Commiting Murder on Your Writing Career

Why would anyone do that?

A good question, but lately I've been reading what some editors and publishers have been saying about some of their authors.

Why would anyone post on the Internet where anyone can see that they aren't satisfied with his or her small press publisher and are just biding time until they can find a New York publisher? Even if that were someone's goal--proclaiming it where the small press publisher can read it, is just plain dumb.

If the small press publisher also e-publishes the author's book, why on earth would the author say I don't care about e-books I'm never going to make any money that way anyway? Believe it or not, that was written right on someone's blog where all could see.

Why would an author say they aren't going to waste their time with social networking to promote their book? Yep, I've actually heard people say that one.

Why would an author continually email their publisher asking when their book is going to come out? Once is enough. If you've been around the publishing industry very long, especially working with small presses, you know that often the targeted date for the publication of a book may be pushed back for one reason or another.

Personally, I think the less you bug your publisher the better. The more you make the publisher take time away from the job of publishing, the less likely that book will come out on time.

When an author is hard to work with, the word gets out. The publishing world is not all that big. Especially now with the Internet and e-mail, it's much too easy for publishers to share which authors are a pain to work with.

Just something to think about--be careful, don't murder your own writing career.

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com