John D. MacDonald Quotes

The shelf life of the modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yogurt.

In my first story, 'Mr. Mysterious & Company'... I was asked to take out some of the humor because editors were afraid reviewers would dismiss the book as a joke. Today, humor is enjoyed and no longer regarded as literary brummagem.

As publishers focus on blockbusters, they steadily lose interest in little-known authors from other countries.

Except for a few small presses, most publishers are north of Ground Zero.

There's certainly more new SF available than when I started writing. That means there's also more bad SF available. Whether there is also more good is a matter for future historians of the field.

There's been a growing dissatisfaction and distrust with the conventional publishing industry, in that you tend to have a lot of formerly reputable imprints now owned by big conglomerates.

New York publishing is about, 'What's the next Harry Potter? What's the next Twilight?' When I've approached people, I've asked, 'What is the book you've been dying to do, but New York won't do?' I want the books that they think won't sell - because I think they will.

Look, the media are trapped by changes in the technology and business of their industry.

I don't know how much of a market there is for space opera. Just because it's in the movies doesn't mean magazines are buying it.

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

Books on horse racing subjects have never done well, and I am told that publishers had come to think of them as the literary version of box office poison.

A million years went by quick.

I like businesses in transition, first of all. If ever there were a business in transition, it is publishing.

The future of publishing lies with the small and medium-sized presses, because the big publishers in New York are all part of huge conglomerates.

We are now living in a fast paced technological era where every skill that we teach our children becomes obsolete in the 10 to 15 years due to exponentially growing technological advances.

All of the changes in publishing since 1960 are significant. There are far fewer publishers.

The pace of discovery is going unbelievably fast.

When I started in the business, there was a thing called adult fantasy, but nobody quite knew what it was, and most publishers didn't have an adult fantasy list. They had science fiction lists, which they stuck a little bit of fantasy into.

Never in history has so much been done, so fast, for so few, at the expense of so many.

Innovation is moving at a scarily fast pace.

The big bestsellers aren't being created by Barnes & Noble.

I move things forward fast. Just love speed.

There are always interesting, innovative, dynamic stories being written and being published. They're not always being prominently published, but they're being published.

I really do love 'Panama.' But I'd also have to admit that right now, if I were driven to write another novel like that, I wouldn't even try to find a publisher for it. It simply wouldn't be published. I'd be writing it to put in my closet upstairs.

At every writers' conference, you have the opportunity to hear from best-selling authors, top literary agents, and excellent editors who will demystify the publishing industry and give you great advice, no matter where you are in your writing career or what you're currently struggling with.