I've told a lot of wild negative stories about my former publisher over the years but here's one I just remembered that was I recently reminded of. My friend who helped me get the job at the company pitched the idea of doing the company's first young adult novel. Harry Potter was at its apex--
so the publisher decided to let him write it. The first draft was completed and the publisher glanced at it (he didn't have the attention span to read anything he actually published--even the books he insisted be co-credited to him for random reasons he'd make up) and protested the inclusion of--
May 15, 2025 21:25a minor early character who was described as being overweight. I never asked my friend but it seemed clear to me that the character as described was a pretty solid match for our publisher, but our publisher was way too vain and egotistical to notice that. No, he didn't want the character in the--
book to be overweight because he wanted all of the characters in the first full-length novel he published to be hot and sexy and that one character ruined the vibe for him. The book never did get published (more because of the company's archaic sales strategy than anything else) but I always--
thought it was telling that this publisher would have so much disdain for a character who was obviously based on him without him even knowing they were based on him.
