Terry Pratchett Quotes

If people have bought something of mine, they know by now that I will decline writing it for the movies.

Authors change publishers because it's like being married for a long time and suddenly you want to go out and have a wild affair! No, not seriously, sometimes the deal is more interesting with a new publisher, and other times they have more enthusiasm for your books.

Grand Central really didn't want me doing anything under my own name but the 'Kitty' novels.

In 1974, we began franchising. We didn't have any big thought process except that, 'OK, franchising will help us get to our goal of 32 stores and help us run stores farther away from home.'

I would normally never set out to write a trilogy.

Authors need to decide if they want to keep forever to themselves, or share forever with a publisher who takes over half the cover price.

Once you publish a book, it is out of your control. You cannot dictate how people read it.

Working with franchises can be challenging, but at the same time I really did enjoy working on 'Star Wars,' for example, and I have done a lot of 'Dungeons & Dragons' games, but I still enjoy it very much.

I think people are confusing the right to write with the right to be published.

Authors of books are not given very much control over the films that are made from their books.

Self-publishing is great, but I don't want to be an icon for it, or anything else.

I am hoping to work with writers publishing books for first time, since I of course remember what that experience is like. It's all a bit of a mystery for new authors who don't know what to expect.

With Marvel, I obviously don't own the characters, so there are levels of approval to go through. But I'm very seldom told no, and never without reason. Maybe I've just been lucky; I don't know, but I don't think it's as frustrating as people generally imagine. I act as though I own it all while I'm writing, I think. I hope, anyway.

Certainly, my many years working in the comics industry, creating products that I do not own, has made me rather fierce on the subject of giving up rights.

Project Xanadu is essentially my trademark. It was originally, and has returned to my arms as that.

I turned down all the requests for the rights to the books, for years, mostly because they wanted the rights to the characters, and to turn it into a TV series. This would have allowed them to do anything they wanted with the characters, and that just wasn't an option for me.

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.

We struck an unusual deal. I'll get to leave CNN with my catalog and documentaries. We were able to create a brand at CNN - 'Black in America' - that I now own. I can take that brand and extend it in any way I want.

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.

The real important thing about Digital-Original publication goes beyond the fact that authors make more money off each sale than through traditional publishing. It's that we get to bypass a system of gatekeepers who have more than 'quality' as criteria for what they choose.

Authors are free to ignore their editors' advice. I often avail myself of this veto power - sometimes out of a pigheadedness for which I'll pay the price.

I can't stand it when writers moan about what film-makers might do or have done to their books. There's a very simple answer: don't take the money.

I know most publishers probably don't let their authors write on Wattpad all the time, but mine are pretty open about it.

One of my favorite things was I got to work with Avi Arad on a movie for Sony, and we don't realize this, but he's the reason toys were sold off of cartoons, more or less. He created the Gobots!

Some authors are quite happy - and have the time - to do it all themselves, which is great.