Robin Sloan Quotes

Of course, to publish something, you have to write it, polish it, then hire out the line editing, copy editing and cover design. After which, you pick your way through the minefield of conforming to the differing requirements of Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords, or hire someone to do it for you.

I've had good publishers and bad publishers, and you've got to learn when the advice is sensible and when it's not.

With a hardcover, you get two chances, a year apart, for the book to make an impact - often with a new cover featuring artfully crafted snippets of reviews, a new marketing campaign and maybe even a new publisher.

Apple doesn't need to maximize book sales. It simply needs to keep publishers happy enough to maintain an impressive-sounding inventory of titles while waiting for entirely new forms of publishing to develop.

Also, if nothing else, writing this book has really changed the way I experience bookstores. I have a whole different appreciation for the amount of work packed into even the slimmest volume on the shelves.

I think of my books as mainstream and that's were most people who read them look for them in book stores.

No matter how well a person writes, a successful book is a team effort involving many, many people.

Readers are always surprised to learn that authors have little or no input regarding the cover art for their books.

My parents were in the book business, my brothers still run the Dutton bookstores in Los Angeles, and I've been interested in editing books and journals all of my life.

I'm very privy to the way bookstores work, and I think a lot about the ecosystem that my books have been published in. I think it's great to be aware of how publishing works.

It's hard selling books in general: companies are merging, editors being laid off, bricks-and-mortar bookstores closing, large chain bookstores squeezing out independents, and online retailers squeezing out chain bookstores.

There is no denying the aesthetics of a well-made, well-loved book.

No one really knows the value of book tours. Whether or not they're good ideas, or if they improve book sales. I happen to think the author is the last person you'd want to talk to about a book. They hate it by that point; they've already moved on to a new lover. Besides, the author never knows what the book is about anyway.

I want my books sold on airport bookstalls.

No, my publisher has always done the marketing.

There's a lot more to publishing a book than writing it and slapping a cover on it.

I think most new writers are better off going with traditional publishers who will actually, at a minimum, edit your work, package it well, and market it for you.

A book's title is vital.

I came into book publishing without any particular impulse to be in book publishing.

When I talk to booksellers, they tell me how hard it is to hand-sell some of my books because I do keep popping around.

Selling books is hard to engineer.

I had to learn to call book jackets 'jackets' rather than 'covers.'

I know how to sell books.

Sometimes people who sell books are seen as corporate salesmen, and people who sell reading are seen as literacy advocates, but you can't really separate the two.

Publishing a book is a very different thing than writing one.