There are many reasons writers switch publishers. Money certainly is one of them: When a writer or his agent wants more than the publisher thinks is prudent to pay, or another publisher has flashed bigger bucks. When a writer doesn't feel that his publisher really believes in him. When a writer feels that a change of publisher might change his luck. When a writer is having a mid-career crisis and just needs to make changes in his life, which often involves changing spouses as well as publishers, Sometimes it works out well - the change revitalizes the career. Inevitably, when a writer jumps ship, particularly when a friendship has grown up, the abandoned editor feels aggrieved. It's hard to convince a colleague (or oneself) that it's not personal - that a writer's chief concern is, and should be, protecting himself and his books as he sees fit. If the editor and publisher don't provide that sense of security, they're not doing their job, which is first, last, and always a service job: What we're there for is to serve the writer and the book. That doesn't mean I haven't been stung when an author I valued moved on.
- Robert Gottlieb, Avid Reader, p.176
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