Publishers Quotes · Page 3

“When I finally find that one willing agent, I'll have found my prize in the Cracker Jack box.”

— Richelle E. Goodrich

There is only one way to make money at writing, and that is to marry a publisher's daughter.

— George Orwell

Seventeen publishers rejected the manuscript, at which time we knew we had something pretty hot.

— Kinky Friedman

I was dropped by my publisher after my first two books. But I always believed in myself.

— John Boyne

Most times with vanity projects, publishers don't believe in the work; they just believe in the name.

— Gerard Way

Agents are essential, because publishers will not read unsolicited manuscripts.

— Jackie Collins

Publishers are looking for blockbusters - all the world loves a megaseller.

— John Updike

“Music is everybody's business. It's only the publishers who think people own it”

— John Lennon

As a writer, you can't allow yourself the luxury of being discouraged and giving up when you are rejected, either by agents…

— Augusten Burroughs

Great editors do not discover nor produce great authors; great authors create and produce great publishers.

— John Farrar

So long as readers keep reading and my publishers keep publishing, I plan to keep on writing. I'd have to be an…

— Lee Child

No agent/publisher is in a position to create across a spectrum of media and distribution what major publishers can accomplish for authors.

— Robert Gottlieb

I left for New York expecting to repeat my success, only to be turned down by almost every publisher in that city,…

— Patrick White

“All my life, used the best lotions, finest soaps, nicest oils, and fanciest perfumes to keep my skin nice, only to find…

— Liz Faublas-Wallace

What we publishers think is that our function is to bring everything out into the open, on the theory that we have…

— Maxwell Perkins

With both agents and publishers hungry for bestsellers, literature will have to end up as a cottage industry.

— Anthony Burgess

Many of the early greats of sf — Hugo Gernsback (publisher of Amazing Stories) in particular — saw themselves as educators. The…

— Samuel R. Delany

And so with Hemingway's writing, he famously wrote to one of his publishers - he said, you don't need a high school…

— Lesley M. M. Blume

Write what you care about and understand. Writers should never try to outguess the marketplace in search of a salable idea; the…

— Richard North Patterson

I think I've learned over the years, because you'd have to be stupid not to, that when a book publisher gives you…

— Dave Barry

In the long run, the quality of your work is all that matters. That is your only resumé. Be professional. Make sure…

— Mark Waid

Paperbacks weren't considered real books in the book trade. Up till then it was just murder mysteries, potboilers, 25-cent pocket books sold…

— Lawrence Ferlinghetti

When you are out of favor, so to speak, it's not just the reviewers. It's the editors, the publishers, they don't want…

— Frederic Tuten

I've been trying to write a book since before I was old enough to vote, and I've collected many rejection slips from…

— J. R. Moehringer

My agent came to me with a deal from another publisher and I signed a deal and got the advance with no…

— Mark McNairy

I had an idea for a medical conspiracy thriller. Since it was non-horror, I didn't want the publishers and editors bringing a…

— F. Paul Wilson

To aspiring writers, I would tell them that we live in a wonderful time where you're able to make your work visible,…

— Diablo Cody

My father was a writer, so I grew up writing and reading and I was really encouraged by him. I had some…

— Anne Lamott

I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the…

— John F. Kennedy

The publisher Jeff Johnson, who has offered not a word of explanation to me, has privately told people that he hated every…

— Robert Scheer

In some cases, people are silent; they're being complacent. But we're also seeing people speak out against some of these raids, these…

— Leila Fadel

“I write to find strength. I write to become the person that hides inside me. I write to light the way through…

— Shannon L. Alder

Textbook publishers don't even bother to advertise at their conventions.

— Peter Brimelow

No, no, there must be a limit to the baseness even of publishers.

— Dorothy L. Sayers

Publishers are private businesspeople who must reach their economic goals independently.

— Mathias Dopfner

Most publishers, like most writers, are ruined by their successes.

— Willa Cather

“Indie publishing lets me feed my inner control freak.”

— Michelle M. Pillow

I believe the publisher is a member of the editorial board, and I think his vote would matter.

— Gene Weingarten

Artists deserve more than a check cut in half eight times by publishers.

— Jack Conte

For any leftover inventory, publishers must have a program to maximize the sale of a book.

— David Dunn