subject: On the Road to Getting Published: The Role of Publishers [print this page] On the Road to Getting Published: The Role of Publishers
Publishers play a very important role in your life if you have a book or short stories that you want to get published. While you can take care of matters yourself, there's no question about the kind of results you'll get when you hire yourself a good publisher. Besides handling the publishing as their title literally means, they actually have their hands full with tasks like editing, art directing, copyediting, distributing, promoting and so on. And if this is all too much for you to take, you can always hire yourself a freelance publisher to lend a hand in getting published.
If you think that hiring a publisher is better than going at it on your own, you're ready to find a publisher. Publishers are everywhere actually and if you have created a great piece, they'll be out looking for you as opposed to you looking for them. But you have to make them know that you exist first. So go out and send your manuscript to various agents and publishers. One thing to bear in mind here is that, many of them work with very specific guidelines about submissions and you have to take note of all that to get on their good side.
When you've finally found a publisher you want to work with, go ahead and find out about that publisher. Your putting your success in their hands and you want to be sure that you have the best person working with you on this big life endeavor. Once you've checked their background and skill and you've got it in your head that nothing in the publishing world is absolute, you can start off on the path to getting published. Use your needs and wants as a guide but also educate yourself about the publishing industry.
On the question of how to deal with your publisher, it's the same with every person you meet with and work with. Deal with them with courtesy and politeness. When you are negotiating or working with publishers, you just have to keep your eyes open and prepare yourself for whatever may come.
