Post by account_disabled on Dec 27, 2023 23:19:11 GMT -5
Why don't publishing houses respond to readers? Please note: I wrote readers , not writers . It is understandable that a publisher does not respond to everyone who sends a manuscript or an editorial proposal - even if it is still polite to respond - but when a reader contacts a publishing house via email to ask for information on a book (on a product sold!) or Report a problem, why don't you get a response? It has happened to me several times to write to publishing houses for various reasons - never, I repeat, to propose one of my manuscripts - and the result has been a real press blackout . Response times Waiting times of 2 months, 3 months or 6 to get a positive response to sending a manuscript - times more or less common to all publishers - are acceptable: it takes time to read a text carefully, evaluate it for future publication.
Likewise, it is understandable not to receive a response in the event of a rejection (precisely because of the dozens or hundreds of manuscripts submitted per year, the majority are rejected): after all, it is clearly written that only admitted authors will be contacted. But in today's world it is not admissible, not acceptable, not justifiable to wait days or months even for a response via email to a simple request for Special Data information or a report. Today the "union" maximum waiting time is around 48 working hours, but in my opinion it should be 24. Yet the reality is quite different. From the publishing houses we get only silence. The true relationship between publishers and readers It's very simple to explain: it's the relationship between companies and customers . Maybe it's not clear to the editors, I'm really sure of it. I see Italian publishing as a sort of caste, an elite, which looks down on us poor readers, the lowest caste. Well no! It is we readers who keep you publishers going, it is us readers who, by buying books, reading books, finance the publishing houses.
A publishing house has no reason to exist without readers. However, a reader still exists. We readers are the customers of the publishers, but, unlike what happens with other types of commercial companies (with other types of products), we do not receive assistance when we contact a publishing house . At least I have never seen this assistance, except just once. Years ago there was a publishing house specializing in fantasy fiction, which worked very well: Edizioni XII. They had created a forum with various sections – similar to Delos' «Writers Magazine Forum», but smaller – and I remember the section where they talked about their books. I reported an error in a novel, a Latin proverb reported incorrectly by the author (I'm always the usual pain in the ass), receiving thanks from both the author and the head of the publishing house.
Likewise, it is understandable not to receive a response in the event of a rejection (precisely because of the dozens or hundreds of manuscripts submitted per year, the majority are rejected): after all, it is clearly written that only admitted authors will be contacted. But in today's world it is not admissible, not acceptable, not justifiable to wait days or months even for a response via email to a simple request for Special Data information or a report. Today the "union" maximum waiting time is around 48 working hours, but in my opinion it should be 24. Yet the reality is quite different. From the publishing houses we get only silence. The true relationship between publishers and readers It's very simple to explain: it's the relationship between companies and customers . Maybe it's not clear to the editors, I'm really sure of it. I see Italian publishing as a sort of caste, an elite, which looks down on us poor readers, the lowest caste. Well no! It is we readers who keep you publishers going, it is us readers who, by buying books, reading books, finance the publishing houses.
A publishing house has no reason to exist without readers. However, a reader still exists. We readers are the customers of the publishers, but, unlike what happens with other types of commercial companies (with other types of products), we do not receive assistance when we contact a publishing house . At least I have never seen this assistance, except just once. Years ago there was a publishing house specializing in fantasy fiction, which worked very well: Edizioni XII. They had created a forum with various sections – similar to Delos' «Writers Magazine Forum», but smaller – and I remember the section where they talked about their books. I reported an error in a novel, a Latin proverb reported incorrectly by the author (I'm always the usual pain in the ass), receiving thanks from both the author and the head of the publishing house.