Comments on: Respecting Writers

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By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 20:40:39 +0000

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By: Denise A. Agnew

Denise A. Agnew — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 20:23:24 +0000

Loved the blog on publishing, Brenda. Took the words outta my mouth.

Denise A. Agnew

By: KarenS

KarenS — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 22:37:33 +0000

Brenda, I couldn’t agree with you more. Pooh pooing other author’s achievements just because they didn’t hone their craft’ for fifty years, prior to getting published, is just plain snobbery.

There are many brilliant writers out there whose work will never see the light of day. People in the fantastic position of being published by big houses, should be grateful for what they’ve got, and not throw their dummy out of the pram, just because somebody else didn’t work as hard as they did, to get where they are.

By: Lilith Saintcrow

Lilith Saintcrow — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 17:03:44 +0000

Wonderful post!

First: I am reminded of Julia Cameron while reading some of this; in The Artist’s Way, she addresses the myth that artists have to Suffer For Their Art. It’s a myth, and a persistently damaging one, because our culture largely doesn’t value the creative life as it should.

Second: Getting published is a combination of hard work, persistence, and luck- but it is true that the harder you work, the more luck you get. It’s ridiculous to deny small presses and small-press authors their place at the table; small presses provide an opportunity for new authors to cut their teeth and make their bones as well as a congenial ground for less-conventional works.

However, small presses are not vanity presses. Self-publishing occasionally turns up a gem, that’s true, but it’s still vanity publishing and the editorial oversight is less than none, not to mention the submission requirement is “anyone who has cash”. This is not congenial to good, well-written and well-edited work. Which is what gets people published. I think it’s quite reasonable to leave vanity presses to themselves and welcome any small royalty-paying publisher to the family. It is usually pretty clear which publishers are vanity and which aren’t.

Mh. Rant finished. Thank you for the wonderful post!

By: Brenda Coulter

Brenda Coulter — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 16:28:44 +0000

Not generous, Cindy; just practical.

I’d like to thank everyone who commented on this post. It was fun chatting with you.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 13:50:16 +0000

Thank you for saying this, Brenda. It is so rare (and awesome!) for a published author to say stuff like this. You’re very generous.

By: Alison Kent

Alison Kent — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 02:05:31 +0000

Mary Stella – I’ve been very impressed by the money Medallion is throwing behind its authors in the form of publicity!

By: Mary Stella

Mary Stella — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 01:51:29 +0000

Anybody who musters the discipline to write, write some more and finish a book deserves respect. (I know several people who have been members of writers groups for years and never finish a single manuscript.) I respect everyone who is doing whatever they can to make their publishing dreams come true. Some of us have a longer journey on the road. Others may fall short, but at least they make the effort.
That said, I do think that there is an elemental difference between paying to self-publish our books or paying to have someone else publish them and signing with a royalty-paying publisher who takes on all those costs themselves.
I knew before I submitted that Medallion was a small, independent company who didn’t yet have mass distribution. (They weren’t RWA-recognized when I signed.) However, they are an advance and royalty-paying publisher. Having been rejected via form letter by HqSil, I chose to submit to Medallion and take the chance.
I’m darned glad that I did. My advance wasn’t huge, but the amount of advertising and promotion has been phenomenal. Distribution has increased since I was first published. To borrow an old cliche: From tiny acorns, mighty oak trees grow. That’s my experience with this smaller company.

By: Ellen Fisher

Ellen Fisher — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 20:32:19 +0000

POD is a nebulous term. I have absolutely nothing against POD-type books, since my publisher produces them too. But my POD-type paperback is from a royalty-paying publisher, not a vanity press. Which means the money flows from the publisher to me, rather than the other way around.

As I said above, there may very well be some brilliant gems from vanity presses, but they will tend to get lost amidst the less-brilliant vanity pubbed books. And they are unfortunately not very likely to sell enough copies to get an author noticed by major publishers. (See Lee Goldberg’s blog for iUniverse figures.) I’d think selling to a small, royalty-paying press would be a better way for most of us to get noticed. But I could certainly be biased:-).