Publishing Risk Quotes

Learning hath gained most by those books by which the printers have lost.

My British publisher has this independent press. It's pretty small; they actually won last year. And she's got this great energy, and she's fiercely independent, and you know this book was a hard sell. No one wanted to buy this book. But she did, and so it's paid off for her, I hope.

A fantasy novel set in something other than medieval Europe, featuring an almost entirely black cast, is considered risky.

Kickstarter eliminates the risk that publishers and booksellers face. They have limited resources and limited shelf space, and Kickstarter is proof to them that something is going to work.

For a book publisher, there is hardly a more dangerous category than that of celebrity autobiography. Forget who it's by, most books of this kind not only fail but fail big, since they are invariably expensive.

One of the most difficult things for a writer in this business to accept is the uncertain fate of one's work.

It's a crapshoot, publishing.

Every famous writer was once an unknown writer. If publishers never published new writers, they wouldn't be publishing anyone at all after a while.

If you're going to publish a book, you probably are going to make a fool of yourself.