I was thrilled to sign with Publisher X for one of my books because the advance was the biggest I’d ever gotten and the editor and editor-in-chief were both very high on the book. They even promised a book tour.
Things started to go south when I saw the book cover: it was hideous. I’d already published half a dozen books and was a book reviewer too and I said “This is not a selling cover.” If I say more, it’ll reveal which book and which publisher, but believe me, the cover was ugly.
I was dismissed as if I had never had anything to do with publishing before and lectured too: “We had an outside firm do it and they’re very good and have a great reputation.” As a sop. I suppose, they did show me alternatives which were even worse.
I was at a loss and my agent couldn’t budge them on the cover.
The editor asked me about blurbs and when I suggested a world-famous author who lived in the US, the editor thought it was a brilliant idea and said “I know how to reach her! This will happen!”
Not that long afterwards, this same editor was bragging to me about a major acquisition and added the killer: “Guess who’s going to blurb it!?”
He and the publisher had apparently decided to snag “my” blurber for a book that the publisher was investing more money in. A lot more.
I blurted, “But that was who I suggested for my book.”
The editor claimed not to remember any such discussion and got off the phone very quickly.
Of course, blurbs can’t guarantee a book will sell, but they do get the attention of readers—and of reviewers like me—and I was both angry and crushed. How could the editor shaft me like that and then dismiss my complaint?
I shared this with a writer friend who wisely noted, “The only thing worse than not being published is being published. It opens you up to a vast new set of disappointments.”
Big surprise: the publisher never came through with the book tour and tried to gull me into thinking that mailing postcards was a terrific way to get the book out there. They thought I could be fooled. I wasn’t.
However, this experience was a major exception in my career and I'm grateful to all the editors whose honesty and experience has helped make me a better writer, a better teacher of creative writing, and ultimately an editor myself since 2017 at writewithoutborders.com.
In my anecdotal experience, people that are trying to make money off you expect you to do their job for them much of the time, want you to give them as much as they can take, and are quick to drop you if a better source of money comes along. But then they don’t understand why you’re mad, and will even expect you to hear them chatting about the other opportunity and be happy for them.
There must be exceptions to these generalizations, but these behaviors are the ones that stick in my head.
Ouch. It's sobering to learn that being screwed by an editor/publisher can happen at any stage of a writer's career, not just at the beginning....