There was a time when the story of a woman biting a dog would have been news. That time is past. The big news now is when a successful author -- in this case Polly Courtney -- fires her publisher, Harper Collins, at the book launch for the third book in her contract claiming Avon, the HarperCollins imprint, is selling her books in a "fluffy package." This isn't the first time Ms. Courtney has bitten the dog. She quit banking in the City due to complaints of sexism, having been the only woman on a 21-man team and enduring the usual remarks and treatment doled out by men being led by a woman. This time the story is still about sexism in the publishing world. 

Branding Ms. Courtney's books as chick lit isone of the problems, but the real problem lies in misleading covers and marketing campaigns that rely heavily on selling with a sex and the single girl mentality. Harper Collins imprint Avon seems to be stuck in a rut and listening to the wrong people, marketing instead of the author. At least they didn't change the inside of the books, just the packaging, and that is nothing new in the UK or here in the USA. Publishers just don't get it, which is why Ms. Courtney has decided to go back to self publishing and controlling her own product.

If publishers are not careful they will find the source of their revenue and their future business decamping and moving to self publishing to maintain control. At least the author knows what the book is about and has a better sense than a one note marketing department trying to sell books like refrigerators or tires. Sex it up to make it sell. Uh, no.

On Ms. Courtney's website, she lays out the scenario clearly, stating, "[Readers] don't want to be patronised, and told all they want is girl meets guy. I genuinely think readers want something more meaty, something to get their teeth into. And if I'm writing that, which I am, then I want them to know that, and for there to be no pink, fluffy packaging."

The publisher just does not get it, responding, "Avon is right behind Polly Courtney's timely and important book. Our experience tells us it has a great look and feel and we think Polly will be delighted when she sees it flying off the shelves." 

That's the problem with publishers. They have been doing business for so long their way, listening to the marketing department and salesmen the message isn't getting through. This reminds me of The Seven Year Itch where a publishing executive for a paperback book company soups up the titles of all their books. In one incident, a book authored by a psychiatrist on mental illness gets a new title ("Of Sex and Violence") and Gustaf Meyerheim, a small man with a red beard who chased middle-aged women becomes a tall dark man menacing a beautiful, scantily clad young woman. Publishers, like Sherman, are under the impression that readers are impulse driven consumers that will buy a book based on the cover and forgive the publisher for selling a mule in horse harness, or often literature as though it is pulp fiction.With a marketing plan like that, how can a reader trust the publisher -- or the author since it is assumed the writer agreed to the cover art?

The day is coming hard on theheels of a psychic let-down the size of a Hindenburg-shaped Twinkie. Print sales are falling. Could it be readers are already catching on? I doubt falling sales are due solely to the tough economy or the outrageous price for hard cover and paperback books, or to the low price of indie published books.

If a woman did bite a dog, you can be sure it was because the dog bit her first and was likely the last in a long string of dogs that had bitten her. People will take only so much before they bite back. Polly Courtney has bitten the hand that failed to offer her what she ordered and will doubtless not be the last. Indie published authors coming to the notice of the big publishers may seem like a shoe-in to sign on the dotted line, but publishers are going to be fooled. Indie authors are savvy people and will get out the magnifying glass to read the small print. What's more, indie authors will not hesitate to fire publishers unwilling or unable to hear what the author is saying. authors are not willing to accept what publishers are used to offering and, if publishers want to continue publishing books, they had better pay attention. Polly Courtney is not an isolated incident. The handwriting is on the wall. Get out your glasses and start reading.