☞ More Publisher Follies ☜

🎪 Preface: The Circus Moves On

Sorry, but this page's content was dropped in early 2024, because it hadn't been updated in years, and grew too dated. Hence, the circus tent has been closed, and the show has moved on.

In brief, this page covered a six-year period (2015 through 2020, more or less) which saw frustrating changes at my books' publisher, whose customer-facing focus shifted in large part to online media and corporate subscriptions. But some of the grievances formerly enumerated here were eventually addressed, and others were rendered toothless by the passage of time.

The takeaway of this page was a simple one: entities motivated by profit and/or hubris may not always have your best interests at heart. That's hardly a news flash, but can be a hard-won lesson for both first-time authors confronting the publishing world anew, and media consumers who must decide whether to trust online vendors with their personal info and activity. Skepticism is especially important at a time when tech has established points of control in our lives, and privacy and ethics are both on life support.

Stories like this one are usually more convoluted than they seem, and you have to make your own choices. But be careful out there, eh?