On Huffington Post today (July 15), The headline reads: This is What Publishers Are Doing To Small-Time Authors.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-hauser/publishers-are-as-bad_b_5587407.html

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This is something I'd like an agent to comment on. I see major potholes in my road to publication. 

Writers sign these contracts. If one person refuses to sign, another equally talented writer will sign. As long as we give them our work, there’s no reason for publishers to change their contracts.   

A respected regional literary publishing house (not one of the major publishers) receives 3,000 manuscripts a year, which means 3,000 authors are competing with one another for their books to be among the handful that are published each year.  Knowing this, I will send this publisher my manuscript too, hoping they will publish my book.   

I know several published authors. I don’t know anybody who has made a fair living as a writer. A friend of mine wrote a fine book which was published by one of the major houses. He had pretty good sales. His royalties were ten percent of what the publisher received from retailers. The book sold for $14.95, retailers got it for $7.90, and the author got $.79 per copy.  

The article presents some sad facts, but is there an answer?  The article concludes with “The Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice should take a long hard look at the standard publishing contract.” That’s fine, but who has the money or the influence to pursue this?   

--edited by Perry on 7/17/2014, 9:04 AM--

--edited by Perry on 7/17/2014, 9:04 AM--