Top 100 Quotes About Publishers
#1. - Amy said that would be an imprudent expense; but as soon as he had got a good price for a book. Will not the publishers be kind? If they knew what happiness lurked in embryo within their foolish cheque-books!
George Gissing
#2. Apple doesn't need to maximize book sales. It simply needs to keep publishers happy enough to maintain an impressive-sounding inventory of titles while waiting for entirely new forms of publishing to develop.
Virginia Postrel
#3. As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers, so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers.
Cyril Connolly
#4. We knew when we started the Daily Muse, we wanted a recruiting-focused business model rather than an advertising-focused one. We felt like publishers were being forced to go to more and more extreme lengths to monetize through advertising.
Kathryn Minshew
#5. I see publishers bemoaning their fate and saying that this is the end of publishing. No! Publishers will recreate themselves. Some of that comes from my experience as a print publisher.
Tim O'Reilly
#6. The challenge of writing books for teenagers is walking the fine line between truth and what the publishers, parents, and the more conservative librarians want to hear.
Annette Curtis Klause
#7. Inspired by the purse rather than the soul, the mercenary side fairly screams in many of the works put out by every day American publishers.
Alma Gluck
#8. In terms of production, newspaper publishers are continuing to focus principally on automation as the key to reducing production costs and general overheads.
Eric Bell
#9. Only if a Chinaman presents proof of affiliation with the West, has Western patrons vouch for him, and writes in 'pure' English, may he present his 'submission' to Western publishers.
Thorsten J. Pattberg
#10. Most of the smaller houses had been gobbled up by so-called general-interest publishers, most of them now owned in turn by much bigger conglomerates who'd publish anything they could get their hands on that had a chance of making money.
Jonathan Galassi
#11. When I first started with 'Twilight,' I didn't have any experience. I didn't know what I was doing. So I was pretty intimidated by the editors and the publishers, and I felt like I was a kid in school with the principal telling me what to do! It was hard for me.
Stephenie Meyer
#12. Once publishers got interested in it, it was a year in developing, and it was launched, I think, in 1960. But Willie Lumpkin didn't last long - it only last a little better than a year, maybe a year and a half.
Dan DeCarlo
#13. Writers keep writing and publishers publishing - it never grows boring.
Michael Dirda
#14. I don't chase publishers. Publishers chase me.
Eric Walters
#15. Authors will make far more on those ebooks through direct sales than publishers are offering. There is no incentive for authors to sell those rights to traditional publishers which means, in the fairly short term, publishers run out of material to sell.
Michael A. Stackpole
#16. Great physicists, great mathematicians, great chemists, and publishers knew that one was always feeling one's way in the dark.
Roberto Bolano
#17. Publishers were ever eager for authors to do their own publicity because nobody else was willing to do it for nothing. But then it became clear that if you want somebody to champion the story, there's nobody better than the person who made it all up.
Dave Morris
#18. Publishers are thieves, they are on the other side of the barricade.
Paul Bowles
#19. We are publishers of content and consumers of content at the same time. (D. Abbot, J.Hegarty)
Gordon Torr
#20. The publishers, as I remember at the very beginning of my career, wrote letters with their fountain pens. A letter is different from a phone call or fax. It's a different kind of intimacy. That pervaded the entire business of writing and publishing.
James Salter
#21. When I write, I tend to be quite cut off from the world. At that point of time, I'm not thinking about editors, publishers or readers. I write the story the way it comes to me.
Amish Tripathi
#22. You know, it's sort of common wisdom among New York publishers that short story collections don't make money.
Chad Harbach
#23. United States HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 195 Broadway
Erin Hunter
#25. When I left the Senate in 1979, there were several publishers who had approached me about writing an autobiography, and I knew that politicians write books for many reasons, but at that time, I just thought I wasn't ready and my story wasn't over, and I knew I had a new life ahead of me.
Edward Brooke
#26. My biggest concern about the market is the force that acts to drive down price, because I think that's destructive to authors as well as publishers. Our biggest battle is to underline the value of intellectual property.
Jonathan Galassi
#27. I'd been sending out demos and CDs for years. I knew my stuff was good enough, but I was getting nowhere. Then, three people - my future manager and two publishers - happened to send one of my tracks to EMI publishing in the same week. All of a sudden, they were interested!
Calvin Harris
#28. My kind publishers, Toby Mundy and Margaret Stead of Atlantic Books, have commissioned me to write the life of Queen Victoria.
A. N. Wilson
#29. Your turn Imagine that the world had no middlemen, no publishers, no bosses, no HR folks, no one telling you what you couldn't do. If you lived in that world, what would you do? Go. Do that.
Seth
#30. The paradox of being in an industry where other people are usually the gatekeepers: publishers, editors - there are a lot of barriers to having control over your career. But coming out of hip-hop, the mindset was always to create your own.
Adam Mansbach
#31. Any anxieties publishers have about putting a child on the front cover of a book who isn't white is very old fashioned.
Malorie Blackman
#32. The literary publishers were the Lords of Culture, the master parasites sitting on top of this swarming dunghill.
Jonathan Galassi
#33. From that moment on, the newspaper became a highly lucrative investment for those with a talent for making money or for publishers wanting to gain a fortune.
Ferdinand Lassalle
#34. Morgan was sent copies and decided to sue both publishers for libel.
David Cordingly
#35. I write literary, not commercial, fiction - or so I've been told by my publishers who are proud I write literary fiction but secretly wish I wrote commercial.
Tawni O'Dell
#36. There's a reason publishers don't build on top of social platforms: publishers are an independent lot, and they naturally understand the value of owning your own domain. Publishers don't want to be beholden to the shifting sands of inscrutable platform policies.
John Battelle
#37. In the past the publishers I've worked with have been extremely generous. And in almost every case, have been people who believed in the work rather than the sales and marketing.
Peter Sotos
#38. I tend to turn down books originally published as e-books. As for selling books directly to e-book publishers, I would do so only if all traditional publishers had turned them down.
Richard Curtis
#39. Publishers seem to be in an alcoholic haze most of the time. Well, the publishers have no idea what a writer is.
James Purdy
#40. The books are all very, very different so the publishers really had to be different too.
Mark Millar
#41. Do they [the publishers of Murphy] not understand that if the book is slightly obscure it is because it is a compression and thatto compress it further can only make it more obscure?
Samuel Beckett
#42. It is a good idea to know which publishers publish which stories. For example, there is no sense in sending a picture book text to a publisher who does not publish picture books.
Margaret Mahy
#43. While some of the big publishers might give out 200,000 advances, if your book does not hit some of the lists in the second week, they stop paying attention to you.
Caroline Leavitt
#44. Those who insert themselves into as many channels as possible look set to capture the most value. They'll be the richest, the most successful, the most connected, capable and influential among us. We're all publishers now, and the more we publish, the more valuable connections we'll make.
Pete Cashmore
#45. Never use 'submit' as a verb for sending work to magazine or book publishers; say 'offer,' and never, ever submit. Keep your knees unbent. Be brave.
Frederick Busch
#46. I believe I'm a better writer now than I was when I started. I'm grateful that I had good guidance because you don't make it in this business without good editors and a lot of support from your publishers.
Sharon Draper
#47. I am disappointed by this controversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces because I rely on the publishers to define the category that a book falls within and also the authenticity of the work.
Oprah Winfrey
#48. As for collaboration - I have done a lot, 26 books, and found publishers increasingly resistive to them. It's not that the books are bad; editors won't even read them.
Piers Anthony
#50. We are not only a civilization of amateur photographers; we are amateur curators, editors, and publishers.
Charlotte Cotton
#51. I don't relax. My main relaxation is meeting illustrators and publishers in restaurants and bars.
Tony Ross
#52. I formed a resolution to never write a word I did not want to write; to think only of my own tastes and ideals, without a thought of those of editors or publishers.
C.S. Forester
#53. There were eleven publishers in New York City, and when it was all over, I think it went down to four or five, and then finally just the three of them, the Big Three.
Dan DeCarlo
#54. Sometimes many publishers prefer that you write the same book every time, but I have a low boredom threshold so that isn't going to happen.
Dean Koontz
#55. My memoirs were written, and a portion of them already in the hands of the publishers, when the startling news came which has thrilled all Europe and filled her inhabitants with horror - the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.
Belle Boyd
#56. The French translation of 'a black hole has no hair' is so obscene that French publishers resisted it vigorously, to no avail.
Kip S. Thorne
#57. most of the books available in Kindle Unlimited are from self-publishers, and most of them are unknown to you.
Max Blackwell
#58. I think the path to becoming a writer has become more through the novel. It's easier to get a novel published than a book of stories, obviously, especially through big publishers.
Jess Walter
#59. The impossibility of a sequel ever recapturing everything - or anything - about its ancestor never stopped legions of writers from trying, or hordes of readers and publishers from demanding more of what they previously enjoyed.
Paul Di Filippo
#60. The digital revolution has wrest a little control away from corporate publishers and white, male, middle-aged critics, but the financial value put on the job of the writer and the misconceptions around that make it extremely difficult to enter the profession.
Sara Sheridan
#61. Console game publishing has become more like theatrical release film-making and it is very hard if you are not one of the major publishers, and even for them it is hard unless they are working with major game brands.
Trip Hawkins
#62. I've published several virtually invisible novels and several dozen even more invisible short stories over the years, all of which give me joy - unlike the cumulative experience of seeking publishers for them!
Scott Bradfield
#63. So, you're the man who can't spell 'fuck.'"
Dorothy Parker to Norman Mailer after publishers had convinced Mailer to replace the word with a euphemism, 'fug,' in his 1948 book, "The Naked and the Dead.
Dorothy Parker
#64. And books that were published in much larger numbers than Selfish, Little are hard to find. And publishers who wanted to publish my last few works have them stuck in limbo while new distribution ideas and legal issues and fears are blown away.
Peter Sotos
#65. For years, I've pushed the idea of a column compilation book mainly because it would be easy - I could just staple 'em all together. But publishers have been resistent, feeling the material dates.
Michael Musto
#66. That's why editors and publishers will never be obsolete: a reader wants someone with taste and authority to point them in the direction of the good stuff, and to keep the awful stuff away from their door.
Walter Jon Williams
#67. On the advice of my U.K. publishers, I chose a sexless anonymity and published my first five books under the semi-pseudonym, S. J. Bolton. I was happy. I could hide behind a genderless, classless persona and let my creepy, psychological murder-mysteries speak for themselves.
Sharon Bolton
#68. Agents and publishers only want one thing - good writing.
Jasper Fforde
#69. The true experimenters are there but no-one hears about them - the critical/review system tends to concentrate on the handful of 'major' writers and their promising successors; bookshops tend not to sell them; publishers don't promote them. It's the same fate as has befallen poetry.
John Scott
#70. Publishers give you deadlines for those last phases of production that are perfectly comfortable for them. So, to whatever extent I can, I like to push those to give me a little more time, and make it so that they're as uncomfortable as I am.
Charles Frazier
#71. Publishers like a good buzz, and negative responses sell books just as well as positive ones.
Richard Dawkins
#72. When the inner child finds a guardian angel, publishers are in heaven.
Wendy Kaminer
#73. I love the fact publishers are still publishing unprofitable material. It's a challenge to the powers that be. It's saying there is a real literature in this country and we will keep publishing it.
Alan Lightman
#74. I don't like that word [memoir]. Whenever my publishers have wanted to use it, I've told them to take it away.
Paul Auster
#75. WikiLeaks is really a litmus test for those people who walk the talk in the media. How much will they really follow their protestations to be brave publishers, and how much do they really want to lick the boots of power? Well, you can tell by their engagement with us and what they do.
Julian Assange
#76. There are a lot of people who really abused sampling and gave it a bad name, by just taking people's entire hit songs and rapping over them. It gave publishers license to get a little greedy.
Beck
#77. The future of publishing lies with the small and medium-sized presses, because the big publishers in New York are all part of huge conglomerates.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
#78. What the podcast novelists do isn't all that different from what self-publishers do. We put the books out in different formats, but the goal is the same: build an audience and attract a publisher.
Jeremy Robinson
#79. My first novel was rejected by some of the most eminent publishers in the world. Starting again was a real wrench.
Wilbur Smith
#80. As a writer, you can't allow yourself the luxury of being discouraged and giving up when you are rejected, either by agents or publishers. You absolutely must plow forward.
Augusten Burroughs
#81. New York is the Hollywood of the publishing industry, complete with stars, starlets, suicidal publishers/producers, intrigues, and a lot of money.
Aleksandar Hemon
#82. Poets are never allowed to be mediocre by the gods, by men or by publishers.
Horace
#83. The requests for blurbs seem to come in waves. I'm not sure what precipitates them. I think it must be excruciating for editors to draft those elaborate letters asking for a blurb, and I know it's torturous for us writers to ask directly. But publishers encourage us to. Rock and a hard place.
Miriam Toews
#84. People have bad things to say about publishers, but I think they still have services, and I want to see what they are. And if they end up not being any good, I don't have to keep using them.
Amanda Hocking
#85. Among my books, the ones that sell best are for readers between the ages of 8 and 12. According to a study by the Association of American Publishers, the largest area of industry growth in 2014 was in the children and young adult category.
Kate Klise
#86. Marvel books also feed into the smaller publishers and the fact that this is happening in the same month we're launching Ultimate Fantastic Four is no coincidence.
Mark Millar
#87. Some people have an unrealistic expectation when it comes to getting published; the fact is most publishers will turn down your work which is why you need to be persistent.
Judith Guest
#88. Who was it recently invented some machine that will enable her to sign a book from 5,000 miles away? Margaret Atwood. Get off your arse, love, and sign it in person. Publishers and circumstance made you a bestselling author. Give a little back.
Nicholas Royle
#89. After an author has been dead for some time, it becomes increasingly difficult for his publishers to get a new book out of him each year.
Robert Benchley
#90. Writers want publicity all the time, and they are always nagging their agents and publishers to give them more publicity, but, when you get it, it's kind of soul-destroying.
Kate Thompson
#91. This sort of encouragement is vital for any writer. And lastly the publication of Touching the Flame, which was on hold for two years and went through a few publishers before finding a stable home.
Paul Kane
#92. It was all a back-handed blessing, and my friends were the ones who kept the faith, read my work, and urged me to submit it to publishers (by sending it out for me - they would not hear no for an answer.
Leslie Banks
#93. Except for a few small presses, most publishers are north of Ground Zero.
Richard Curtis
#94. Jonah Peretti is one of the smartest web publishers out there. And Buzzfeed is an aggressive and dynamic company.
Nick Denton
#95. I believe that all brands will become storytellers, editors and publishers, all stores will become magazines, and all media companies will become stores. There will be too many of all of them. The strongest ones, the ones who offer the best customer experience, will survive.
Natalie Massenet
#96. I think the screen size chosen for the iPad is perfect for publishers to render content beautifully, for games to be played.
Mike McCue
#97. What I like least is dealing with publishers who simply don't want collaborations regardless of their merit.
Piers Anthony
#98. The real effect of the WTC calamity has been depressed spirits, anxiety, and uncertainty among publishers, and of course those emotions are not restricted to publishers.
Richard Curtis
#99. I think instead writers and publishers and readers need to go to the places where people are, and make the argument that there is great value to the quiet, contemplative process of reading a novel, that reading great books carefully offers pleasures and consolations that no iPad app ever can.
John Green
#100. When I was 26, I wrote my first mystery, 'The Thomas Berryman Number', and it was turned down by, I don't know, 31 publishers. Then it won an Edgar for Best First Novel. Go figure.
James Patterson
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