Comments on: To Book Publishers (Traditional & Self) Who Just Don’t Get It

By: Qiana Wilden

Qiana Wilden — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:56:56 +0000

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By: James

James — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:41:46 +0000

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By: Ilene Fine

Ilene Fine — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:18:40 +0000

I find it really amusing when publishers say they only print “quality” books. There is so much junk out there it’s unbelievable because that’s what the public wants or what the publishers are pushing and convincing us we want. We really need to reassess what kind of reading and writing is being taught in the schools and promoting a higher level of literacy in this country so that we appreciate the good stuff and shun the crap. No matter, I self-published my children’s board books because I had a unique design I wanted to get to market — I had to put my money where my mouth is. In any genre, at this point, publishers are often missing the mark and self-publshing will ultimately get legitimized and recognized by book sellers. It would be great if the books stores would not always cower to these big publishing houses and take a chance of some of us “little” guys and help us out by promoting us on their blogs, giving us prime placement or a section in the stores, etc. It will be a slow process but as more houses go out of business perhaps it might happen.

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By: Calvin Schwartz

Calvin Schwartz — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:38:36 +0000

Merry Happy Healthy Holidays. I just discovered Bill and Red Hen and I’m smiling(my smile becomes complete when Alastair Sim as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol comes on) because his words on ‘book covers’ resonate with power and reality. As of last week, I just self published my first novel( I knew four years ago I would self-publish) and I also sensed what Bill just spoke about, how important the cover is. It’s a subliminal message, that reaches and grabs you. My cover was four months of intensive work, finding right artist,conveying message, attracting and making people think. Bill’s words are so right on, and I wish my discovery of him happened sooner.

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By: Duncan Long

Duncan Long — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:05:17 +0000

What a sad story — and yet another sign that some of our big publishers are in danger of becoming extinct, and dragging down a whole generation of writers as well.

On the flip side, I’ve seen many self publishers pay for quality bindings and workmanship with the printing, and then saddle the book with a poor cover illustration (the average budgeting for covers by self publishers is something like $250 if memory serves…).

In my library I have a few “jewels” that were printed over a hundred years ago. I suspect when I’m gone my children will treasure these as well. A quality book is a lot of work and extra expense. But the result is something an author can be proud of, and a potential gem of an heirloom that can be treasured for generations.

–Duncan Long
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Freelance illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, American Media, Fort Ross, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and many other publishers. See my illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html

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By: Debbie Alferio

Debbie Alferio — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:19:14 +0000

I am a self-published author (Authorhouse) and couldn’t agree more. There are so many poorly edited and produced SP books out there that it makes the rest of us who DO have quality works look bad. I believe that self-publishing is the wave of the future and a great way for first-time, unknown authors to “test the market” for their work. However, if the potential reader can’t even get past the low-budget cover or the typos on the first few pages, how will it sell?

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By: Larry Bauer

Larry Bauer — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:48:48 +0000

You make an interesting point. We get so caught up in costs and electronic competition that we neglect covers and other elements that we know attract readers and make books sell. It sometimes seems as though we design failure rather than success into our products and then wonder what happened.

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By: Sherrie White

Sherrie White — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:34:06 +0000

We just picked up my son’s first book of poetry from the printers. Fortunately for us, we have a printer in the family. And I make signs for a living so doing the setup was handled fairly easily. I understand what you are saying. I’ve seen so many typos in books lately that it really saddens me. Plus, as you have noted, the quality isn’t there. I even had purchased one book before realizing that a section of the pages were upside down!!! Can you imagine? We will be taking his book “Walking in the Rain” A Collection of Poems and Short Stories by Nicholas Scott to small, local bookstores and coffee shops. Poetry by a young author just isn’t on the radar with big publishers so we decided not to even bother. I hope that you are right when you say that someday self-published books may be the norm. Happy Holidays Sherrie White

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By: Brenna Lyons

Brenna Lyons — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:01:38 +0000

Unfortunately, the publishers won’t take responsibility for killing their own sales. I’ve seen it before. I’ve seen bestselling authors whose releases were screwed up by the publisher told the poor sales were the author’s fault. In their book, it’s always the author’s fault, even if what went wrong was beyond the author’s control…poor cover, poor formatting, poor quality, screwed up marketing and listing in the catalog…and even the publisher changing the release date or not getting the books shipped on schedule. Still, they say it’s the author’s fault.

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