Sorry, but much of that is pure bunk and what keeps people flocking to hand their hard earned cash over to self-pubs and vanity presses or :shudders: PA.
If you do get a publisher interested in your idea, you should know now what the deal will be. You write the book, you promote the book - in other words, you create the product and sell it - and in return, the publisher will allow their name to appear on the book jacket. Oh, and the publisher keeps most of the money - since, they'll remind you, they assumed all the risk in the project.
Seriously? Is this all he thinks a publisher does? Let me tell you, a good editor can be make or break for a book. The right editor can make a very good book fabulous. A vanity publisher does nothing but slap their name on the product. A good publisher does much more.
As for how you get those sales... that's your job, as I said above. Wait: you thought the publisher was going to sell and distribute your book? No no no. Their job is to put their name on the book jacket, fulfill orders and accept payment from bookstore orders (which come from your sales efforts), keep most of the money, and then, several months later, cut your small royalty check.
The bolding is mine. And YES (!!!!!) a publisher does sell and distribute your book. The author should be prepared to help promote the book, but publishers actually do distribute and sell books. Shocking, I know, but that is how they make money.
Basically, this person's premise is that you should just self-publish like he did because publishers and agents don't do anything but grub off an author's talent and hard work.
It's one thing to present a realistic view of the difficulties of publishing, but I'm weary of the hand-wringing and moaning that we all might as well go jump off the nearest cliff because the odds of being published are slightly less than sprouting a horn through the forehead.
There is realistic and then there is overly pessimistic.
