This guide contains:

Background on the publishing industry
Explanation of different publishing options
How to find the right publishing company for you

This independent guide was created to help you understand the basics of the publishing industry, and to help you choose the right publishing option for you. We do not provide any publishing services ourselves, so you can be confident that all of the information in this guide is independent and unbiased.

Background on the publishing industry
There are several very different ways of getting your work published, and here is an explanation of these publishing options:

The most traditional form of publishing is sometimes known as commercial publishing, and commercial publishing companies function by investing in the development and production and promotion of certain authors. Since they pay for the upfront costs and expect a return on their investment, traditional/commercial publishing companies are discriminating about the projects they take on. Because of their investment, raditional publishing companies exert considerable editorial influence over the work in an attempt to increase the sales potential of the work. Most traditional publishers reject thousands of manuscripts for every manuscript they eventually publish. Traditional publishing is the most difficult method of publishing to procure if you are a new or unknown author, as you generally need a literary agent to help 'sell' your book to the major publishing companies.

Subsidy publishing is another option for getting your work published. In contrast to commercial/traditional publishers, a subsidy publisher does not invest its own money in the publication and promotion of authors' works. A subsidy publisher works by charging an author a fee to edit, typeset, proofread, and print a specific number of books from the author's manuscript. Some subsidy publishing companies will also provide a limited promotional program with a defined budget. Some subsidy publishers also provide warehousing, and other administrative services for additional fees above and beyond the cost of the publishing.

One increasingly popular for getting your work published is known as 'publishing on demand'. This type of publishing is typically more economical than subsidy publishing and without the hardship and challenge of getting published by a traditional publisher. The publishing on demand process starts when the author submits a digital manuscript to the publishing company. The publisher then sets the text pages of the book (as well as the title and copyright pages), designs an original cover, then (upon approval by the author) submits a copyright application to the Library of Congress and puts the book up for sale. The work is then promoted online and available for purchase