“My father was a writer, so I grew up writing and reading and I was really encouraged by him. I had some sort of gift and when it came time to try to find a publisher I had a little bit of an "in" because I had his agent I could turn to, to at least read my initial offerings when I was about 20. But the only problem was that they were just awful, they were just terrible stories and my agent, who ended up being my agent, was very, very sweet about it, but it took about four years until I actually had something worth trying to sell.” WritingTryingYearsLittlesStoriesProblemTurnsReadingFatherBitsFourSweetGrewTerribleLittle BitGrew UpSellsAwfulAgentsFour YearsOfferingPublishersInitialsWriting And ReadingVery Sweet Author:Anne Lamott
“Character is everything, especially these days when that's what publishers are asking for. Make sure that yours have child appeal. Also don't have a huge cast of characters. One or two is best, four, the maximum.” ChildrenTwoCharacterFourHugeAskingCastsAppealsThese DaysPublishersMaximum Author:Kirby Larson
“Each of my books has taken me a different length of time to write - eight months for Seesaw Girl, eight months for Shard, three years for When My Name Was Keoko! The publisher takes another year and a half to work on the book, so altogether each book can take up to three or four years to publish.” WritingYearsBookDifferentGirlThreeNamesHalfTakenFourMonthsEightLengthThree YearsFour YearsPublishersPublishAnother YearSeesaw Author:Linda Sue Park
“We were to found a University magazine. A pair of little, active brothers-Livingstone by name, great skippers on the foot, great rubbers of the hands, who kept a book-shop over against the University building-had been debauched to play the part of publishers. We four were to be conjuct editors and, what was the main point of the concern, to print our own works; while, by every rule of arithmetic-that flatterer of credulity-the adventure must succeed and bring great profit. Well, well: it was a bright vision.” WellsLittlesBookPlayHandsFoundNamesVisionFourFeetBuildingAdventureBrotherSucceedConcernMathematicsUniversityProfitActiveMagazinesShopsPairsPrintEditorsPublishersRubberArithmeticCredulityFlattererSkipper Book:Memories, Portraits, Essays and Records (Annotated Edition) Source: Memories, Portraits, Essays and Records (Annotated Edition)
“Some time ago a publisher told me that there are four kinds of books that seldom, if ever, lose money in the United States--first,murder stories; secondly, novels in which the heroine is forcibly overcome by the hero; thirdly, volumes on spiritualism, occultism and other such claptrap, and fourthly, books on Lincoln.” IfsFirstsKindBookStatesStoriesLosesUnitedUnited StatesNovelFourHeroOvercomingMurderVolumePublishersHeroinesSpiritualism Book:Mencken Chrestomathy Source: Mencken Chrestomathy