|
Luckily I wasn't drinking anything when I read Ms. Mackenzie's comment, "[Publishers] invest time and money in authors, often publishing their early books as loss leaders in the belief that, with consistent marketing and publicity, the author will build a following." If I had, it would have been spewed all over my desk in the classic "spit take."
Yeah, and this is 1940 and Bennett Cerf runs Random House!
Kids, this sort of support for authors disappeared sometime in the 1970s, maybe around the time RCA purchased Random House and ushered in the age of corporate-owned "media companies." Support of backlist and midlist authors began to erode around then, too, as publishing conglomerates concentrated their efforts on chasing after contemporary blockbusters, the instant bestsellers, the business model of today.
Publishers today want a ready-to-go manuscript that will sell itself.
Last edited by J. Strnad; 08-29-2010 at 12:52 PM.
Reason: Edited to remove a bunch of whining.
|