No Respect

To the Editor:

Re “My Book Deal Ruined My Life” [June 11]:

The writers quoted in this article apparently did not experience the kind of publishing horror story that I did—which included a lying and incompetent editor and a marketing manager who imposed an inappropriate title on my book over my objections. But even worse was the post-publishing disaster unleashed on my book (which took me seven years to write).

In 1997, in a routine call to the royalties division of my publisher, I learned that 3,000 copies of my book had been shredded. When I called my publisher, I was offered the opportunity to buy the remaining 900 at $3 each. I borrowed close to $3,000 from a friend to do so.

Another friend surfing the Web in 2005 discovered that the same publisher had issued a paperback edition of my book in 1999. Had they told me before publishing the paperback, I would not have purchased and tried to sell the 900 hardcover books remaining (which were hard to sell because of the existence of the paperback edition).

In short, I learned that the publishing companies have no regard for the authors who haven’t written blockbusters or who don’t have killer agents.

Aviva Cantor
Manhattan