Quote:
Originally Posted by TGS
Publishers are a link in the food chain. When it was clear what they did, what they contributed, no-one begrudged feeding them (though there might have been questions about how much of the food they were taking!). Now it's not so clear what their real contribution is - this is not to say that they don't make one, it's perhaps just less obvious - this raises questions about whether or not they actually earn their keep. Ultimately it's down to publishers to show their worth - and they do that best by actually making a contribution, not by simply trying to persuade everyone that they are, and bleating on about how unfair the world is to them (this last comment is really just about the big ones).
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The real problem here is that when a publisher does their job well, much of their contribution is invisible: you only notice it when it's not done or is done poorly.
Anyone who has read slush understands just how important the "gate-keeping" and editorial functions of a publisher really are. Baen thrives because of this: it's not simply their approach to ebooks, but also the fact they do have a consistent editorial policy and the fact that I, and many other readers, know that if we're looking for a certain kind of book we can go to Baen knowing that the majority of their offerings in that subcategory will be enjoyable reads.
Early DAW books with the yellow spines worked the same way. I read lots of them because they published the sort of fiction I liked and I knew it.
PublishAmerica, on the other hand, publishes essentially any book that is sent to them. They have no editorial control and no one acts as a gatekeeper. The end result is wildly variable quality, and some books which are so badly written (from a basic English standpoint) that they are effectively unreadable.
The only real way to tell a good publisher is to look at your bookshelves after the fact, and see how many of their titles are on your shelves. If you have a lot, chances are they're good.