Publishing Companies

Are you talking about self-publishing a few copies or were you looking bigger scale? I haven't used this site personally, but I've heard that Lulu.com can be a good deal if you're just doing a few copies. I know there are other companies that do similar self-publishing deals, but this is the only one I can remember the name for.

NONE THAT YOU PAY FOR.

They should be paying YOU.

NOT NOT NOT the other way around.

This is what you do:

EITHER go buy a bunch of writers magazines and look up 10 different ways to ship your work off, or just go the book store, look up the publishers on the backs of books, go to their websites, and look up their submission guidelines.

Not a lot of them go for unsolicited manuscripts, but some do. ((For sciFi DAW is my hands down, lifetime, favorite. Loving the slushpile is a rarity amongst publishers. They're not who you need, but in every genre, you find masochists who accept unsolicted manuscripts.)) You can also look for magazines, anthologies, etc.

My. God. PAY to publish???? Shudder.

Start collecting rejection slips, lady. My first is framed AS IS the first one the editor bothered to write anything on the generic form. :) :) :) THAT is one of my favorite victories to date.

Now... if you just want one or two copies for yourself... there's lots of self publishing software, and quite a few binding companies (as well as copy shops) that do that.

Look around for a literary agent. Never pay to publish your own work.

You can start submitting to magazines that publish your type of work and see what happens. Sometimes if you can say I am published in xyz magazine, even if it's local and you only earned $10 it's still professional credit. Once you have professional credit it is easier to get published and to find an agent.

You can protect your work in one of two ways:
1) take it to a notary public and sign and date the work on each page --then the notary signs the last page and dates it. If you ever see your work published and you are not given credit or paid for that work this proves a date. If I didn't write it how can I have a signed notarized copy a year before it was published.
2) mail a copy of your work back to yourself, do not open the envelope --the post mark proves the date.

There is a difference between self-publishing (where you pay everything yourself) and shared expenses where you are accepted by a publisher but pay part of the expenses. In the latter case, they will help you with promotion. My husband did this and his book is available on Amazon and numerous magazine articles have been written in the local and specialized press. I don't know if his publisher does poetry but if you want their name, let me know. They are reputable and have been helpful.

You can, as others have suggested, submit your work to publishers and/or literary agents. You must be prepared for a great deal of rejection, first of all. Secondly, you must understand that book sales are down, magazines are very thin (decreased readership + decreased advertising = fewer pages), so they reject the majority of what is submitted. Many magazines refuse to even read unsolicited submissions. Also, literary agents charge a fee and there is no guarantee of publishing - it's very difficult to evaluate their qualifications and their influence. There are some wonderful ones, to be sure, but they have a limited number of hours and works they can represent.

You might look at the Independent Publishers - that is an organization of many publishers, including regular independents and university presses. Univ presses often lean toward their own alumni or professors - if you have a connection that way, you might use it.

Also look into poetry readings in your area - many have open mic nights and they tend to attract newcomers as well as people with experience. You might network through them. You could also call children's libraries and offer to read during story hour - you might attract some attention.

Try to evaluate what you really want - do you want to see your works in print just for the satisfaction of having something to hold in your hand or to give to friends, or do you want to attract a broader readership and earn a living? These are different philosophies and require different approaches.

Publishers that charge a fee to print an author's work are called the Vanity Press. Most people who use those just end up out of pocket, because the publisher does no work to promote your book, other than to maybe put it on a catalog list. So most of those books will end up in storage somewhere. So, unless you have a sales plan, or a thousand friends and relatives, you kiss the money goodbye.

You can use one of the creative new options to publish your book online yourself. If you do your own typesetting, page layout and cover design, and scan your artwork, you can upload your books onto Amazon's Kindle store, where it will be seen by at least some potential buyers. If you don't feel able to do those technical steps yourself, you might be able to hire someone in need of work, or perhaps a student, to do that work for you at a lower cost than a vanity publisher would charge.

Another option would be to start your own website, show some examples of your work, and sell your books directly to the public. That would probably require more know-how.

A friend of mine wrote her own, increasingly popular blog for a couple of years. It was such a hit, she'll be condensing her essays into a book to sell online.

Good luck!

I have a friend who has started her own business as an agent/editor. I will give your information to her and see if she is affordable for you. She works hard for her authors to get them published if they are good.

If you find a traditional publishing company, it shouldn't cost you anything to get printed. However, it does mean that your book does need to be accepted by the company. If you choose to go the self publishing route, I would suggest create space. They are an Amazon affiliate and it is relatively easy to use.

Thank you for asking this question.
My daughter is looking at publishing her work as a senior project.
Look into the colleges. I know George Mason University has their own press. I'm sure the bigger colleges do too.
And thank you moms. I am defintely saving this for her when she gets home.