[ekianjo]

> They also provide several services such as editing, marketing, designing, making ebooks, etc

And you know what? They are incredibly bad at most of this. I have a friend who's recently been accepted by a publisher, and he gets virtually no support from them for promotion of his books. Their sole job seems to be putting the books on the shelves in a few places.

At the same time, if you were a marketing guy, you wouldn't want to waste your time working in such companies anchored in centuries of immobility.

[vacri]

Some publishers are just plain bad, but to be frank, there are plenty of authors who are also just plain bad[1], and their work is often saved in editing. I've been exposed to the publishing world through my mother's bookshop and small publishing business - and some publishers are worth the weight in gold, others aren't worth crossing the street to spit on. The problem is that until you're established in the industry (or know someone who is), you don't really know how to tell between them; what services are not being offered or being done poorly.

[1]My housemate's mother used to be an editor for a publisher as well, and in her words "You know the saying that everyone has a book in them? It just isn't true..."

[clarky07]

I'll second what vacri said. of course there are bad publishers. just like there are bad software developers. that doesn't make them all bad.