Sad Attention: GentlemanJ will NOT be Publishing an OG Work For Now · 8:08pm Oct 20th, 2023
Hey there everyone,
Sorry this post is so late in coming, but as the title indicates, I will not be publishing my original work by my own choice.
Long story short, the editor the publishing house assigned me was rewriting my story without telling me. I got back notes with track changes and comments, but for every one marked off, she took the 'liberty' of changing at least five other things, many of which fundamentally changed what I was trying to say. I took this to the head publisher, who assured me that such nonsense was against their policy and wouldn't happen again. But it did. A second time, the editor rewrote my story, only when I talked to the head publisher this time, I was told that maybe I should just go along with it. Or if not, they could get me a new editor and delay publication. If neither works, we could just call the whole deal off.
I chose the second - new editor, let's try this again. But after two weeks pass with zero contact, enough is enough. If they can't respect me or my time, I can't trust them with my story. I write back telling them that I'll pulling the deal. Less than 24 hours later, head publisher reaches out and says that I'm being unprofessional, in a breach of contract, that that she can hold my story hostage and prevent it from getting published for years. If any of you haven't met me, hi, name's GentlemanJ, and this is 10,000% the wrong move. After schooling her in how contracts actually works, it only takes a couple more days for me to receive a confirmation letter that my book deal, is in fact, over.
So, there you have it. At the end of the day, while this isn't the outcome I wanted, it's the only one I can live with. For any of you who were actually waiting for this, sorry for not telling you sooner. The whole process left a bad taste in my mouth, and it if weren't for Trent Roonga reaching out, I probably wouldv'e just avoided posting altogether.
I haven't given up on getting published. I'm still working on it, but it looks like that part of my journey will continue a little longer.
Best,
GentlemanJ
Oof... I'm sorry you had to experience that, GJ. I can't do much more than pray that you'll find a publisher that will respect you and your work, but thank you so much for keeping us in the loop!
oof, as someone who is hoping to get published one day too, that’s rough. Glad to see it hasn’t demotivated you, keep going!