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I'm sure in a lot of publishing houses that there is a frustration that people feel, that they're not in control, that they are puppets and the corporate bosses are manipulating the strings.

We're also far enough from the publishing power that we have no access to the politics of publishing, although there are interpersonal politics, of course.

In a world where everyone is a publisher, no one is an editor. And that is the danger that we face today.

You can work really hard and well on something, and someone you respect might hate it; worse, they're not empirically wrong for doing so. This is scary, especially for people who haven't been published.

Authors can get an attitude of us-against-them when it comes to publishers, but learning how authors and editors can work together taught me to look at my work in a different way and to make that work as solid as possible before it ever goes to the publisher.

There's almost no author alive who isn't weathering the tumultuous changes in the publishing industry.

Not being published would be great. When I say that to other writers they look at me as if I'm totally insane.

On the other hand, I mean, that is what writers have always been supposed to do, was to rely on their own devices and to - I mean, writing is a lonely business.

Some of the greatest writers in our industry can't get work.

Writers generally get into writing because they want to write, not because they want to be independent publishers, and you can't really fault someone for saying, 'What I'm doing right now works, so there's no reason to change it.'