So you’re looking for a publisher. Are you looking for strictly ebook? strictly print? Both? Those are just three of the many things you will need to decide when you undertake the enormous task of picking the right publisher.

Piers Anthony lists many publishers and comments on them based on emails he receives. (So if you have positive things to say, you should email him instead of having him receive only negative comments.)

http://www.hipiers.com/publishing.html

Preditors and Editors lists publishers and comments on them. http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/peba.htm

A list of book editors that acquire manuscripts from first time authors: http://www.bookmarket.com/newnovels.htm

When looking for a publisher, I make sure the ones that interest me are accepting manuscripts of my genre and heat level. Then I check them on the Pred and Ed list and Piers’ list. After that, I will join the publishers chat loop and ‘listen’ in on how active the authors are, and if they seem happy. I will also visit a publisher’s website and check for several things.

1-How professional is the design?

2-How many authors have books available?

3-How many books do those authors have available?

4-If I can find out the owners name, I will look to see if the owners and senior editors and cover art staff all have books released and how many of the total authors in their stable are also on staff. To some people that does or doesn’t matter. I check to see how many non staff authors there are because I want to make sure they are pushing other people’s books, not just their own.

Then if I am still interested, I will purchase at least two books to see the quality of editing. Let’s be realistic, after staring at our story for weeks or months, we don’t see some things that good editors will catch. If the editing in the stories is acceptable, then I think about how well written the stories were and if I enjoyed them. If the editing sucks, I cross that publisher off my list and move on. If the editing was good, and the story likable, then I keep them on my list.

5-Search bars and author lists. How easy is it to find listings of authors and books? The harder it is, the less a reader will want to visit that site and waste time searching for a book they saw promoed that looked really enticing, but now is impossible to navigate the site to find.

6-Shopping cart. How easy is it to purchase the book, and how many formats is it available in? Does the publisher lists books on 3rd party sites, and which ones? (ie: ARe and Fictionwise – Authors do not make much on books sold through those sites, however the exposure is great.)

7-How many years have they been in business? (the longer, the better )

After all that, and having visited the chat loops, and privately emailed any author I feel comfortable asking about their happiness with their publisher, I will then sit down and check the pros and cons and decide which publisher would be best suited to me.

Hopefully what works for me will work for you, and you can happily find a good publisher.

Michelle