What have Solaris ever done for me?
13th May 2016
Solaris – pah – those guys. What have they ever done for me?
I feel like the Judaean People’s Front, (or is it the People’s Front of Judaea?), when I talk about Solaris. What have they ever done for me…?
Apart from republish pretty much every book of mine which was out of print. And remain tight lipped and patient when I missed deadline after deadline. And just be annoyingly, horribly nice and decent and efficient despite all the crap I threw their way…
Not that I throw much crap around- that’s for chimps, and people who enjoy that kind of thing. But authors being authors, we do tend to be narcissistic assholes from time to time. (Shocking – I know). And the guys at Solaris suck it up, come out with a smile (and no doubt beat up kittens afterwards, as a form of light relief).
I have been in this game for a quarter of a century now, (cue eye-rolling, concealed yawns and heavy sighs), and though I do hate to say it, these guys actually seem to know what they are doing – which is not something I would say about all the publishers I have been involved with, (and there have been a few). They also tend to pick other people to publish who aren’t, surprisingly, mediocre asshats. People whom I like reading myself. It’s actually quite unsettling.
Any decent author worth his or her salt should always be complaining about the failings of their publisher, and I’m damned if I can find one. (I mean, seriously, have you seen the cover of my new book – it’s freaking awesome).
So I find myself, in the end, seriously miffed with Solaris. You guys have a real problem. You have taken a veteran of the Publishing trade and made him purr like a cat with a rat’s tail in its mouth. You need to up your game, piss me off, find ways to make me send you irate e-mails, and generally mess with my world.
That’s what other publishers do, after all…
Paul Kearney’s The Wolf in the Attic is out now!
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