Publishing Quotes - Page 2

• It is clear that a novel cannot be too bad to be worth publishing. . . . It certainly is possible for a novel to be too good to be worth publishing.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Novel, Clear

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• We are interested in stifling the sale of this book. We believe that this can be best accomplished by refusing to be stampeded into giving it publicity...The less discussion there is concerning it the more sales resistance will be created. We therefore appeal to you to refrain from comment on this book...It is our conviction that a general compliance with this request will sound the warning to other publishing houses against engaging in this type of venture. (Signed) Richard E. Gutstadt, Director.

  Madison Grant

  Book, Believe, Publishing House

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• At the end of the 1950s, I started working at a publishing company, Estudios Cor, as production manager, so returning, but not as an author, to the world of letters I had left some years before.

  Jose Saramago

  Years, Letters, World

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• Publishing magazines for yourself is not good business, man.

  Felix Dennis

  Men, Magazines, Good Business

  "Beating the big boys at their own game" by Owen Gibson, www.theguardian.com. August 15, 2005.

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• In his 30 years of broadcasting and publishing fiction, Garrison Keillor has set the laugh bar pretty high.

  Jane Smiley

  Years, Laughing, Bars

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• It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one's children will become than for the children one's 'mature' critics often are.

  Alice Walker

  Children, Writing, Criticism

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• 'Harry Potter' opened so many doors for young adult literature. It really did convince the publishing industry that writing for children was a viable enterprise. And it also convinced a lot of people that kids will read if we give them books that they care about and love.

  Rick Riordan

  Children, Book, Writing

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• The only proper suit-and-tie job I've had in my life was the two years in the late 1980s when I ran a small corporate publishing company. I even had a Ford Sierra!

  Will Self

  Jobs, Years, Two

  "My Other Life: Will Self". www.theguardian.com. October 31, 2009.

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• Rehearsing a play is making the word flesh. Publishing a play is reversing the process.

  Peter Shaffer

  Play, Flesh, Process

  Peter Shaffer (2011). “Equus”, p.8, Simon and Schuster

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• I hate this word 'graphic novel.' It is a term publishing houses have created for the bourgeois so they wouldn't be ashamed of buying comics... I'm not a graphic novelist. I am a cartoonist and I make comics and I am very happy about it.

  Marjane Satrapi

  Hate, Publishing House, Novelists

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• The Big Five publishing companies are dinosaurs trying to survive in a post-meteor world. They won't.

  Tucker Max

  Trying, World, Dinosaurs

  "How This Bestselling Writer Is Changing The Rules Of The Publishing Industry". Interview with Dylan Love, www.businessinsider.com. February 1, 2013.

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• As we've gotten more successful, there's a gap between the speed of our publishing pipeline and the speed of our receiving submissions pipeline. Our pipeline of leaks has been increasing exponentially as our profile rises, and our ability to publish is increasing linearly.

  Julian Assange

  Successful, Pipeline, Gaps

  "An Interview With WikiLeaks' Julian Assange". Interview with Andy Greenberg, www.forbes.com. November 29, 2010.

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• I don't take investment advice from wealth managers. I have grown several businesses from scratch and amassed many millions from my publishing empire - why would I take advice from someone who has never experienced that?

  Felix Dennis

  Advice, Scratches, Empires

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• For me, titles are either a natural two-second experience or stressful enough to give you an ulcer. If they don't pop out perfect on the first try, they can be really hard to repair. Or, worse, if the author thinks they pop out perfect, but the publishing house does not agree, it's difficult to shift gears. And then? Then you go insane.

  Sloane Crosley

  Thinking, Publishing House, Two

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• I've thought of publishing a book of my hate mail, but I don't own the rights to the letters.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Hate, Book, Rights

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• My novel, which I had started with such hope shortly after publishing my first book of stories, wouldn't budge past the 75-page mark. Nothing I wrote past page 75 made any kind of sense. Nothing. Which would have been fine if the first 75 pages hadn't been pretty damn cool.

  Junot Diaz

  Book, Past, Stories

  "Battling my way to a Pulitzer Prize novel" by Junot Diaz, www.cnn.com. December 4, 2009.

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• I think the search engines are the new equivalent of publishing: an enabler of information.

  James Dyson

  Thinking, Information, Search Engine

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• I'm happy to report that 'The New Press' is still in business to this day. But not thanks to me. I was a really bad publishing intern.

  Lev Grossman

  Thanks, Stills, Reports

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• I have very strong theories about magazine publishing. And I think that it is the most personal form of journalism. And I think that a magazine is an old friend.

  Hugh Hefner

  Strong, Thinking, Media

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• Any institution becomes a community - whether it's a high school or a boarding school or a publishing company or a small town where everybody knows certain things about people.

  Alice Hoffman

  School, People, Community

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• I do work a lot. I mean, most of my income, I would say, comes from live performances. And then you've got publishing, you've got record royalties.

  Elton John

  Mean, Income, Records

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• I write slowly by hand. Publishing is effectively bankrupt for you unless you are Danielle Steele. It takes a year to write book and advances are going down or disappearing.

  Erica Jong

  Book, Writing, Hands

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• I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years.

  Mary Karr

  Years, Overnight Success

  "Mary Karr writes up a storm with 'Cherry'". Interview with Adam Dunn, www.cnn.com. January 4, 2001.

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• A friend of mine who is in the publishing business knew I was writing a book, and he said, 'Have you said anything yet about the good guy? Because I know you spend so much time with the bad guys.' Because they're fun. So then you have to make the good guy fun, in order to compete. That's the challenge.

  Elmore Leonard

  Fun, Book, Writing

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• The Nobel Prize is run by a self-perpetuated committee. They vote for themselves and get the world's publishing industry to jump to their tune.

  Doris Lessing

  Running, Self, Tunes

  "In their own words: literary giants who died this year" by Jess Sutcliffe, www.theguardian.com. December 28, 2013.

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