142 Book Publishing Quotes

Following is our list of book publishing quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about can i publish a book of.

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Famous Book Publishing Quotes

Publication is a self-invasion of privacy. - Marshall McLuhan

Publication is a self-invasion of privacy. — Marshall McLuhan

Standardization, instead of individualization. Cheap books, instead of private press editions. Active literature, instead of passive leather bindings. — Jan Tschichold

I am my brain's publisher. — Philippe Starck

For years, I've pushed the idea of a column compilation book mainly because it would be easy - I could just staple 'em all together. But publishers have been resistent, feeling the material dates. — Michael Musto

Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. — Walter Benjamin

The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business. — John Steinbeck

Books are humanity in print. — Barbara Tuchman

Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo. — Don Marquis

One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title page, another works away at the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index. — Oliver Goldsmith

A publisher should always be on the receiving end. He should take an interest in almost any subject and remain anonymous, letting the author take center stage. — Cass Canfield

I wouldn't encourage new writers to start off publishing through electronic media... it still isn't wide enough for the readership they would need to get a good start — Anne Mccaffrey

As a writer, it's disheartening to write books that you pour your soul into and not have them distributed widely enough to find their audience. — Sylvia Day

Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one. — Salman Rushdie

If all else fails, there's always print or web zines. - Rudy Rucker

If all else fails, there's always print or web zines. — Rudy Rucker

Books and harlots have their quarrels in public. — Walter Benjamin

Short Book Publishing Quotes

  • Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing. — Norman Mailer
  • A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking. — Jerry Seinfeld
  • Any fool can write a novel but it takes real genius to sell it. — J. G. Ballard
  • Books succeed, and lives fail. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • Writers build castles in the air, the reader lives inside, and the publisher inns the rent. — Maxim Gorky

Top 10 Book Publishing Quotes

A lot of poets too live on the margins of social acceptance, they certainly aren't in it for the money. William Blake - only his first book was legitimately published. — Jim Jarmusch

According to New York publishers, Bill Clinton will get more money for his book than Hillary Clinton got for hers. Well, duh. At least his book has some sex in it. — Jay Leno

I chose to publish the first 'Shopaholic' book under a pseudonym because I wanted it to be judged on its own merits. — Sophie Kinsella

My work stops at publication. If the books don't contain in themselves their reasons for being - questions and answers - it means I was wrong to have them published. — Elena Ferrante

Printed books usually outlive bookstores and the publishers who brought them out. They sit around, demanding nothing, for decades. That's one of their nicest qualities - their brute persistence. — Nicholson Baker

I do read everything that we publish. We usually have to have two or three votes for a book before we take it on. So in that sense I suppose it is an orchestra. — James Laughlin

The first chess book that I read was Dufresne's self-tutor, published with Lasker's Common Sense in Chess as an appendix. — Vasily Smyslov

I know that I am very popular in Holland, in fact I have visited Amsterdam several times to publicize my books. I have a great publisher in Holland and they have published all of my books in Dutch. — Jackie Collins

Everyone has a set of presuppositions: what gender is, what it's not. And they may not write them out or they may not be in theoretical books published by Routledge, but they have a theory. — Judith Butler

When you publish a book, it's the world's book. The world edits it. — Philip Roth

Book Publishing Image Quotes

Book publishing quote There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people's book and write your ow
There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people's book and write your own.

Congratulations Quotes

Scott Bullett, as he takes left field, is getting congratulations from everybody. He and his daughter are parents of a new baby. — Harry Caray

The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation and communication. — Harold Geneen

Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed. — Arthur Schopenhauer

Book publishing quote There comes a day when you realize turning the page is the best feeling in the world, because you re
There comes a day when you realize turning the page is the best feeling in the world, because you realize there is so much more to the book than the page you were stuck on.

Failure is success if we learn from it. — Malcolm Forbes

The path to success is to take massive, determined action. — Tony Robbins

Of course there is no formula for success, except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life, and what it brings — Arthur Rubinstein

Book publishing quote Each time you read a book, a tree smiles knowing there's life after death.
Each time you read a book, a tree smiles knowing there's life after death.

Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young. — Theodore Roosevelt

I will not allow yesterday's success to lull me into today's complacency, for this is the great foundation of failure. — Og Mandino

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. — Dr. Seuss

Success is a great deodorant. It takes away all your past smells. — Elizabeth Taylor

Can I Publish A Book Of Quotes

I've been writing since I was six. It is a compulsion, so I can't really say where the desire came from; I've always had it. My breakthrough with the first book came through persistence, because a lot of publishers turned it down! — J. K. Rowling

Listen, my day job is also Chief Creative Officer for Marvel, and it's a very painful job because we publish a lot of books, and there are things I see where I can punch people out. Therefore, we have some new people now, and the kids are going to read our books. — Avi Arad

Nothing is a matter of age. It's really in the person because you can publish book after book after book and still want that golden apple. And maybe it's the reality principle that has hit me. I believe that a career is very different from writing. My career is a certain kind of career. — Lynne Tillman

Book publishing quote The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think.
The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think.

I can't imagine having the courage to ask a publisher to do a whole book of my poems. — Frederick Busch

A lot of times, when people send me books to read - new writers mostly - I find that the book is still in a draft stage and that before it can leave the writer's hands and head to a publisher, it needs about five more revisions. Some people don't want to do that. — Jacqueline Woodson

Now, after I have published a few books, I can clearly feel the impact of censorship when I write. For example, I'll think of a sentence, and then realize that it will for sure get deleted. Then I won't even write it down. — Murong Xuecun

Book publishing quote You dont have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
You dont have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

I can understand the allure of a venerable Big Six imprint, of a shot at the New York Times list, of a publisher-sponsored book tour, of seeing your hardbacks in bookstores and your paperbacks in supermarkets. — Barry Eisler

I think a lot of awesome stuff is coming out with smaller presses. Small presses don't have to have huge board meetings to talk about how to market their books or what to publish - they can take more chances. They can help new authors grow in a healthier, often more artistic way. — Kevin Sampsell

God forbid that I should ever suffer the shame of publishing a book for money, or of having one of my family so demean themselves. How can one tell who might read it? No worthy book has ever been written for gain, I think. — Iain Pears

Just because everyone CAN publish a book these days, doesn't mean everyone SHOULD. The world doesn't need 1000 knock-offs of 50 Shades of Grey. I'm not so sure the world even needed ONE 50 Shades of Grey. — Oliver Gaspirtz

How To Publish A Book Of Quotes

Until I became a published writer, I remained completely ignorant of books on how to write and courses on the subject ... they would have spoiled my natural style; made me observe caution; would have hedged me with rules. — Isaac Asimov

I wrote a little autobiography about how luck has to do with everything. It's called "My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business." A publisher came to me and said write a book so I did. I wanted to call it "Everybody Else Has Got a Book." — Dick Van Dyke

I think it's very, very, very hard to get a book published. I never want to be one of those teachers that say, 'don't do this, ' because how sad would the world be if people didn't create art and write? But, it's not an easy journey being a writer. — Alyson Richman

Book publishing quote I went away in my head, into a book.
I went away in my head, into a book.

My memoir is being published by Beaufort Books and will be available fall of 2015. Its about my unusual life as a child actor and how I made the unpopular choice to leave Hollywood, grow up, and stop pretending. — Lisa Jakub

Ebooks have many advantages - publishers don't have to make guesses about how many books to print, books need never go "out of print", and hard-to-find books can be easily available. So far, the only limitation seems to be finding a way for the writer to be paid. — Kate Grenville

I learned that you have to respect how much time and work a writer has put into their book. I always give the writer I'm publishing a good deal of control in shaping the book and figuring out how it looks, but I'll make suggestions on how to make it stronger. — Kevin Sampsell

Book publishing quote A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.
A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.

Anybody who writes a book is an optimist. First of all, they think they're going to finish it. Second, they think somebody's going to publish it. Third, they think somebody's going to read it. Fourth, they think somebody's going to like it. How optimistic is that? — Margaret Atwood

Publishing House Quotes

He was the editor of our paper. He created the publishing house in Hebrew. He was - I wouldn't say the "guru" - but really he was our teacher and a most respected man. I wrote for the paper of the youth movement. — Shimon Peres

Though they control scores of industrial, commercial, mining and tourist corporations, not one bears the name Rothschild. Being private partnerships, the family houses never need to, and never do, publish a single public balance sheet, or any other report of their financial condition. — Frederic Morton

The [CIA] Agency has owned outright more than 240 Media operations around the world, including newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, radio and television stations, and wire services, and has partially controlled many more. — Michael Parenti

Book publishing quote WIth freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy.
WIth freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy.

Perceval Press a publishing house I founded in 2002 and it's still going strong. Strong for us means not so many books per year, but each one we very carefully design and print. — Viggo Mortensen

I used to be with a publishing house called Roosevelt Music. A gentleman there told me he had seen Peggy Lee perform Fever in Las Vegas and I found out later she wanted to record it. — Otis Blackwell

Since my first novel was rescued from a slush pile, it makes me sad that most publishing houses no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts. Nor are many willing to take chances on novels that are not deemed immediately "marketable." — Katherine Paterson

Book publishing quote A room without books is like a body without a soul.
A room without books is like a body without a soul.

The successful publishing house is the one that can guess ahead, not the one that imitates the past. — Helen Jacobs

There are those who believe we have need of more literature, of a large international publishing house, of a great peace newspaper, or the like. I am rather skeptical about this idea. — Fredrik Bajer

The job of an editor in a publishing house is the dullest, hardest, most exciting, exasperating and rewarding of perhaps any job in the world. — John Hall Wheelock

That was a brave and principled thing for Ecuador to do [give me asylum application]. Now we have the U.S. election [campaign], the Ecuadorian election is in February next year, and you have the White House feeling the political heat as a result of the true information that we have been publishing. — Julian Assange

Magazine Publishing Quotes

It's a secret, but when I decided to apply to 'Shonen Magazine,' it was already past the deadline, so I had no choice but to go with 'Shonen Jump.' — Akira Toriyama

The fact must never be forgotten that no magazine publisher in the United States could give what it is giving to the reader each month if it were not for the revenue which the advertiser brings the magazine. — Edward Bok

How often we recall with regret that Napoleon once shot at a magazine editor and missed him and killed a publisher. But we remember with charity that his intentions were good. — Mark Twain

Book publishing quote There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book.
There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book.

Guitarists shouldn't get too riled up about all of the great players that were left off of 'Rolling Stone Magazines' list of the Greatest Guitar Players of all Time' ... Rolling Stone is published for people who read the magazine because they don't know what to wear. — Joe Satriani

When I started out in the early 1930s, there were a great many magazines that published short stories. Unfortunately, the short-story market has dwindled to almost nothing. — Irwin Shaw

We have more freedom of the press than any other country in a similar position. Even way back in the frightened '50s, Communists, for example, could publish their magazine. The KKK published their own books. But face it, the mass media is controlled by money. — Pete Seeger

Book publishing quote There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.

Never the less, at the age of fifteen, having never seen a writer, a poet, a publisher or a magazine editor, and having only the vaguest ideas of procedure, I began working on the profession I had chosen. — Robert E. Howard

Publishing a sophisticated men's magazine seemed to me the best possible way of fulfilling a dream I'd been nurturing ever since I was a teenager: to get laid a lot. — Hugh Hefner

While writing my first 90 books, I was magazine editor, publisher, book publisher, executive, etc., so I was established in publishing. three of my seven or so books were biographies of sports stars and really opened doors for me in that area. — Jerry B. Jenkins

However, I began to submit poems to British magazines, and some were accepted. It was a great moment to see my first poems published. It felt like entering a tradition. — Helen Dunmore

Publishing Industry Quotes

If it weren't for received ideas, the publishing industry wouldn't have any ideas at all. — Donald E. Westlake

A new regulation for the publishing industry: "The advance for a book must be larger than the check for the lunch at which it was discussed. — Calvin Trillin

Hatori: "SHIGURE... I WILL TELL EVERYONE IN THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT YOU, STARTING FROM WHEN YOU WERE FOUR YEARS OLD..." Shigure: "Sorry, Tohru-kun. My lips are sealed! — Natsuki Takaya

'Harry Potter' opened so many doors for young adult literature. It really did convince the publishing industry that writing for children was a viable enterprise. And it also convinced a lot of people that kids will read if we give them books that they care about and love. — Rick Riordan

New York is the Hollywood of the publishing industry, complete with stars, starlets, suicidal publishers/producers, intrigues, and a lot of money. — Aleksandar Hemon

Not only are unpaid internships exploitative, they're one of the main forces keeping publishing in this country a primary white middle-class industry, which has a direct knock-on effect on what gets published and how. — Deborah Smith

And to improve access to the UK publishing industry - I'm hoping to set up an internship or work experience for someone from a low-income background, as soon as we have the funds. While we don't have the funds, we won't have an intern. — Deborah Smith

All of us are engaged in a seismic, fundamental realignment of culture and communications, a realignment that is shaking and decimating the newspaper industry, the magazine industry, the book and publishing industry and more. — Ben Cameron

Being in the entertainment industry in L.A. is the equivalent to being in the publishing industry in New York. You don't ever have to hangout with anybody else. — Meghan Daum

Publishing magazines costs a lot of money and people don't read magazines anymore, they're all captivated by Instagram. I have to reinvent myself every season to keep the interest of the reader. Twenty-five years later, my mission is the same: Captivating the readers, not flattering the industry. — Olivier Zahm

How To Publish Quotes

Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free, Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea. — Sidney Lanier

I published basically the only two papers that teach doctors how to treat COVID-19 at home to prevent hospitalization and death. If treated early, it results in an 85 percent reduction in hospitalizations and death. — Peter A. McCullough

How many murders are committed in Gauteng, or in the Western Cape, in a month? A week? A day? An hour? But of course we are not allowed to know for sure. In close and direct imitation of his apartheid models, Selebi ensures that no statistics about crime may be published regularly in the press. — Thabo Mbeki

I am always making sketches of how information should look or mapping out a marketing campaign. When I present my notes, people start responding to them. Desktop publishing makes everything look slick. When you present sketches, it helps start the dialogue and collaboration. — John Katzman

I almost once wanted to publish a self help book saying, 'How To Be Happy, by Stephen Fry: Guaranteed Success'. And people buy this huge book and it's all blank pages, and the first page would just say, 'Stop feeling sorry for yourself--and you will be happy.' — Stephen Fry

This is for writers yet to be published who think the uphill climb will never end. Keep believing. This is also for published writers grown jaded by the process. Remember how lucky you are. — Terry Brooks

In the history of literature there are many great enduring works which were not published in the lifetimes of the authors. If the authors had not achieved self-affirmation while writing, how could they have continued to write? — Gao Xingjian

It's become something of a ritual - every year, Google publishes its year-end summary of what the world wants, and every year I complain about how shallow it is, given what Google really knows about what the world is up to. — John Battelle

You know how they say, "Find your voice"? That's your voice, in your pajamas. And it doesn't mean that you're going to publish it or print it or people are going to see you in your pajamas. It just means you are going to construct the foundation in your pajamas, in that voice. — Sandra Cisneros

Never submit an idea or chapter to an editor or publisher, no matter how much he would like you to. Writing from the approved idea is (another) gravely serious time-waster. This is your story. Try and find out what your editor wants in advance, but then try and give it to him in one piece. — John Creasey

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More Book Publishing Quotes

In Great Britain, an author published a book in which he claimed that Jesus Christ had children. Such statements don't trigger civil unrest and bloodshed in Europe. But write similar statements about Islam in Syria and you might see bloody uprisings. — Bashar al-Assad

Now, I'll tell you something that might interest you. Casino Royale was the first Bond book that Ian Fleming ever wrote. And he couldn't get anybody to touch it, to publish it - he couldn't do anything about it at all. Nobody wanted to know. — Val Guest

Write what you care about and understand. Writers should never try to outguess the marketplace in search of a salable idea; the simple truth is that all good books will eventually find a publisher if the writer tries hard enough, and a central secret to writing a good book is to write on that people like you will enjoy. — Richard North Patterson

There is danger in the concentration of control in the television and radio networks, especially in the large television and radio stations; danger in the concentration of ownership in the press...and danger in the increasing concentration of selection by book publishers and reviewers and by the producers of radio and television programs. — Eugene McCarthy

What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature. — W. Somerset Maugham

The first person you should think of pleasing, in writing a book, is yourself. If you can amuse yourself for the length of time it takes to write a book, the publisher and the readers can and will come later. — Patricia Highsmith

One, I have a wonderful publisher, Black Sparrow Press; as long as they exist, they will keep me in print. And they claim they sell very respectable numbers of my books, so I guess, and it's true, every place I go, my books are in libraries and on bookshelves. — Diane Wakoski

Snooki is a bestselling author? Huh? What? I don't know if I should dumb down my book, shoot myself or find a publisher who'll settle for a rough draft written on a Pop-Tart and a coconut lotion handie. — Geoffrey Hill

I need to add that my work on multiple intelligences received a huge boost in 1995 when Daniel Goleman published his book on emotional intelligence. I am often confused with Dan. Initially, though Dan and I are longtime friends, this confusion irritated me. — Howard Gardner

I had been writing comic books for years and I was doing them to please a publisher, who felt that comics are only read by very young children or stupid adults. And therefore, we have to keep the stories very simplistic... And those were all things I hated. — Stan Lee

a. Critics: people who make monuments out of books. b. Biographers: people who make books out of monuments. c. Poets: people who raze monuments. d. Publishers: people who sell rubble. e. Readers: people who buy it. — Cynthia Ozick

In a two-year period, all my dreams came true: the birth of a son... publishing a best-selling book... launching a successful organization... joining the [Barack] Obama Administration... And then all my nightmares came true. — Van Jones

The graveyard is the richest place on the surface of the earth because there you will see the books that were not published, ideas that were not harnessed, songs that were not sung, and drama pieces that were never acted. — Myles Munroe

I had been self-publishing for a number of years at that stage and selling my books at markets around Melbourne - little pocket books. I'd make them for 10 cents and sell them for a dollar. But I knew there was an audience who loved silly stuff so I just kept plugging away. — Andy Griffiths

The attempts to command the climate and decide about the temperature on our planet are wrong and arrogant. I wrote a book about it which was published in English under the title “Blue Planet in Green Shackles.” — Vaclav Klaus

And books that were published in much larger numbers than Selfish, Little are hard to find. And publishers who wanted to publish my last few works have them stuck in limbo while new distribution ideas and legal issues and fears are blown away. — Peter Sotos

When new pages are sent to editors and see rejection, we should ask for the reasons. We must study the reasons for failure and learn. It's not about struggle with our limitations or with public or the publishers. It's more about treating it like in aikido; the strength of the attack is used to defeat him with the same effort. — Sayings

My publisher had mailed [Bret Easton Ellis] Richard Yates. And when I talked to him he said he had read all my prose books. And he said something like, "You got a lot of mileage out of Dakota Fanning." — Tao Lin

Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea. Some bottles drown, some come safe to land, where the notes are read and then possibly cherished, or else misinterpreted, or else understood all too well by those who hate the message. You never know who your readers might be. — Margaret Atwood

Publishers, naturally, loathe used books and have developed strategies to depress the secondhand market. They bring out new, even more expensive editions of popular textbooks every three to four years, in a classic cycle of planned obsolescence. — James Surowiecki

For several days after my first book was published, I carried it about in my pocket and took surreptitious peeps at it to make sure the ink had not faded. — James M. Barrie

I like reading Ball Tongue lyrics and all that stuff. And they published a book, and I wouldn't give my lyrics, and it's all wrong in the book, and I giggle. It's funny. — Jonathan Davis

I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their refusals were unanimous: and it did not get into print until, fifty years later; publishers would publish anything that had my name on it. — George Bernard Shaw

At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself. — Dave Grohl

You can't sell a book in America if you don't dump on Bush. That's the cheapest shot in the world. You cannot get an advance, and you can't sell a book because the publishers are all people who hate Bush and hate Republicans. — Roger Ailes

I had written childrens books for 14 years before I published Wicked. And none of them were poorly reviewed, and none of them sold enough for me to be able to buy a bed. — Gregory Maguire

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. — Linda Sue Park

I think I'm gonna attach myself to the sinking ship that is book publishing. — Daniel Clowes

Sarah Palin - now don't laugh - is writing a book. Not just reading a book, writing a book. Actually, in the word of the publisher, she's 'collaborating' on a book. What an embarrassment! It's one of these 'I told you,' books that jocks do. — Chris Matthews

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