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Sorry if this has been answered before.

I'm writing a lot of pop music at the moment with the idea that I'll be able to get a publishing deal and access to signed artists. As far as I can see signing a traditional deal will close the door to working with library music houses since the publishing share will already be owned?

How do the big publishers like EMI, Universal, Warner Chappell etc deal with library music? Would a writer have more or less opportunities signing to one of these publishers than working with loads of different companies? Is there any way you can do both?

It seems like most composers don't bother with standard publishing deals for one reason or another

How do the big publishers like EMI, Universal, Warner Chappell etc deal with library music

The publishers you've mentioned all have a library division. At some point they've bought up a number of small libraries that have grown under their supervision. They work exactly the same way as smaller libraries just on a much much bigger scale.
If you have signed an exclusive publishing deal with one of the above, that doesn't mean they'll ask you to write library music. While they may sometimes be in the same building they (in my experience) function independently when it comes to a&r.
It may be possible in certain cases to put some kind of clause in your exclusive contract that enables you to write for other libraries. I think you'd have to be a fairly successful writer to make that happen though.

grammar wrote:It seems like most composers don't bother with standard publishing deals for one reason or another

It's not that people "don't bother" with publishing deals with Uni or Warner Chappel etc., it's that those deals, especially staff deals, are INCREDIBLY difficult to get, especially nowadays. If you look at who the big publishers sign these days, it's mostly people who already have a hit or often a number of them under their belt.

So a lot of people focus on something that seems a bit more easily achievable.