Thomas Hauser Quotes

Some people are just so happy to get published to, they sign anything. Next thing you know, they've signed over the rights to their book.

The music business looks like, you know, innocent schoolboys compared to the TV business. They care about nothing but profit.

I don't sign contracts for my books.

The business model - where books can be returned, and where a 50% sell-through is considered acceptable - is archaic and wasteful. Writers get small royalties, little say in how their books are marketed and sold, and simple things like cover and title approval are unheard of unless you're a huge bestseller.

I know dozens of authors who have had a lot of books published by New York, and they won't ever take another Big 6 contract since they've gotten a taste of the freedom, control, and money self-publishing offers.

There's been a growing dissatisfaction and distrust with the conventional publishing industry, in that you tend to have a lot of formerly reputable imprints now owned by big conglomerates.

Authors will make far more on those ebooks through direct sales than publishers are offering. There is no incentive for authors to sell those rights to traditional publishers which means, in the fairly short term, publishers run out of material to sell.

Films always make everyone else rich save the author.

Everything about the music industry takes away from you as an artist. They're always wondering what the next thing is: 'What do you have?' It's a very introverted process.

When there are fewer and fewer publishers of scale, it's just not good for authors.

The standard publishing contract is replete with clauses that strip authors of control over their books.

Business, numbers, negotiations, all that stuff I wouldn't go near.

It's always push and pull with a record company.

When a single author uploading his own books to Amazon can earn more money than a large N.Y. publisher exploiting both print and e-rights, there's something amiss.

I have no problem selling books to media franchises and we do it all the time. The author must understand that he/she is a writer for hire and has no control over copyright or over editorial changes made to the text.

I like to have projects that belong completely to me. If done right, it can also pay better. But the majority of my projects are still destined for publishers.

Writers usually don't get to pick our own covers. I know it's surprising to hear that.

They give me the money, I give them the book. Having input into the adaptation would be kind of like selling a house and coming back three years later and saying, 'Paint it this color!'

You want the story to end when it's supposed to and not be squeezed for somebody's financial gain.

I think that a really good agent should be able to get the right publisher, which the agent has already figured out, get as much money as she can from that publisher, and make a deal, rather than have the amount of money determine the sale. That's what the best agents do.

In the final analysis, finding a way to do clean business and not to pay bribes actually improves your bottom line.

Because we self-published 'Draculas,' we control the rights. Not just for now, but forever.

Commerce is abusive. It's very hobbling to always be saying, 'Please let me put this out, this thing I've worked on for years.' It's like a nasty parent saying, 'No! Now go to your room.' As publishing companies got bigger, you felt even less significant.

Talking about a materialistic thing, I get about 13 times more royalties from Europe than I do from America.

My biggest concern about the market is the force that acts to drive down price, because I think that's destructive to authors as well as publishers. Our biggest battle is to underline the value of intellectual property.