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"All of the changes in publishing since 1960 are significant. There are far fewer publishers."
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"The real effect of the WTC calamity has been depressed spirits, anxiety, and uncertainty among publishers, and of course those emotions are not restricted to publishers."

"We now open our mail with gloves and mask, though I can't imagine why anyone would target a literary agency!"

"The trick was really finding the appropriate publisher for each of the projects I'd devised."

"The biggest threat to authors in this age is not plagiarism or poverty, it's obscurity."

"Publishers like a good buzz, and negative responses sell books just as well as positive ones."

"The breadth of the potential readership is also a factor."

"The best source for finding an agent is called Literary Agents of North America. It's a complete list of agents, not only by name and address, but by type of book they represent and by what their submission criteria are."

"I'm a professional writer and I consider it part of my job to publicise my work and these days part of that job is done online."

"Digital publishing allows an author a new platform for which the words of one heart can be shared with all souls of the world."

"McSweeney's as a publishing company is built on a business model that only works when we sell physical books. So we try to put a lot of effort into the design and production of the book-as-object."
Explore more quotes by Donald E. Westlake

"When Stark isn't off sulking somewhere, or whatever he's doing when he won't return my calls, I alternate between the two. That usually works well, though occasionally an idea for the wrong guy drifts through my mind."

"Once he became a series character, I made the conscious choice that he would never act like a series character, never wink at the reader, never pull his punches. Better for him, better for me."

"Seem to be telling this, but really telling that. Three-dimensional writing, like three-dimensional chess. Nabokov was the other master of that. You could learn something from Nabokov on every page he ever wrote."

"I loved it, but social reality impeded. Now I wander in here at 9 in the morning or so, and come back for a while in the afternoon. I am a very lenient boss."

"If you think of movie studio executives, say, as society, then I root for the independent producers."

"Nothing about it interested me. Or about anything else, except making up stories. If literacy weren't so nearly universal, God knows what I'd be. A drain on the State, I shouldn't wonder."

"I start with the story, almost in the old campfire sense, and the story leads to both the characters, which actors should best be cast in this story, and the language. The choice of words, more than anything else, creates the feeling that the story gives off."
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