Many people have come in to our library and asked, “How do you publish a book?” Well, once you’ve gone through the painstaking process of writing it, editing it, editing it again, revising it, and editing it some more, then you begin the next painstaking process:  finding a publisher.

            I am going to focus on three different kinds of publishing. First there is vanity publishing. Vanity publishing is great when you have something you want to hand out to fifty of your closest friends. For instance, before my great grandmother passed on, she chronicled her life and printed copies for each household. She had six children who went and had children, who went and had children, who are now just getting around to having children. Her concise biography is a coil-bound paper back. I’ve also seen that kind of printing become popular with hometown cookbooks, the kind where everyone in the community contributes a recipe or two. I had to contribute to one for a grade in middle school and it still sits on my mother’s kitchen hutch. You cannot find vanity published books here at the library or on Amazon. You have to buy them directly from the publisher and more often than not in large volumes. Lulu.com falls somewhere between self-publishing and vanity publishing but it is what I recommend for projects like cookbooks, family history books, and anything you want to share with your friends.

            Now self-publishing is not what it was seven years ago when I started trying to publish my first book! When I began, it was more like vanity publishing but more costly. I have not self-published so I only know what my friends have told me. With self-publishing, I find the bigger the company the better. I have heard nothing but good things about publishing with Create-a-space dot com! It is owned by Amazon and can offer you paperback books as well as eBooks. There is also Kindle Direct Publishing, which is publishing for free, but only Kindle eBooks. Self-publishing is great if your niche market is very small. For instance, you write for hairless cat owners who run hair salons! I can almost guarantee there’s one out there. Stop looking at me like I’m crazy! I can also almost guarantee there are very few publishers who know hairless cat owners who run hair salons and they will look at you like you are crazy. Maybe you own a hair salon and a hairless cat and have found others like you! Maybe you know people who run salons and a group of people who own hairless cats. Either way, when you’re self-published, it’s up to you to find you niche market and sell to them.

            I do not recommend using self-publishing to put your book out on the market faster. That being said, I had a friend who was ill and self-published her book in the space of a few months. The main problem I have with self-publishing is that the manuscripts released into the market are often unpolished. Even if your manuscript is polished gold, it’s going to be set up for sale next to a book that is decidedly not polished gold. (Think post-apocalyptic angel-vampires and the wrong there/their/they’re.) I know many avid readers who won’t pick up a book because it’s wearing the label “self-published.” When I started, again, seven years ago, I was told self-publishing is not how you begin a long career. I have seen that theory proven wrong more than once! (Go look up The Princess Saves Herself in This One.) I was told that a traditional publisher will not pick you up once they see that you have self-published in the past. I have also seen that theory disproven!

            All in all, I highly recommend traditional publishing with small publishing houses. That is what I did, thus it is the right way! (Note the hint of sarcasm.) I chose to traditionally publish my book because I have every intention of having a long and fruitful career. Is my book perfect? Not by a long shot! When you traditionally publish you have less control over your book, which is not necessarily a bad thing! I could be wrong, but it’s unlikely you’ve been studying cover-art market trends for years, have perfect spelling, grammar, and know people all across the country who have booths at book fairs, conventions, and comicons. When you traditionally publish you have a whole team of people to work with. As with any team you have to give and take. You may not wind up with the cover art you wanted, but you’re more likely to end up with the cover art you need.

One of the easiest ways to tell if you’re speaking to a legitimate traditional publisher is whether or not they ask for money up front. There are scams to the umpteenth out there meant to trick writers out of their hard-earned cash! A real publishing house will not ask you to “invest” $1,000, give or take, to publish your book. A real publishing house will take your manuscript, publish it, and then make you pay for the copies of your own book you buy. All in all, make sure to read your contract carefully before you sign it and send it in.

Another thing you should do to protect yourself and your work is copyright it as soon as you have the funds to do so. Every publisher is different. Some will ask for a summary of your work, some will ask for the whole thing, some will ask just for your query. Either way, the best thing to do is carefully read their submission guidelines and follow them to the best of your abilities.

The best place to find small publishers is to find a list of small publishers! The one I like the best is Poets & Writer's list of small presses. Within the past year, Submittable, a third party site you will be using to submit your work to publishers anyway, has made it possible for you to search through publishers that are looking for books like yours. I have yet to explore it in depth, but it is worth a shot.

            Someone asked me “what is the most lucrative form of publishing?” Find a different job. Never ever, ever go into writing thinking this is how you’re going to become a millionaire. You’re not. Vanity publishers are how you make Christmas presents, self-publishers often offer higher royalties (50%-100%) but that’s because they don’t expect you to earn back your $1,000 “investment,” and traditional publisher royalties swing anywhere from 10%-15%. That’s 10%-100% of $15.

            All in all, the most important thing is to do your research and figure out what’s right for you and your book. You’re reading this article, so you’ve started somewhere! Good job! Do your research on your publisher, polish your manuscript until you hate it, have someone adept with legal things review your contracts, and understand that publishing a book is a sort of journey. You must play both the roles of artist and businessman. If there is an easy way I have yet to find it! Stay patient yet determined.

            It makes me feel like a product of my generation but having an online presence as an author is paramount. Even if you’re running around doing book signings people want to be able to Google you before you get there. The biggest problem with indie books (an all-encompassing term for self-published books and books from small presses) is that they never reach the hands of people who would read them because those people don’t know they exist.

            Now there is an easy way to combat this. You don’t have to be super computer savvy or a tech guru. (Trust me, it’s taken me years of hard work to get this far.) Goodreads. I highly encourage you to go look into creating an author account on Goodreads dot com. When you sign up you will be able to set your own author page up with a photo of you, a small bio, a list of your published works, and more! If you get really brave you can post blog updates, short stories, and list your favorite books to share with your fan base. Really, a page like that gives the librarians who are making posters for your upcoming book signing enough information to make an informative flyer. *COUGH*

            If you’re a self-published author or a small press owner you definitely want to make sure the information on all of your books is on Goodreads. People like me like to brag about how smart we are and how much we read (I’m kidding). There is a feature on the site that allows Goodreads users to update their reading progress as they go. I often update my Twitter following with every page turn so the books I love can gain more visibility. At the very least, if you’re a published author you need to go make sure your book’s information is true and correct, which you can do as soon as you finish creating your author profile.

            No matter what you do in this day and age, being visible on the World Wide Web as an entertainer is important. Goodreads is a great way to get your feet wet if you’re iffy on the whole computer thing. I swear, I don’t work for Goodreads! It’s just helped my career, and helped me help other authors. That is why I recommend it so highly.

           There is often confusion about the role of a book publisher. Some people think that a publisher should just take your manuscript, format it as a book, and put it up on Amazon. Then in a few weeks, the author sees the money roll in. The process is quite different, and there is much more involved.

            In brief, the publisher solicits manuscripts, decides if there is sufficient interest to contract an editor for the manuscript, and prepares a contract for the author. This is just the beginning of what can be a very lengthy process.

            Traditional, big firm publishers often rely on agents to find manuscripts. Today, one can contact small independent publishers directly. Thus, the publisher is the first person to look at submissions. I read at least the first 50 pages. If the plot, characters, or grammar errors are substantial, then the manuscript needs developmental editing. I send it back but remain open to looking through it again. If the resubmission is clean and a good fit for our company, then I assign the manuscript to an editor. Once I have an editor for the book, I send the author a contract. I negotiate and answer questions about the contract. The publisher issues all contracts.

           It is important that the author and editor have a good working relationship, and if there is a problem, then I find one you can work with. The author/editor relationship is crucial. It may take several months to get the manuscript in shape.

             When the author and editor have completed their work, then I look at the manuscript again. I am the last person to look at the manuscript before it is published. I am the ultimate quality control. This averages 90 hours per book. Multiply that by the number of novels published in one year and you can see where the majority of work lies.

            The most common problems that arise are authors who think they have submitted a completed final manuscript which they believe needs little editing. Afterall, they have likely worked on the manuscript for months—sometimes years. However, the authors who are most successful are those who are willing to compromise and accept that others are offering input which they believe will increase the likelihood of success for the book.

            Publishers aren’t running a charity for authors. There is no reason for a publisher to invest in a book if the author thinks that it can’t be improved. If you think your manuscript is already perfect, then you can easily and fairly quickly upload your manuscript to Amazon through Kindle Direct Publishing. The reason to sign with a publisher is because you are seeking their expertise for editing, grammar, cover design, and layout.

            The other issue that arises is marketing of the book. Some people think that signing with a publisher means that someone else will do the marketing and the author can sit back and wait for the money to roll in. This is far from what actually happens. Traditional publishers—the big firms—require their authors to go on extensive book tours. This usually involves lots of travel and lots of time over weeks or months. Any money that the traditional publishers spend on this marketing is subtracted from the expected royalties.

            Small publishers typically do not have large marketing budgets but like the traditional publishers must rely on the authors to do most of the marketing. The publisher may share some of those costs—entering book contests, for example, but it is up to the author to blog, create a website, and in general have a social media presence.

            Everyone wants to write a book, and today, with the Internet and companies such as Amazon and Lulu, anyone can be an author. In fact, an entire cottage industry has popped up, eager for their share of the pie. Many aspiring authors are intimidated, confused, or even discouraged from pursuing their dreams because the publishing process is complicated and varies from one company to another. It doesn’t have to be that way. Dreams don’t have to be realistic, but the manner by which you attain those dreams must be grounded in reality.

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            And now for the touchy subject of rejection. It’s going to come before fame and fortune. It’s going to come with fame and fortune. There will be people who absolutely, do not, no matter what you do, will not like your work. That’s okay. Keep going.

            If you choose to traditionally publish you will have to work through an entire tracking sheet of queries. (I recommend The Writers Market for a nice tracker graph.) If you choose to traditionally publish you will get rejected a lot. You will get rejected so many times you will make “JK Rowling got rejected seven times before she found a publisher for Harry Potter!” look like a joke. It’s good and it’s normal. I’ve heard of groups of published authors coming together, sipping coffee, and comparing rejection numbers like badges of honor. “18? Go home, kid. Try 35!” War and Chess got 25 in the five years I worked on it, and Tales from the Gishlan Wood is at about 15 right now. According to the anonymous void that is the internet, the internet says you should query about 80-100 publishing houses and agents before you give up.

            If you choose to self-publish, and thus sign yourself up to do your own marketing, there will be rejection too. Only, after the book is published! Book stores will tell you they don’t want to carry your book, libraries might choose not to carry your book if you’re not a local author, some of your friends won’t like your book, not everyone you know will read it, and not everyone who reads it will like it. (Traditionally published authors face these trials too.)

            What I’m getting at is that you need to develop a thick skin. You can’t just curl up in a ball and cry every time someone tells you they don’t like it. I mean, it makes Christmas awkward but Aunt Franny always spoke her mind anyway. What did you expect? Jokes aside, are you really going to have a horrid day every time an email rolls in that reads “Thank you for your submission but this isn’t what we’re looking for.”? I’ve heard of people scream crying and moping over each one. Even as a 14 year old girl I was like “Ya’ll need to calm down.”

            The only thing worse than a crybaby is the writer who explodes with anger. Sometimes, if I actually finish a book I though was “Meh” I go check the author’s Twitter page to see if they’ll come after me if I say their book was “Meh” on Goodreads. I once saw an author whose work I love but every time she got into an argument with someone she’d screenshot their Facebook profile, post their full name, the name of their hometown, and the slight, then tweet it so that maybe her loyal followers would harass the unlucky soul. “John Doe of Yoder Wyoming, you have stolen my tarts!” I unfollowed her. Another author made headlines a few years ago when he tracked down someone who gave him a poor review and smashed a wine bottle against her head. She was a teenager working in a grocery store. All’s I’m saying is don’t be that guy.

            It’s easier said than done but you need to develop a skin so thick that someone can just stand there and tell you all the things they didn’t like about your book while you sit there and don’t even blink. That’s the goal, anyway. You need to realize that rejection will happen. You’ll get your ego hurt. But how you respond to rejection is what defines you.

            It’s worth it though. It’s all worth it when someone comes up to you on one of your not so bright and shiny days and says “Omigosh, I read your book in one night! I couldn’t put it down!” and then goes on, and on, and on, for half an hour about how much they loved your book. Or even the “Your poetry is so raw and beautiful.” Comment on Wattpad. It becomes worth it when you hold a copy of your book for the first time, or your very first book signing when you introduce your book to the world, or when your close friends start giving each other copies of your book for Christmas and then they send you pictures of how happy receiving a copy made them, or a stranger within your target audience comes up to you and says “I really enjoyed this.” It becomes worth it. You just need to know there’s two sides to every coin, and prepare yourself for both. There’s nothing wrong with drawing the shades and hiding from the world once in a while, though.

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Do you have a burning question for Helen? Feel free to email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.