I suppose I was as shocked as anyone to hear that Quartet Press has closed down even before it was launched. (Publishers Weekly has the full story.) It’s sad for Don Linn, Kat Meyer and the others who set up the venture that they couldn’t see a way to make it work. What I found much more shocking, however, was the fact that they had already signed publishing contracts with seven authors before they discovered that their business plan had a flaw in it. That means there are seven people who now have to tear up those contracts and go back to querying agents and publishers.
As you know, I recently signed a book contract with Lyrical Press and I’m right where those seven authors must have been – I’ve had the champagne, I’ve told all my friends and family, I’m planning the pre-launch, the launch and the post-launch publicity, I’m working through the editing process with the editor, and I’m just coming to accept the fact, just daring to let it sink in, that I have, at last, after all those years of trying, fulfilled a lifetime ambition and I’m about to become a published author.
Can you imagine how those seven people must have felt when they got the phone call – or the e-mail – from Quartet telling them it was a false alarm and their dream hadn’t come true after all?
My God! If there was ever a group of traumatised individuals badly in need of counselling, it must be those seven people. O how my heart goes out to them!
