What's your best publishing horror story?

1. 87

   M. T. Dremerposted 11 years ago

   What's your best publishing horror story?
   
   The disconnect between writing a book and getting it published is vast. One is a deeply creative and personal process while the other is cold, heartless business. Getting from one to the other eludes many of us, but that hasn't stopped us from trying. What's your best horror story from your efforts to get published? Mine is the time I had my email address hijacked and viruses were sent out to all the agents I had queried. It still hurts when I think back to it!

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2. 61

   duffsmomposted 11 years ago

   Had a literary agency offer to accept my manuscript and even sent me a contract - but they wanted to "edit" it first to make it more publishable and wanted me to pay $1250.00 to have it done.
   
   So the initial excitement at the letter and contract arriving was squelched very quickly when I realized that was how this particular place made their money.  I was pretty down after that happened.

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   1. 87

      M. T. Dremerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      There are definitely a lot of agents/publishers out there who make their money directly off the writer without any actual publication happening. And, unfortunately, it's getting harder to find (and get into) the good ones.

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3. 80

   tmbridgelandposted 11 years ago

   Got an email from a major publisher, a big one in the genre of my book, telling me they were giving it a second look  as it might be something they could publish. Weeks go by, and then came the second email, they had decided no.

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   1. 87

      M. T. Dremerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It's tough when an initial yes can become a no later. Until there is an official contract signed, agents and publishers have a million opportunities to reject us.

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4. 75

   alancaster149posted 11 years ago

   I had a bit of initial bad luck. I sent off a synopis and extract of my book 'RAVENFEAST' to a literary agency here in the UK. The bad luck bit came in the form of '...I have recently taken on a client who had a book on similar material', o.w.t.t.e.
   Next bit of bad luck I had was in sending my ms (e-mail) to Authorhouse. Presentation was OK, but the service altogether over-priced and they went on to make my book practically unsaleable by giving it an £18 price tag. When I contacted English Heritage to seel my book at their Battle Abbey site (where Harold was killed, October 14th, 1066) Authorhouse were not prepared to do a deal for bulk purchase. End of book signing. The book is about 600-odd pages after printing, but they left an obvous gap of one line every so often (aside from my passage breaks/scene changes). I keep getting e-mail from them, and they don't seem to understand the importance of 'budget' pricing, even allowing for book size (all around 600 pages printed).
   My mistake was ignoring an e-mail from NEW GENERATION publishing here in London, who offered the same services for less than half AUTHORHOUSE's price for 'OVERTHROWN'. They now have 'OUTCAST', the book could be published in May @ about the same price as 'OVERTHROWN'. Having made detail alterations to 'RAVENFEAST' other than changing the title, it is ready to pass through to NEW GENERATION, wherewithal permitting this summer.

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   1. 87

      M. T. Dremerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I think every writer has the fear that someone with a very similar story will beat them to the punch. I'm weary of any agency that makes you accept terms and conditions that protect them from publishing a similar manuscript. Thank you for sharing.

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