I've been reading a lot about publishing and self-publishing, and the core themes around going the traditional route keep repeating themselves.

The negatives of traditional publishing:

1) Unless you're a known commodity/celebrity, you're basically writing for your advance, and that it.

2) There's not going to be a lot of marketing support for your book from anyone other than you.

3) You don't have as much control over the product as you think you do.

There are a lot of positives, too -- there's the ego aspect, as you have to get past a gatekeeper; if you're a writer, you don't have to worry about all the stuff that happens to go from manuscript to book; they handle distribution; etc. But this guy didn't really gain or care about those factors. And some factors which would be a positive for many writers (i.e. the design of the book itself) are a HUGE negative for him.

I'm really not surprised that his experience was negative.