Comments on: How those publishing roles have changed http://www.dystel.com/blog/2013/12/how-those-publishing-roles-have-changed/ Mon, 26 Jun 2017 15:15:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.15 By: Lance Parkin http://www.dystel.com/blog/2013/12/how-those-publishing-roles-have-changed/comment-page-1/#comment-37048 Tue, 10 Dec 2013 13:54:56 +0000 http://www.dystel.com/?p=9619#comment-37048 I think the question to ask is: in an environment where authors are expected to deliver a complete, fully-edited book and do their own marketing … what are traditional publishers doing to earn their money? And why are contracts seemingly *less* generous than they used to be? With publishers cutting advances, print runs and hoping that readers will opt for the ebook if they can’t find a physical copy, they’re not even taking on much financial risk.

I see the point of agents in the new order. Authors need them to navigate the waters, to make sure they’re not signing away the important stuff. Isn’t the point coming, and soon, though, where authors and their agents will just cut out the middleman and deal with Amazon directly?

I’ve been very lucky with my Alan Moore biography. Good editor, great marketing effort, some fantastic design. And I’m sure with every other book there’s effort going on that I’ve not seen. My experience, though, has often been that the hardest fights my editors have, the most zealously guarded gateways, always seem to be *internal*, at the publisher they work for.

]]> By: Emily http://www.dystel.com/blog/2013/12/how-those-publishing-roles-have-changed/comment-page-1/#comment-37029 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 23:05:53 +0000 http://www.dystel.com/?p=9619#comment-37029 Great article! At the independent publishing house where I work, Medallion Press, the editors are privileged enough to work closely with the texts and collaborate with talented agents and authors. I wouldn’t change it for anything.

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