Publishing Houses

If you are wanting to be a best seller, your publisher will have a lot of say in whether that dream will be a reality or not. You should have read about agents already and I strongly encourage everyone that wants to top the best seller list to find an agent and refuse to publish with any company that does not go through an agent.

BUT... Say you don't want to wait the 2-3 years before seeing your book in print. Maybe you aren't interested in selling to anyone beyond your group of friends. Maybe you just want to print something for your grandchildren to have. Now we enter the part of the industry that I deem the most wrought with scams.

The first thing I suggest when looking into publishers is to realize that the big publishing houses are not going to be actively searching for submissions. They are only going to look at ideas from established agents with non-disclosure agreements in the ready. If you are determined to make it to the top of the literary industry, you don't need to continue reading this post.

OK, you don't feel the need to submit your book to the top publishers for whatever reason. Maybe you have been told by an agent that the idea is good but you have to prove sales and the drive to make your book succeed before they will pick you up. What you need to find is a smaller publishing house, a print on demand (POD) publisher, a self publishing company or a subsidy publisher to bring your words onto the printed and bound page.

Of all these options, look for a smaller publishing house first. There are many good ones but look into them in detail before signing on ANY dotted lines.