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The Truth About Book Publishers

If you have recently finished writing a novel or perhaps a series of short stories, my congratulations to you. You have made it further than most of the people who start out to write and publish a book. You may hear a lot of people talking about doing it, but you will find that most of them never complete the first draft. If you have indeed come this far, my hats off to you, and I hope you continue on your journey. You may not get published, but if it is your dream to do so, you should give it everything that you have. Once you have finished your first draft, you know you have to run though a few more times for edits and rewrites, but you can also start keeping an eye out for book publishers.

There are a lot of book publishers out there, but they are not all created equal. You may know of the bigger names, but you should know they are not your only opportunity to get published. Today there are a lot of smaller book publishers out there that may be interested in seeing your book. You should do a lot of research to make sure you have picked the right publishers. If you send your book to the wrong person, you aren’t going to get published no matter how good your story may be.

You have to study a source like Writer’s Market to decide which book publishers are the best fit for what you have written. Some publishers only take certain genres and if you send your manuscript to the wrong one, it is going to be rejected. If you are really unsure about what to do or who to send your stuff to, you may want to look into getting a literary agent to work through this part for you.  Make sure you check up on them and find out if they have had success with authors who write the same stuff you do, and make sure the company is legitimate. Most are, but there are a few out there who are scams.

If you haven’t had any luck with the book publishers or the literary agents, you might want to take a second look at your manuscript. Put it aside for a bit and then try to read it with fresh eyes. You may want to rewrite some of it to make your story tighter or more interesting. There is always room for improvement. Also remember to take any compliments or criticisms you get from any book publishers for what they are. They aren’t generally trying to hurt your feelings if they say something negative. Many times these comments can help you get better.