Great Resources For Publishing Your Works!

Are you the next great budding novelist among us? What story have you written that you can't wait to tell? Are you passionate about a hobby and want to share your knowledge with fellow enthusiasts? As a writer, you share one thing in common among each other: the pursuit of a means to get your written works out to the general public. When large publishing houses once dominated the book market, a literary agent was needed to promote your works. This needed to be established before an editor would consider your writings.

Due in part to the popularity of the Internet and affordable desktop publishing software, today~s marketplace is much more open and broad. Today's writer has many reliable resources for publishing their compositions and marketing their own material.

Are you a writer looking for a resource to self-publish your works through a small publishing company? The Small Publishers Association (SPAN), an independent non-profit trade association, is comprise of authors and small publishing houses that want to promote their books. SPAN's main goal is to keep the entrepreneurial spirit of independent publisher alive and vibrant. SPAN's mission, according to its website at http://www.spannet.org, has remained 'to help small publishers sell more books, increase profits, and create more successful businesses'. In Denver in October 2005, the association will host a conference to focus on marketing and public relation issues that are relevant to small publishing.

Another resource for finding small independent publishing houses is PMA. PMA is a trade association for independent publishers with over 3900 members. The association focuses on marketing and education for its members. To see a complete listing of publishing houses that are members of PMA, visit PMA's website at http://www.pma-online.org. You can search within this list for local independent publishers by state or by a particular topic.

According to conventional advice, you should never pay anyone to publish your book. Why pay for this yourself when a publisher should bare the risk of producing and promoting the book? When the publisher sets the parameters to follow ~ such a mandatory length or rewriting for portions of the book, the author then is at the mercy of the publisher.

However, an author who's willing to stick his neck out on the line and publish the book independently can total invest in his book and wording, even if the author also has to incur self-publishing expenses. This freedom allows the author to remain in total creative control.

After the publishing part of a book is completed, the book must then be marketed. Some small publishers also tender marketing and advertising venues for the author. These publishers, in a way, are also supplying a market for the published works. An astute first-time author should seek out a publishing house with these comprehensive marketing services.

Since the popularity of e-books is growing, this method of publishing may work and fill many authors' needs. A large number of companies have a website and are willing to publish your e-book. You can easily find these sites through a simple search on the Internet.

Copyright 2005 Celine Vorster. All rights reserved.

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