Transcribed

Do You Love Your Publisher?

Do You Love Your Publisher? We wanted to know, so we went to over 300 professional authors and asked them over 20 searching questions about their relationships with their publishers. Here's what we found out. Authors loved their editors 74% thought their editing was good or excellent. Just 14% thought their editing was poor or dismal, Authors loved the production quality 81% thought production quality was good or excellent. Just 6% thought the production quality was poor or dismal. Authors were unimpressed by the marketing Almost 50% of authors felt any consultation was 'only for appearances' or there was no 20% of authors attempt at at consultation. felt closely involved in the marketing strategy. 62% did not. 38% of authors felt the eventual marketing campaign was good to excellent. And it sometimes looks like publishers don't care what authors think Around one third 45% said, "Nope. No one of authors were ever asked invited to give feedback, but only by their editors, thereby limiting the degree to which they could be honest. me what I thought." 22% of authors were invited to give feedback So we asked the $1,000,000 question We asked: "With your next book, if some other reputable publisher offered you the same advance as your current one, would to the new house or stay where you are?" you move Gulp! Big question, huh? 40% of authors say they'd move 37% say they'd stay The rest said "YIKES! We're not sure." What do you think? This survey was conducted by the Writers' Workshop and Agent Hunter and we would love to know what you think. If you're an author, if you're a publisher, or if you're just plain opinionated. www.AgentHunter.co.uk Do You Love Your Publisher? We wanted to know, so we went to over 300 professional authors and asked them over 20 searching questions about their relationships with their publishers. Here's what we found out. Authors loved their editors 74% thought their editing was good or excellent. Just 14% thought their editing was poor or dismal, Authors loved the production quality 81% thought production quality was good or excellent. Just 6% thought the production quality was poor or dismal. Authors were unimpressed by the marketing Almost 50% of authors felt any consultation was 'only for appearances' or there was no 20% of authors attempt at at consultation. felt closely involved in the marketing strategy. 62% did not. 38% of authors felt the eventual marketing campaign was good to excellent. And it sometimes looks like publishers don't care what authors think Around one third 45% said, "Nope. No one of authors were ever asked invited to give feedback, but only by their editors, thereby limiting the degree to which they could be honest. me what I thought." 22% of authors were invited to give feedback So we asked the $1,000,000 question We asked: "With your next book, if some other reputable publisher offered you the same advance as your current one, would to the new house or stay where you are?" you move Gulp! Big question, huh? 40% of authors say they'd move 37% say they'd stay The rest said "YIKES! We're not sure." What do you think? This survey was conducted by the Writers' Workshop and Agent Hunter and we would love to know what you think. If you're an author, if you're a publisher, or if you're just plain opinionated. www.AgentHunter.co.uk

Do You Love Your Publisher?

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We conducted a major survey of more than 300 professional authors in the UK – the largest recent such survey conducted – and asked them about their relationships with their publishers. The authors... we approached were typically very experienced: they mostly had literary agents, plenty of book deals outside the UK, and two thirds of them had published three or more books. The feedback we had was surprising in multiple dimensions. For all that we hear about the ‘death of the editor’, the fact is that no one seems to have told the authors: our respondents were generally very positive about both editorial and copy-editing functions. Levels of dissatisfaction were very low. When it came to marketing, however, authors were broadly dissatisfied (and the wording of our question took care to guide authors away from an “I wish they’d spent more money on me” type answer.) Almost two thirds of authors were dissatisfied with the marketing campaigns generated for them by their publishers – and many felt barely consulted. It is also notable that publishers very seldom ask authors for their feedback in a genuinely open way. The million dollar question is therefore how authors rate publishers overall: would they stick with the devil they know, or would they move elsewhere. Here authors split into roughly equal thirds: stick, twist, and not sure. (Literary agents, please take note: this finding suggests that literary agents should often be more active in hawking authors to new publishers.) Our infographic offers a punchy visual guide to these issues: picking out the major findings and presenting them in a way that’s hard to ignore. We’ve love it if the infographic circulated widely among publishers and literary agents: we think these issues deserve wider public discussion.

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