I just knew it!

Giant Hat Tip to Tony Morgan for this one! He found one of the most amazing admissions I’ve ever read. It’s from Michael Hyatt President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, a well known Christian book publisher. Here it is, with my comments to follow:

Cultivate the habit of non-finishing. Not every project you start is worth finishing. Sometimes we get into it and realize, “This is a waste of time.” Fine, then give yourself permission to quit.

I do this all the time with reading. It’s why I am able to read so many articles and books. Here’s publishing’s dirty little secret: most books are not worth finishing. Most books could be cut in half and you wouldn’t miss a thing. The key is to read as long as you are interested and then stop. There are too many great books to read without getting bogged down in the merely good ones. [Source]

My first impulse was to say it’s nice to have the opinion of Gary Lamb and others, including myself, confirmed. But this goes far beyond that!

At best this is a confession of incompetence and at worst it’s an admission of greedy, money grubbing. Everyone knows these publishing houses have loads of editors. If most of the published authors I read are to be believed these people are hard working and competent professionals.

There goes the “our editors our incompetent” argument.

That just leaves the money grubbing one.

This seems to be a clear admission that publishers are deliberately publishing books they know to be either sub par or bloated to make money. They also do this in hopes that you’ll quit half way through and buy another one from them!

That’s not just greed, it’s also gall. It reeks of arrogance and a total lack of respect for both the craft of writing and the customers they are supposed to be serving.

I’m a big time reader and find that this is disgusting.

Let’s not fall into this little money grubbing trap. Be careful what you read, buy used books as often as possible, and don’t fall for this publishing con game!