Publishers' Part

Dealing with publishers, I felt that sometimes I was dealing with a front office, where only the muffled noise of the real machinery reached me. One publisher tellingly wrote to me, "The public funding we receive states that ..." Once I was aware of such dynamics, I began to see them everywhere -- and all the more where publishers seemed vulnerable. OBSERVATION: It may be going too far to suggest that some publishers are puppets, yet it is clear that some have surrendered powers to persons or organisations beyond themselves.