It is a good idea to know which publishers publish which stories. For example, there is no sense in sending a picture book text to a publisher who does not publish picture books.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Most publishers seem very reluctant to publish short story collections at all; they bring them out in paperback, often disguised as novels.
Publishers were ever eager for authors to do their own publicity because nobody else was willing to do it for nothing. But then it became clear that if you want somebody to champion the story, there's nobody better than the person who made it all up.
If somebody says your story is only published because you look nice in the photo, that maybe spurs you on to write.
If anybody reads a story in a magazine or book, different pictures compete in their minds.
A publisher should always be on the receiving end. He should take an interest in almost any subject and remain anonymous, letting the author take center stage.
It is important to find a publisher and equally important not to be noticed until your third or fourth book.
When I was growing up the publishing world seemed so far away. When my mother wrote a book, she would look up the address of publishers on the backs of the books she owned and send off her manuscript.
Forget market or publishers or whatever. Just write with fire and joy, and in my own experience, those are the stories of mine people have wanted to read.
We lose stories every day because they drift out of use and into the vast limbo of in-copyright, out-of-print books whose ownership is unclear.
Publishing is a very mysterious business. It is hard to predict what kind of sale or reception a book will have, and advertising seems to do very little good.