of a venerable Big Six imprint, of a shot at the New York Times list, of a publisher-sponsored book tour, of seeing your hardbacks in bookstores and your paperbacks in supermarkets.

  Barry Eisler

  New York, Book, Lists

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• Although I still write, research and investigate, my role is primarily that of a publisher and editor-in-chief who organises and directs other journalists.

  Julian Assange

  Writing, Editors, Roles

  The Guardian Interview, www.theguardian.com. December 3, 2010.

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• There is always a certain leap of faith that editors have made with their nonfiction writers. If the trust is broken, things can get very embarrassing for the writers and the publisher.

  A. Scott Berg

  Editors, Broken, Leap Of Faith

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• Every writer has his own voice. Other than that I'm always trying to do change-ups and publishers haven't always been happy about that.

  Dean Koontz

  Voice, Always Trying, Havens

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

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• The war between authors and publishers has been a conflict of ages. On the one side, the publisher has been looked upon as a species of Wantley dragon, whose daily food was the brain and blood of hapless writers. ... On the other side, the author has been considered, like Shelley, 'an eternal child,' in all that relates to practical matters, and a terrible child at that, - incapable of comprehending details, and unreasoanably dissatisfied with results.

  Mary Abigail Dodge

  Children, War, Dragons

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• You see what stupid folk my publishers are; but they are all alike.

  George Sand

  Stupid, Folks

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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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• 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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• Coming after all the bullshit related to A Million Little Pieces, nobody was expecting anything from me. No publisher, no agent, no one. Just me and the book. It was great.

  James Frey

  Book, Bullshit, Pieces

  Interview with Stephen Elliott, therumpus.net. January 20, 2009.

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