The Passive Voice showcased this great article by traditionally published “old-timer” Dean Wesley Smith on the many ways traditional publishing is claimed to be superior but actually isn’t. The biggest myth of all? The selling a book to a publisher means you’ll end up a published author. Just because you sell a book to a publisher and get paid your advance for it doesn’t mean that book will ever see print. The publisher might just say, “You know what? Never mind.” How many times has that happened to DWS? S-E-V-E-N-T-E-E-N.
Holy moly.
The Active Voice 
YES!
I saw a link to this post on another blog and had a mooch. It was eye-opening wasn’t it? There are other reasons in addition to his to pursue self-publication such as cover control which even best-selling writers do not get, but the idea of having your novel sat on a shelf gathering dust is too painful for me to even contemplate.
Eye-opening is right! I knew that happened to film-makers — completed films bought by big companies, then never released — but I honestly didn’t know it happened to novelists.
17?!?!? Holy crap! That just blows my mind. Do the rights revert back to the author at that point?
I don’t know, Adriana … I sure hope so!