I Fired My Publisher Today

I Fired My Publisher Today

I just fired my publisher. Live and learn, as the saying goes. I’ve learned a very disturbing lesson in a relatively short period of time. Basically, it’s a lesson in being extremely careful to whom you entrust your dreams. Luckily, not a lot has been lost except the value of my time and my patience. Now I can move on from living in limbo. It really could have been a lot worse.

When I signed a contract with the publishing company, first contact was made by the publisher to me. Of course, there was a bit of giddiness at the prospect of being chosen, but I did check into their company and employees, background and authors already signed, as well as checking over the simple contract and book launch agenda. It all seemed legit to me. This was only my debut anyway, I was not expecting great things. I just wanted the experience and the chance, and the validation, I suppose. I thought I had done my due diligence. It seems I was wrong. But I did learn. Originally, I talked a bit to the publisher. We had some things in common, and I thought we clicked. Again, I was wrong.

At a professional level, my expectations include transparency, communication, quality and reliability. On all of these points, the company, and individual, failed as a publisher.

TRANSPARENCY and COMMUNICATION

I would go weeks without hearing back from my publisher regarding the status of my book, or where we were in the process. I felt like I was being ghosted! I had signed a contract, after all, for them to publish my book. I was contacted by them to write my debut novel, based off the short story pieces I had written. I worked my butt off to finish it by the deadline, then it was to go to editing. It was promised to be released by the end of last year. The publisher indicated that to me, agreeing to it many times. I had a number of people waiting to purchase my book.

It wasn’t. It went to the editor and sat there until I asked about it a second time, with the same response, weeks from the first - “It will be ready next week.” Which leads into the next issue:

RELIABILITY

I was not happy. My manuscript had been with the editor for six months. I finally got it back to find there had been essentially no editing done. What had it been doing there for six months? The book is only 40k words, so I let the publisher know I wasn’t satisfied. She told me, mine was the last manuscript edited by that editor before she went on leave due to personal issues. Honestly, I’m sorry for whatever the stressful circumstances were, but how is that my problem? I signed a contract with a professional publishing company to complete the work. It wasn’t being done. Why did the publisher seem unconcerned with moving the book forward in the publishing process? Why was she accepting such a glaring lack of professionalism from people who were working for the publishing company? So upon being questioned about the poor editing work, the publisher sent my manuscript on to be edited by another in-house editor. I got it back in a week. The quality still lacked hugely. I ended up editing it myself, which is not what I signed up for. Editing is not my job. Writing is.

QUALITY

Besides the editing being of poor quality, the publisher had done some formatting and illustrations for the book after the first non-edit. The results were humorously subpar. She even spelled my last name wrong on the cover and for the copyright disclosure.

I knew the book had issues from the beginning. I stated my expectations from the start, and met with agreement that the publishing company would provide full support and feedback. They were willing to take a chance on me, as I was willing to take a chance on them. I asked for, and expected, guidance. I trusted their words. I rarely got responses to the questions I asked, nor follow-through on promises that were made.

At least, now I know better. Lessons learned.

I just got an email from the publisher confirming my release from contract. My first name is spelled wrong.