2011-02-16

Publishing Nightmares

Found a link to a blog post on Rachelle Gardner's blog (she's a literary agent) that sounds like this winter in the northeastern U.S.: HELL.

Here's the link.

Is it any wonder that more and more writers and would-be writers are turning to self publishing?

Nancy
Posted by Nancy Beck at 10:30 AM
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4 comments:

Angie said...

I remember seeing that earlier. [nod/sigh] Stuff like that makes me happy to be where I am. I've only had one unique cover so far (my publisher puts line covers on short stories) but I completely lucked out with it. And I've never had them peep at any of my titles. I'd rather sink or swim on my own merits than have to watch someone sabotaging my project and be unable to do anything about it. :/

This situation reminds me of the backstory of the mystery Bimbos of the Death Sun. The book has some problematic bits, but the protag is an SF writer who wrote a serious, hard-SF story about a planet whose sun was flaring in such a way that the radiation was doing neural damage to the inhabitants. He submitted it with a serious, rational title, but the publisher renamed it Bimbos of the Death Sun and gave it a lurid cover showing dumb looking chicks with huge boobs.

I think that same publisher is handling Allison's book. :P

Angie

10:52 AM
Nancy Beck said...

It's so good to hear that most writers are happy with their covers (that I've been fortunate to "be with" on line).

OMG, the same publisher as the writer in question? That is absolutely horrible...damn publisher!

I can't imagine how disgusted that writer must've felt - to work on something and then have it damaged in that way.

Oy vey.

7:11 PM
Angie said...

No, the I think it's that same publisher comment was meant to be sarcasm, sorry. The writer who wrote the actual book Bimbos of the Death Sun deliberately called it that. The protag of the novel is an SF writer who wrote a serious SF novel which was renamed "Bimbos" by its publisher; that must be what was confusing. :)

I won't say that "most" writers who are in my chunk of the industry are happy with their covers -- there are a lot of stinkers, and one or two publishers in particular who are known for bad stuff.

In fact, my publisher was inexplicably working with this one artist who looked like he/she drew with crayons in his/her fist; there were a couple of lines I just plain refused to submit to because that one artist did all the covers for those lines. I haven't seen anything new by that artist for a while, so it looks like they've been replaced, yay.

And some publishers use a lot of covers made with poser programs -- Changeling is particularly known for that -- which IMO are horribly ugly no matter what you do to them after they come out of the poser. It's like creating a scene in The Sims (the computer game) and then taking a screenshot and using that for your cover. The characters look all plastic-shiny and lifeless, and I've only heard one or two readers commenting that they like them. Everyone else hates them; I won't submit to a publisher that uses poser covers.

I got really lucky, though, on my one novel. :) Skylar Sinclair is an excellent cover artists, and did a beautiful cover for me. It's completely different from anything I'd had in mind, but fits the book wonderfully well anyway. I'm very pleased, and hope to get another cover by her when I turn in the sequel. [grin/crossed fingers] If most of the other writers you know online are also happy with their covers, that's a really wonderful coincidence. :D

Angie

9:46 PM
Nancy Beck said...

Thanks for setting me straight, Angie.

It's always good to hear other voices weigh in on this. :-)

9:30 AM

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