Definitely agree, but I have to wonder if the lack of enthusiastic comments direct from publishers is primarily due to lack of time (and energy, sadly). If an editor (or whomever) is juggling dozens of projects in a given year, accomplishing just the basics can be enormously demanding. (Lean staffs!) The “friendly” online marketing or buzz building has often been left to the authors, rightly or wrongly.

Back-Loaded Book Deals: No (and Low) Advance Contracts, Profit-Sharing and Other Innovative Business Models (with Robert Miller of HarperStudio, Rogert Cooper of Perseus Vanguard, and agent Susan Ginsburg of Writer's House)

New Business Models: Changing the Commercial Rules of Publishing (with Richard Nash, Eoin Purcell, Chris Morrow, and Diane Naughton)

• Read my previous post: 5 Elements of Query Letters
  
• If my online class isn't for you, try our excellent guide by Wendy Burt-Thomas,  The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters (with specific tips by genre).
• Check Chuck's agent blog for his Successful Queries series.
  

• What you would need or want in such a publication?
• What regular columns?
• What features?
• Whose viewpoints?
• What topics?

The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.
   
The artist must be like that Marine. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable. He has to take pride in being more miserable than any other soldier or swabbie or jet jockey. Because this is war, baby. And war is hell.

Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North—meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.

We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others.

Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance, the good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.

The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you—and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.

Risk more than others think is safe.
Care more than others think is wise.
Dream more than others think is practical.
Expect more than others think is possible.

—Claude Bissell

To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.

—Charles Caleb Colton

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.

—A. A. Milne

Publishing is no longer simply a matter of picking worthy manuscripts and putting them on offer. It is now as important to market books properly, to work with the bookstore chains to get terms, co-op advertising, and the like. The difficulty is that publishers who can market are most often not the publishers with worthy lists.

—Olivia Goldsmith

One of the signs of Napoleon's greatness is the fact that he once had a publisher shot.

—Siegfried Unseld

Publishers are all cohorts of the devil; there must be a special hell for them somewhere.

—Goethe

As difficult as it is for a writer to find a publisher - admittedly a daunting task - it is twice as difficult for a publisher to sort through the chaff, select the wheat, and profitably publish a worthy list.

—Olivia Goldsmith

One should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors. They are all, without exception - at least some of the time, incompetent or crazy.

—John Gardner

Do Authors Still Need Publishers?
by Mark Coker of Smashwords (e-publishing service)

What Do Authors Need?
by Kate Eltham at Queensland Writers Centre (Australia)

Do Publishers Still Need Authors?
by Guy Gonzalez, my colleague and audience development director for Digital Book World (My views align closely with Guy's.)

Many of the most important decisions made in publishing are made outside the author's and agent's specific knowledge. … [Publishing] silently colludes in trying to ignore the obvious …  that the first printing of your book will be three thousand copies, that it will not have full-color galleys, that no advertising or tour is planned, and that it has been assigned to a publicist who up until yesterday worked in the Xerox department. Why the collusion? Because this is a business fueled largely by writers' need for attention, and no one wants to crush any writer's dreams before a book is even published. Especially since every now and then they actually come true.

• the deep reach of their distribution (especially if to a particular audience)
• their editorial/curation prowess and stable of quality authors
• the support and service they provide authors

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/PermaLink,guid,0794ae75-4d60-478e-9de9-f30ad63e8aca.aspx http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2009/10/28/TheAgeOldBattleBetweenAuthorPublisher.aspx Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:23:18 GMT <blockquote><font color="#0000ff">To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.<br> </font> <div align="right"><font color="#0000ff">—Charles Caleb Colton</font> <br> </div> <font color="#0000ff"> <br> Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.<br> </font> <div align="right"><font color="#0000ff">—A. A. Milne </font> <br> </div> <font color="#0000ff"> <br> Publishing is no longer simply a matter of picking worthy manuscripts and putting them on offer. It is now as important to market books properly, to work with the bookstore chains to get terms, co-op advertising, and the like. The difficulty is that publishers who can market are most often not the publishers with worthy lists.<br> </font> <div align="right"><font color="#0000ff">—Olivia Goldsmith </font> <br> </div> <font color="#0000ff"> <br> One of the signs of Napoleon's greatness is the fact that he once had a publisher shot.<br> </font> <div align="right"><font color="#0000ff">—Siegfried Unseld </font> <br> </div> <font color="#0000ff"> <br> Publishers are all cohorts of the devil; there must be a special hell for them somewhere.<br> </font> <div align="right"><font color="#0000ff">—Goethe </font> <br> </div> <font color="#0000ff"> <br> As difficult as it is for a writer to find a publisher - admittedly a daunting task - it is twice as difficult for a publisher to sort through the chaff, select the wheat, and profitably publish a worthy list.<br> </font> <div align="right"><font color="#0000ff">—Olivia Goldsmith </font> <br> </div> <font color="#0000ff"> <br> One should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors. They are all, without exception - at least some of the time, incompetent or crazy.<br> </font> <div align="right"><font color="#0000ff">—John Gardner </font> <br> </div> </blockquote> <br> <br> If you've been following industry chatter, you may have seen some conversations lately about whether authors need publishers (or vice versa). Plus there's now a Twitter tag for the discussion, <a href="feed://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%23publishersmatter">#publishersmatter</a> <br> <br> To catch up, you can read these 3 pieces:<br> <blockquote><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker/do-authors-still-need-pub_b_334539.html">Do Authors Still Need Publishers?</a> <br> by Mark Coker of <a href="http://www.smashwords.com">Smashwords</a> (e-publishing service)<br> <br> <a href="http://www.electricalphabet.net/2009/10/28/what-do-authors-need/">What Do Authors Need?</a> <br> by Kate Eltham at Queensland Writers Centre (Australia)<br> <br> <a href="http://loudpoet.com/2009/10/28/do-publishers-still-need-authors/#more-3297">Do Publishers Still Need Authors?</a> <br> by Guy Gonzalez, my colleague and audience development director for <a href="http://www.digitalbookworld.com">Digital Book World</a> (My views align closely with Guy's.)<br> </blockquote> <br> Aspiring writers and authors can be extremely mistrustful and suspicious of publishers— creating a group only too eager to join the revolution where writers/authors have power and publishers become obsolete.<br> <br> Those who can never get inside the pearly publishing gates feel marginalized and like they never got the attention they deserve, while those who do break in <b>feel exactly the same way</b>. <a href="http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Reviews-Essays/Redactor-Agonistes/ba-p/1367">As Daniel Menaker has said</a>:<br> <blockquote><font color="#0000ff">Many of the most important decisions made in publishing are made outside the author's and agent's specific knowledge. … [Publishing] silently colludes in trying to ignore the obvious …&nbsp; that the first printing of your book will be three thousand copies, that it will not have full-color galleys, that no advertising or tour is planned, and that it has been assigned to a publicist who up until yesterday worked in the Xerox department. Why the collusion? Because this is a business fueled largely by writers' need for attention, and no one wants to crush any writer's dreams before a book is even published. Especially since every now and then they actually come true.</font> <br> </blockquote>Today, many authors are left out to sea as soon as the book hits store shelves, a critical moment in the life of many books. By the time the author realizes what's happening, the window of opportunity has vanished—that moment when you can ensure stores/retailers see the book as a quality and profitable item, leading to a good model (number of copies per store).<br> <br> Other authors get turned out by their publishers when their books don't sell, even if they could've been a quality midlist author with more time and investment. (Most publishers don't have the luxury of waiting.)<br> <br> Obviously neither of these phenomenon help the author OR the publisher.<br> <br> I wonder if successful publishers of the future will attract quality authors mostly by …<br> <ul> <li> the deep reach of their distribution (especially if to a particular audience)</li> <li> their editorial/curation prowess and stable of quality authors</li> <li> the support and service they provide authors</li> </ul> Publishers have done a poor job, at best, in the support and service role.<br> <br> How many publishers actively support their authors when it comes to teaching them online marketing and promotion practices? How many will analyze their authors' efforts at platform and branding? How many will give them the education, tools, or resources they need to be true partners with the publisher? How many will—at the very least—provide clarity on what the publisher will and will not do for the author, or explicitly convey their own strengths and weaknesses, so the author goes in eyes wide open?<br> <br> While publishers of the future need to distinguish themselves by the quality of their partnerships, the quality of their audience reach (community), and the quality of their curation, I bet there will be publishers who become known for support and service, and attract quality authors like bees to honey—and be more successful because of it.<br> <br> What do you say?<br> <p> </p> <img width="0" height="0" src="http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/aggbug.ashx?id=0794ae75-4d60-478e-9de9-f30ad63e8aca" /> http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/CommentView,guid,0794ae75-4d60-478e-9de9-f30ad63e8aca.aspx Digitization & New Technology General Getting Published Industry News & Trends Marketing & Self-Promotion Self-Publishing http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/Trackback.aspx?guid=e266dbb9-8e19-46ca-bc2a-313b37469681 http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/pingback.aspx http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/PermaLink,guid,e266dbb9-8e19-46ca-bc2a-313b37469681.aspx Jane http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/CommentView,guid,e266dbb9-8e19-46ca-bc2a-313b37469681.aspx http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/SyndicationService.asmx/GetEntryCommentsRss?guid=e266dbb9-8e19-46ca-bc2a-313b37469681 7

In today's film and television industries it seems like there are far fewer writers willing to take risks for originality's sake. What advice do you have for aspiring writers who are passionate about a particular story, even if it risks not being given a chance by today's audiences? -- Josh G.

As clichéd as it sounds, if you have an original voice and an original idea, then no matter what anybody says, you have to find a way to tell that story. My only advice would be you have to exercise patience. I think the freshman mistake is you feel such passion for something that you need to tell it now, as opposed to saying, "Let me establish myself, and five years from now when I'm a little bit older, a little bit wiser, a little bit more experienced, maybe that's the time to tell that story."

Sometimes you get a present for somebody a month before their birthday and you just want to give it to them immediately. But timing is everything. So I would say it might feel like your idea is a hard sell now, but maybe in a couple years the timing will be right. Whatever you do, don't give up.