publisher?

Question:

How do you find an editor/publisher?

I am putting together a book of short stories and another book of poetry, but I don't know how to get my work out there. Where should I be looking?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: An editor and a publisher are two different things. An editor is someone who works on your book before you send it to agents or publishers. Editors cost money. Anywhere from 4 - 5 dollars a page based on 250 words per page up to 20 thousand dollars plus royalty points for a top rate editor. Many people choose to pass on using an editor, but unless you really know what you are doing, it's a huge mistake. An editor can be the difference between rejection and approval.

Next, regarding a book of poetry. That is a very very tough sell. Very few publishers buy books of poetry these days. And so very few agents read poetry. Why? Because a publisher may be able to sell a couple hundred books of poetry but he can sell a couple hundred thousand or more James Patterson books with high body counts. That's what sells.

You need to pay a visit to a large bookstore. Look around. Notice what is selling. What's on the front tables? Where is the poetry section? What's there? What's in the short story anthology section? You need to advocate for yourself and think of your books as a product. Will it sell? Will it sell enough to make a publisher interested in investing a LOT of money on it?

You can always get a copy of Writers Market 2007 for 30 bucks and search out smaller publishers. There are some who buy short story collections and poetry. But your odds of getting an A List publisher interested are next to none.

Just make sure that before you send anything to anyone, you check them out with Preditors and Editors and Absolute Write Water Cooler Bewares and Background Checks. You should also be getting the Writers Weekly.com newsletter. There are lots of scams and frauds out there.

You can also go to Resolved Questions and print out a ton of answers to this same question by searching keywords publisher and publishing. There are a lot of good answers there. And some not so good ones too. Your job is to learn the publishing business and learn to advocate for yourself.
Good luck.
Pax - C