I Won’t Publish Some Authors… but not because of what they believe.

I got in a bit of hot water the last time this came up, but it’s worth mentioning and discussing again.

There are some people I am not going to publish… no matter how good their ideas or stories are.

It would be cheap and easy to say it’s because I disagree with them politically… but that’s not true. There’s plenty of people I have (and continue to) work with who hold different political or social ideas than myself.

The people I’m not going to work with are those whose actions and behaviors would damage my reputation… because they are (or have been) unprofessional assholes.

I have a respect policy, after all.

The list of people I will not work with is pretty damn short (fewer than five people) – and there’s at least one person who thinks they’re on it because of their beliefs, when really I have bigger problems with their lack of ethical treatment of writers and readers. (You know who you are, mate. Don’t make me name you.)

But again – and I can’t stress this enough – I don’t particularly care what an author’s political or social stance is.

But if they make assholes out of themselves in an unprofessional way that would damage my reputation by association with them… then I don’t want anything to do with them.

Not because of ideology.

Because that is bad business.