OK...

[ksmith]

I accept that this is true:

From alg's most recent post (http://alg.livejournal.com/101844.html)

Too many authors find their careers in tatters because they took that $150,000 advance thinking the publisher was going to push the book harder because they paid more money for it. That is hardly ever the way it happens.

I would like to know why? Given that this is, afaik, a pretty high advance for SF (although maybe not F), why wouldn't the publisher follow up this above-average investment with above-average push?

Comments

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

It doesn't happen often in our genre, because the market is well-known and the editors are not "celebrities" in their companies (I don't know if it's the personality profile of SF people or what). OTOH, I have seen celebrity editors fuck up big time, and still keep their position because they have that much cult of personality and convince the folks over their head that the occasional high-priced mistake is the cost of doing business at that elevated level, i.e. that for every high-priced mistake, there are a dozen high-earning successes. Which isn't all that crazy, really.

I have come to the conclusion that the upper levels of business are like relativistic speeds--at that level, the simple equations go kaflooie and everything gets weird and counterintuitive.