230 Quotes About Publishing

A person who publishes a book appears willfully in public eye with his pants down.

Much of publishing (and any business) is a matter of making the right connection with the right person at the right time at the right place. You can’t make that connection working alone in your office at your computer or curled up with your legal pad writing your story.

He spent decades researching his imagination. During this, he gave up the creation of children, the thrill of romance, and even religion for what he believed to be the most important story he could write. When you read his pages, and knew what was sacrificed, each chapter provided you an obscure timeline of a life he never got to live. The publishers will lie and say it costs twelve dollars plus tax.

Bad writing, it is easily verified, has never kept scholarship from being published.

One implication is that we, the people who have been known as PR experts—and still go by that title—have now turned into a combination of publishers, reporters, and editors.

I think it’s important to present yourself as a professional. While writing a good book is critical, nothing will cancel that out faster than behaving like an amatuer. I cringe every time I see an author arguing with a reader who left a poor review, or fighting with their friends on Facebook … or publicly bashing their agents or publishers.

Don't simply dream, create. Don't simply create, ship. Don't simply ship, dream.

The successful writers continue to learn and grow in their craft—and also to grow their audience or tribe or platform.

Struggling through the work is extremely important—more important to me than publishing it.