Some Post-Halloween Scary Publishing Tales

In the past few weeks, I’ve seen ad after ad for scary movies and shows.

And though the only horror movies I like are the Scream franchise, I wanted to share some of my own scary stories with y’all this week.

So here are a couple publishing industry horror stories for your entertainment and benefit.

First — a story from my time as an editorial assistant.

My boss was working with a famous actor’s wife who had written her first novel. Everything was fine until we sent the author the cover designs that the in-house team had done.

Not only did she hate every option, but she continued to protest after round and round (and round) of revisions. At one point, she hired her own designer — and of course, our in-house team hated those options.

We were stuck.

Out of nowhere, I got a call from the security desk in our office lobby. When I went downstairs, the author was there. She handed me a personal check. The amount was the exact amount of money that had been paid from her advance. On the left corner, like any other person’s check, was the famous actor’s name — Mr. and Mrs. Famous Actor You Definitely Know.

The book was canceled after that — but the book did get published elsewhere. And the famous…