Best 138 quotes in «publishing quotes» category

Good cover design is not only about beauty... it’s a visual sales pitch. It’s your first contact with a potential reader. Your cover only has around 3 seconds to catch a browsing reader’s attention. You want to stand out and make them pause and consider, and read the synopsis.

If I send all the books that I faithfully wrote overseas, would that, for any chance, be considered work-shipping??

He wondered fleetingly how many people who sat alone for hours as they scribbled their stories practiced talking about their work during their coffee breaks....

He was universally charming, as only a writer in pursuit of a publisher can be.

I have always believed in the principle that immediate survival is more important than long-term survival.

If the novel is dead, I'm a necrophiliac.

Hook your editor with a strong opening sentence to bring attention to your writing.

I'm a professional writer and I consider it part of my job to publicise my work and these days part of that job is done online.

Indie publishing lets me feed my inner control freak.

I judge the quality of my work by the quality of the people that follow it. If my readers are the most amazing people on Earth, I am surely doing a very good job and I have all the right to be proud about it.

In this age where people can become famous without doing anything, we are now encouraging a literary and publishing atmosphere where you must become famous before you can do anything.

I reminded him that I was there by appointment to offer him my book for publication. He began to swell and went on swelling and swelling and swelling until he had reached the size of a god of about the second or third degree. Then the fountains of his great deep were broken up and for two or three minutes I couldn’t see him for the rain. It was words, only words, but they fell so thickly that they darkened the atmosphere. Finally he made an important sweep with his right hand which took in the whole room, and said: “ Books—look around you! Every place are books that are waiting for publication. Do I want any more? Excuse me, I don’t. Good morning.

I stood by and spoke out for Amazon when Amazon was attacked by Hatchett and other traditional publishers in the early days. I also represented Amazon as an author spokesperson to the media during the Press Conference launch in Santa Monica for Kindle Family as well as at Book Expo America. Today, authors don't have that kind of loyalty to a distributor of their books. They don't have that kind of loyalty to the publishers of their books and jump around to find the best deal for each book and going back and forth between publishing with a big publisher and self-publishing. Publishing like any industry is built on relationships. When an author is published by multiple publishers and jumps around, it signals to her publishers her lack of commitment to them. It is only human to see this lack of trust. So, my advice to authors who jump around...find a good publisher to land with if you decide to go with a traditional publisher. Be committed to them or it will seem like a betrayal when you are published with another publisher in the same genre. - Advice to Authors by Kailin Gow

‎"It almost felt like the dolphin of my heart’s desire playing in the ocean of my life." - on writing

It began to falter not when the book publishers who loved books gave way to those who preferred profits to reading. It happened when publishers and editors cut back on their drinking. If there is one national flower in book publishing, it is the martini.

I hope that, whatever happens within the publishing industry, because of the increased control writers have of their own careers, better sales information and the advent of the internet, that ultimately this change in our working environment will be a change for the better.

In publishing, it doesn't matter which publisher published a book. In the end, if the book resonates with an audience, it is the work itself that matters. - Kailin Gow on Writing and Publishing.

In the industry, trying out new genres is not always encouraged but what I've discovered is that as a writer, a jaunt outside my comfort zone generally brings new skills to the main body of my work.

I think of book development like cooking spaghetti. There are many ways to cook it, but the basic ingredients should be present: The pasta, and the sauce, and the cheese topping! If you’re a fabulous cook, and you plan on selling spaghetti to earn extra income, it should be obvious to you that there are a lot of other places where it is sold, and you would have to convince people that your spaghetti is better than the others. You’d do this by making sure that the noodles are perfectly al dente, the sauce is tasty, and to give it an edge, you’d make it cheesier, put it in a nice container, and maybe add a sprig of parsley on top to add to the appeal. You wouldn’t serve it on the floor and tell people to go on and taste it because it’s truly delicious, and that you have slaved for many hours perfecting the taste. Packaging and appearances are important, as much as the taste. In publishing, you could be the next great writer, but if you don’t present your words in the most appealing way possible, especially in this highly competitive industry, I doubt anyone would bother to read it except your friends and family, if at all.

It has been our experience that American houses insist on very comprehensive editing; that English houses as a rule require little or none and are inclined to go along with the author's script almost without query. The Canadian practice is just what you would expect--a middle-of-the-road course. We think the Americans edit too heavily and interfere with the author's rights. We think that the English publishers don't take enough editorial responsibility. Naturally, then, we consider our editing to be just about perfect. There's no doubt about it, we Canadians are a superior breed! (in a letter to author Margaret Laurence, dated May, 1960)

It is proper Netiquette to post pictures with status updates to make them more engaging. NetworkEtiquette.net

It is bound to be a failure, every book is a failure, but I do know with some clarity what kind of book I want to write.

It’s always the end of the world,” said Russell Grandinetti, one of Amazon’s top executives. “You could set your watch on it arriving.” He pointed out, though, that the landscape was in some ways changing for the first time since Gutenberg invented the modern book nearly 600 years ago. “The only really necessary people in the publishing process now are the writer and reader,” he said. “Everyone who stands between those two has both risk and opportunity.” Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal. New York Times, 10/16/2011

It can be depressing when no one takes interest, and a lack of response makes the writer question why they’re writing at all. To have one’s writing rejected is like you, yourself, are being rejected.

It's called publishing. It's how smart people install new ideas into other peoples brains.

it takes a village to build success in publishing a book - it takes friends that are willing to help - it takes hours upon hours of no's to get to a yes, it takes many twists and turns with seemingly no end to the detours, it takes courage to face the unknowns - it takes and it takes and it takes - But then, like a flower opening its blossom - it gives.........

I was once told by a traditional publisher I write and publish more books than they can handle so I became a publisher. - Kailin Gow on being prolific

I've always felt that good writing does not have to be literary.

Marketing isn’t sleazy car salesman tactics. Marketing isn’t tricking people into buying. Marketing isn’t unethical. Marketing isn’t intrusive self-promotion. Marketing is two things: (1) creating lasting connections with people, through (2) a focus on being relentlessly helpful.

No matter how good it is, your book will not sell itself.

Not everyone will like what you write but there's a certain group who'll love what you write. Keep WRITING for them.

It takes great courage to write great books. Find your courage and find your voice.

NEWSPAPER: What great paper is the Earth; what a typeface is the Day; what ink is the Night! – Everyone prints, everyone reads; no one understands.

Nowadays, the Internet decides if you're good, not the big man in the big office. No matter how important that man thinks he is, everyone else knows that he's not important anymore, and the Internet decides these things, here in the modern age.

One of the greatest gifts we can give someone is our undivided attention--a thought that whispers constantly in the ear of any author who respects their readers.

Now, Max, I have told you many times that you are my publisher, and permanently, as far as one can fling about the word in this too mutable world....The idea of leaving you has never for one single moment entered my head.

People can’t read a book if they don’t know it exists. All authors need to do marketing, regardless of how they published.

Publication is a marathon, not a sprint. Writing the book is only the start.

People don't know they want to become an author until they meet me.

Përndryshe, në qoftë se shtëpitë botuese mjaftohen të shesin vepra të përkthyera, të cilat janë seleksionuar gjetiu, atëherë kthehemi te muhabeti i free riders; meqë ashtu shtëpitë botuese heqin dorë nga roli i tyre kulturor, duke u mjaftuar me shitjen e qofteve.

One alphabet at a time, you can write an encyclopaedia. One word at a time, you can publish an entire library.

Publishing a book does not make you an authority or an expert. Authorship doesn’t not equal authority.

Publishers are businesses and I don’t blame them for that. If they didn’t make money by publishing books, there wouldn’t be any books.

Publishing a book is like being pregnant. By the end, you're just ready to get that baby out!

Publishing would be so wonderful without those wretched authors.

Publishing is a business and writing is an art. The two have to be crammed together despite the clearly different motivations behind them.

Quotes › Authors › D › Damian Barr › The stories we tell ourselves about... The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves are very often not really what happened. And as I started to write stuff down, I started to challenge what I thought I knew about myself, my culture, my family, all of it. It was a huge, destroying process that completely took over my life. I just wasn't here, I mean I was physically present, but I wasn't here, I was back in the 1980s.

Persistence can look a lot like stupid.

Readership is highly dependent upon format and distribution as much as it is on content.

Publishing is definitely something you do because you enjoy educating or entertaining people.