Adventures of an Independent Publisher

Keith: "Here's my story. I call it a cautionary tale about the trouble that big advances can lead to."

The author of four critically-acclaimed thrillers published by a major New York house explains why there is such a thing as a too-high advance and how it can spell demise for even the most talented of writers.

- Jen Itskevich

Every published and prospective author should read this article, written by the publisher of an independent press for AlterNet.org.

- Jen Itskevich

I apologize for the lack of original thought accompanying this post - I've been sick and my creative faculties have not yet been restored fully. In the meantime, the results of this study are worth checking out.

More soon, I hope.

- Jen Itskevich
Publicity Director

I had a noteworthy email exchange with a literary agent today. I found the posting for the book/author he's representing on Publishers Marketplace interesting and emailed him to find out more. It wasn't until he wrote back that I realized that I'd been in contact with him before - he had previously sent me a proposal, which Barricade ultimately turned down.

Anyway, the gist of his email was this: whereas the author of the book we had turned down previously was seeking a publisher, any publisher, for his book, this new author was seeking a publisher who can pony up a considerable advance. I believe his exact words were "she's not going to write a book for the same amount of money she would get for writing a magazine piece."

Ouch.

I swiftly wrote back that I understood but that I hoped he and his client realized that the energy, enthusiasm, and effort (I coined them the three E's right then and there) that I could bring to this project was no small thing. Neither is hearing from your publicist every day as many of my authors do. He wrote back that he liked that - the three E's.

But he's still not sending me the proposal.

- Jen Itskevich
Publicity Director