Upset with your publisher?
What to do when the honeymoon ends...
Authors get upset with their publishers all the time. Like any relationship, the author-publisher one is no stranger to conflict. Nobody’s perfect, and that, of course, includes both parties.
If you’ve ever fallen in love, you’ll recognize how the story goes. At first, everything can seem perfect, honeymoon-like. This person, after all, has become the focal point of all your hopes and dreams. But at some point, you’ll realize that you’ve hitched yourself to an imperfect person.
This is when infatuation ends and real love has the possibility to begin.
At that point, the two parties either are able to communicate, make the appropriate adjustments to expectations and behavior, and move forward into a more mature, seasoned relationship—or not.
Legitimate reasons to be upset with your publisher
As far as I can tell, there are only a few legitimate reasons to be upset with your publisher. These are the two I can think of, from my perspective as both an author (who has had imperfect publishers) and as an imperfect publisher myself, but I reserve the right to make changes if readers reach out and mention other genuinely legitimate reasons.
1) Failure to adhere to the conditions of your contract. This can include, but is not limited to:
Not reporting book sales reasonably within the agreed upon time period, or dishonesty with book sales or rights sales
Not paying royalties that are due
Not publishing within a reasonable timeframe after the signing of a contract
Note that “a reasonable timeframe” can have widely differing interpretations, which is why many contracts include a clause that indicates the time frame in question. But usually books should be published within 18-24 months of signing a contract.
2) Shoddy work or business ethic
A massive failure to ensure that a book reaches a certain level of professionalism.
Note that all books will be imperfect. Typos do slip through—I’ve yet to see a book I’ve read, published by publishers both big and small, that doesn’t contain errors. But you can see when a book’s outcome suggests shoddiness and hasn’t been produced with professional standards in mind.
Failure to answer emails, or not communicating, within a reasonable timeframe.
This is of course assuming that you aren’t bombarding them with emails and making unreasonable requests.
Lack of effort to work towards a book’s success.
Publishers should make a good faith effort to publicize a book and/or support an author with their publicity efforts.
Many authors hold publishers uniquely or singularly responsible for a book’s outcome. As I pointed out earlier, holding publishers responsible for shoddy work is acceptable; but holding publishers responsible for market variables, trends, or other things that are out of their control is unreasonable.
Publishers can’t guarantee that a book will sell, no matter how hard they try.
Publishers can’t guarantee rights sales (foreign language, audio, or film rights.)
With the exception of paid reviews, publishers can’t guarantee a book will be reviewed (or, if reviewed, that it will be a positive review.)
Publishers can’t guarantee that trade industry professionals, journalists, influencers, or book award committees will see the value of a book or an author and promote it. If a publisher, or an author, has massive amounts of money to spend on publicity, then there is a stronger likelihood that a book will succeed or at least receive attention—but few publishers are able to spend that kind of money, and few authors are able to either.
Many authors become upset with their publishers for other reasons, however, and I’m not sure it’s possible to exhaust that list. These reasons are probably as varied and individual as there are authors who exist in the world. I’m absolutely certain there are authors out there with stories that are real doozies, but those kinds of stories are singular. I’m talking broad strokes here.
It’s OK to be frustrated about a book’s lack of success, or to be frustrated when a publisher doesn’t meet reasonable expectations. It is, after all, a relationship.
If you find that you have legitimate reasons to be upset with your publisher—that is, they have broken the contract or they have completely mismanaged your book in provable, verifiable ways—what should you do?
The first, most obvious thing, is to communicate directly with your publisher. Give them an opportunity to explain, be transparent, and/or rectify the situation. I would say this is both your ethical responsibility and also your contractual responsibility. Try, if you can, to approach this conversation with grace. Give them the opportunity to rectify those problems that are within their power to rectify. I have had authors frustrated, and I’ve been grateful for the understanding and patience they’ve showed so that I can rectify something that has gone wrong or explain as aspect of the publishing process that they didn’t understand.
Most problems can be corrected or explained, and will be corrected or explained, at this juncture.
Sure, some publishers are jerks. But most publishers—99.9% is not a bad guesstimate—want your book to succeed, and they want a good relationship with their authors. Assuming good will on their part, and communicating your frustrations, usually results in their good faith effort to take care of the problem—or their reasonable explanations as to why they cannot fix the problem and/or why it’s out of their control.
Second, if you have reached out to communicate and a publisher is unable or unwilling to communicate or to rectify verifiable problems that it is within their power to rectify, and particularly if they have violated the terms and conditions of the contract, then send them a signed letter communicating that. This level of communication is better done via mail than email. If you have an agent, then this is something an agent will usually take care of.
Third, if your publisher again fails to respond or fails to respond adequately to a signed letter, you (or your agent) may at this point wish to review the contract and see what avenues are available to you. If it seems clear that they’ve violated the conditions and terms of the contract, you can request—again by signed letter—that you be released from the contract.
Finally, in the catastrophic (and usually unlikely) event that a publisher has failed to respond to these three attempts to communicate your growing unease with the relationship and/or your desire to terminate the contract, you may wish to call in the Authors Guild (assuming you have a membership with them) or other legal representation. This is a last recourse, but it is available to you if you need it.
Although I’ve likened the author-publisher relationship to a romantic one, ultimately, it is a business relationship. And like most business relationships, both parties can be held to account. Most problems are fixable.
Remember, however, like with all things, to keep your expectations reasonable. Many publishers are overstretched in both time and money. But your success is their success. If a publisher has made a faithful effort towards a book’s success, if they adhere to the terms and conditions of the contract, and if they communicate in a reasonable and timely manner, that’s all you can really ask.