Eight Truths about Traditional Publishers

The publisher pays you only a few pennies a book. That does not include the books publishers sell at a discount, or returned to the publisher. The author makes no money on these.

Authors who do sell successfully in bookstores invest thousands of their own money on publicity.

Publishing houses are in business to make money. They contract books that will meet their agendas. They are not interested in author's careers.

Competition in a bookstore is brutal. Each book is only on the shelves for eight weeks in a bookstore, then they are returned to the publisher. Publishing houses do not pay royalties on books sent to clearing houses.

Most manuscript submissions are rejected before an editor even reads them. In most of the larger publishing houses, junior editors, recent graduates that know nothing about the fiction market, are in charge of reading the slush pile and mailing out form rejection letters.

Publishing house editors have their own quirks. This is why writers shouldn't pay too much attention to rejection letters. Editors might take a red pen and look for pet peeves like weak verbs (had, was) that lead to passive writing, sentence structure mistakes, or wordiness. Many of these authors will not read a manuscript or synopsis until they have checked for their pet peeve.

Publishers do not promote books. They have a front list, about five books; they expect to make money on these books. The publishers do not promote books on their back list. They see a book as a tool to advance an author's career, and it is the author’s job to advance their careers.

Never sign a contract that pays royalties on NET instead of the gross sales or retail sales. This is just another way of hiding the fact that the publisher is a vanity press. They will deduct editing, printing, cover design, and can even go as far as deducting a percentage of their office and conference expenses. Also, beware of co publishing contracts.

As brutal as this looks, most publishers are fair with writers who give them what they need. This is where the directories of publishing companies let writer's down. First, anyone can buy a listing in those directories, even a vanity press that is pretending to be a publishing.

Continue to the article entitled How to Pick a Publisher.