Does your publisher really suck, or are you just expecting too much?

Publishers nearly always disappoint authors. Sometimes, that’s because authors — especially rookies — have naive expectations. Other times, it’s because the publishers failed to do the basics of their jobs.

If you’re an author, you need to know the difference, because railing against the way the publishing industry traditionally works is futile.

So here’s a list of what publishers normally do, sometimes screw up, and shamefully botch, based on my experience in more than 50 book nonfiction projects, in all of the tasks you have a right to expect:

• Signing authors.
• Paying advances and royalties.
• Editing.
• Design.
• Production (turning the manuscript into a book and ebook)
• Manufacturing
• Distribution
• Marketing and Publicity

In what follows, I or authors I’ve worked with have actually experienced everything listed under “Outrageous incompetence.” None of this is made up.

Signing authors

Publishers are responsible for evaluating your book proposal, letting you know if they’re interested, submitting a bid by email, closing a “handshake” deal with clear deal points, and getting you a signed contract based on the handshake deal. You’re likely to get better service on this if you’re represented by an agent.

• Above and beyond. Read your proposal and make a firm and fair offer within two weeks of receiving the proposal, then follow up with a fair contract within two weeks after that. Book is published within six months. Please note that None of this is typical.
• Ordinary service. Read and respond to proposal only if it is represented by an agent or you’ve previously worked with the publisher. If the publisher declines the proposal, they send an email within six weeks listing reasons they’re not interested. If they accept the proposal, they send a firm offer by email. If you accept their offer, there’s a mutually signed contract signed within two months. It takes 15-18 months to publish the book (six to nine months for hybrid publishers).
• Typical failures. No response ever, or only after repeated nagging. When they decline the proposal, there’s no feedback. If they make an offer and you accept it, contract takes three to six months and includes errors that don’t match the handshake deal. Publisher blithely assumes they’ll own the copyright.
• Outrageous incompetence. Publisher goes back on a handshake deal or changes the terms.

Paying advances and royalties

Traditional publishers pay advances in installments and royalties if the book sells well enough to earn out the advance. Hybrid publishers pay royalties only.

• Above and beyond. Advance paid in three equal installments: on signing, on acceptance of manuscript, and on publication. All installments paid on time. Royalty statements are clear and accurate delivered at least every six months, soon after the end of the half-year sales period.
• Ordinary service. Advance paid in four installments (fourth is one year after publication). Royalty statements delivered every six months, between three and five months after the end of the sale period.
• Typical failures. Advances and royalty statements and accompanying payments delayed by a month or more.
• Outrageous incompetence. Publisher goes out of business and leaves a mess behind. Royalty payments never paid.

Editing

Publishers are supposed to edit your text to improve it. In practice the quality of this activity is highly variable.

• Above and beyond. Editors work in collaboration with the author, providing regular coaching and useful, substantive feedback. Copyediting includes fact checking and legal review. All of this used to be common but is now very rare.
• Ordinary service. Editorial feedback is extremely general, such as “Cut 10,000 words” or “More international examples.” For anything more helpful, you must hire your own developmental editor. Copy editor does a competent job finding grammatical and spelling problems and inconsistencies without doing violence to the manuscript. Fact checking and legal review are author’s responsibility.
• Typical failures. No developmental editing at all. Copy editor’s suggestions change manuscript’s meaning or reflect outdated grammatical conventions.
• Outrageous incompetence. Copy editor misses many errors or introduces additional inconsistencies. Editing appears to have been done (and may actually have been done) by a soulless AI lacking in sense, insight, or wit.

Design

Design tasks reflect the graphical elements of the finished book: the cover, the interior text design, and the graphics, if any.

• Above and beyond. Fantastic, creative, and appropriate cover delivered on first try. Interior design is crisp and communicates the appropriate tone. Publisher re-renders your graphics to make them look better. (I’ve seen a publisher do this, but it’s very rare.)
• Ordinary service. Cover design takes several rounds of effort, but designer accepts feedback from the author and appropriately responds. Interior design looks like every other book, except for nicely designed title page and part dividers. Author is responsible for their own graphics.
• Typical failures. Ugly and inappropriate cover or interior designs until the author gives in — or in some cases, hires their own designer.
• Outrageous incompetence. Publisher forces author to accept their terrible design, citing clauses in the contract.

Production

The process of turning the manuscript into a book is mysterious to most authors — and many don’t understand just how much work the publisher does (or is supposed to do) to make the manuscript look appropriate, and to format it as an ebook.

• Above and beyond. Page layouts are perfect on the first try. Publisher creates an excellent index.
• Ordinary service. Page layouts include a few flaws such as graphics placed far from the text that references them, widows (single lines of text separated from the rest of the paragraph by a page break), orphans (small bits of text awkwardly typeset at the end of paragraphs), and some stretched-out lines of fully justified type or gaps. Publisher catches most of these and fixes them in the next set of pages. Publisher creates competent index and charges the author for it.
• Typical failures. Publisher dumps text directly into a design program (typically Adobe InDesign) and outputs pages with many errors, including misplaced graphics, unexplained gaps in text, missed italics and bold, straight quotes and apostrophes instead of smart quotes, and misformatted heads and subheads. Author is responsible for finding and requesting fixes for all of these errors. Many of the errors persist in subsequent passes, requiring additional attention to detail by the the author to avoid embarrassing errors. There is no index.
• Outrageous incompetence. Blocks of text mysteriously disappear. Errors that you point out to the publisher persist in the printed version.

Manufacturing

Publishers identify printers and hire them to manufacture books. It’s one of their main remaining responsibilities.

• Above and beyond. Manufactured books are beautiful.
• Ordinary service. Manufactured books are acceptable.
• Typical failures. Some books have manufacturing problems, such as black ink marks on pages or glue that dries up and fails.
• Outrageous incompetence. Books not manufactured on time or of poor quality.

Distribution

Publishers are responsible for the relationship with bookstores and getting books into those stores.

• Above and beyond. Your book appears in Barnes & Noble, airport bookstores, and many independent bookstores. (This is extremely rare unless you have a track record of sales with previous books.)
• Ordinary service. Your book does not appear in bookstores except airport bookstores, and then only if you’ve paid for that placement. Publisher’s representatives reach out to bookstores and as a result, it shows in stock at Amazon and bookshop.org on the publication date and for 12 months afterwards. Listings at Amazon and other online bookstores are accurate, consistent, and free from errors. Other bookstores, if they become interested, can order the book.
• Typical failures. Listings in online bookstores have problems that need to be fixed. (On one of my books they spelled my name wrong in the online listing until I requested that it be fixed.) Book is either available a few days before or a few days after the listed publication date on online bookstores (why can’t Amazon ever get this right?).
• Outrageous incompetence. Book is months delayed in distribution. Even when book is supposedly available, bookstores can’t order it and it shows out of stock on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and bookshop.org sites.

Marketing and Publicity

The terminology is confusing to many with marketing experience, so let me clarify: to a publisher, marketing refers to bookstore outreach. Publicity refers to media outreach.

• Above and beyond. Publisher collaborates with you on marketing strategy and lines up media appearances, reviews, and excerpts. Publisher’s marketing and publicity staff arrange a national tour with bookstore appearances and local radio drop-ins. Publisher pays for Amazon ads and placement in airport bookstores. (If you have had this experience, you are probably either very old or very famous.)
• Ordinary service. Publisher sends copies of the book to all the usual media outlets for reviews and continues outreach over a period of two weeks on either side of the publication date. Then they move on to other books. You hire your own publicity firm, and the publisher effectively coordinates with them.
• Typical failures. Publisher does little or nothing, and what they actually do conflicts with what your PR firm is doing.
• Outrageous incompetence. Outreach from publisher, if any, is filled with errors.

What to do about this

Authors care more about their books than publishers do. This is normal: you have only one book every year or two at most, while the publisher has dozens in process at any given moment.

But you need to stand up for yourself to ensure that you get the appropriate level of service. This demands a clear understanding of the publisher’s responsibilities. If they don’t provide you with editorial feedback or promote your book effectively, that’s on you: that’s just how publishers behave these days.

Spare a thought for the poor, underpaid, overworked staff at your publisher. The business has shrunk and the service they can offer is worse. It’s a tough job.

But that doesn’t mean you should settle.

Push back when you receive service at the “outrageous incompetence” level.

And retain an agent, a developmental editor, and a publicist if you want excellent service. If you want a publisher that’s faster and more responsive, hire one: that’s what hybrid publishers are for.

And now that you know what publishers usually do — and what they don’t — you have the context to demand the author service that you deserve.