There’s this depressing song-and-dance routine that I keep seeing from so many writers, in several genres: “Oh, this crappy little publisher is treating me soooo badly. I think I’ll leave them and try to find another crappy little publisher.”
Or they decide, like Laura Harner did in 2011, to leave their CLP and self-publish. She’s not the only one to choose that route. Sometimes it works really well, without the author resorting to ghostwriters and plagiarism to keep up the publishing schedule.
There is nothing wrong with informed self-publishing, by someone committed to doing it right. That’s not what this post is about.
Nor are all small publishers CLPs. Some really do a great job, and are worth the business risk.
Choosing to try a bigger, better publisher may not even cross these authors’ minds. A lot of new(er) writers, or writers accustomed to small press business practices, are simply afraid of the Big Five. They think they might not be ‘good enough’ for a major publisher, and are not willing to work at improving their writing. Or they can’t or won’t try to get agent representation, which they need to get through the door of any publisher closed to public queries. Or they’re impatient with the slower-than-glaciers response time and publishing pace of many Big Five imprints.
For whatever reason, by continuing to go small, they are possibly cutting themselves out of much higher earnings and recognition in the long run.
Plus, they are annoying the shit out of those of us who keep watching them do it over and over…