Saturday, April 11, 2015

Authors call for better communication with publishers

Published April 9, 2015. By Sarah Shaffi - The Bookseller

Publishers need to communicate better with authors, pay them more and utilise writers’ skills to market books, but most writers would still choose to be published traditionally, a survey has found.

The Do You Love Your Publisher? survey, co-produced by authors Harry Bingham (in the UK) and Jane Friedman (in the US), questioned 812 writers with experience of being traditionally published on areas including publisher satisfaction, agenting and self-publishing; 310 of those questioned were authors based in the UK and Ireland.

Key findings include the fact that 75% of authors say they have never been asked for feedback from their publisher and that just 7% felt that publishers paid writers well. Despite the negatives highlighted in the survey, 32% of respondents said the prestige of having a deal with a traditional publisher was important to them, while a further 54% said it was one of the appealing aspects of a traditional publishing deal.

Richard Mollet, chief executive of the Publishers Association, said it was “particularly gratifying, given the current debate around self-publishing, to see such strong positive responses to the value of, and role provided, by publishers”. He continued: “We are sure the concerns raised about feedback will be well noted by publishers . . .  Overall, the survey provides a strong, if not unmitigated, statement of support and satisfaction for the role of publishers and some good tips on areas where improvement could be made.”
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