By: Robert Nahas
"How to publish a book" is a common quandary imposed upon thousands of aspiring authors on a daily basis. Not knowing how to publish a book stops many from pursuing their book dream. Not knowing that you have many publishing options available to you today can make the difference between great success or miserable failure with your book. Whether you have a completed manuscript or just a great book idea, this article will start you heading in the right direction to choosing the BEST route for publishing your book.
Less than ten years ago book authors had but a single route for getting their books published. A handful of giant publishing houses, and a few mid-size ones, existed that would buy certain book rights of authors in order to possess the right to reproduce and profit from the authors' works. This was known as "traditional publishing."
If they were lucky enough to even get an offer, quite often the offers were less than desirable due to the high level of risk publishers took on new, unknown authors with unproven track records. Most of the time, if only due to the sheer number of manuscripts submitted in relation to finite number of books that the publishers could produce in a year's time, enthusiastic authors with good books were turned down cold.
The only other option was the infamous vanity presses that disguised themselves as bona fide publishers, unjustly requesting payment from unwary authors while, at the same time, took royalties, and ultimately destroyed the dreams of the majority (about 98%) of authors they dealt with. They are awarded a 2% success rate only because they sometimes stumbled upon a book that was so good, it made their way up the best-seller charts on their own or their authors solely worked their butts off to create the success - with no help from their so called "publisher."
Traditional publishing (involving true publishers) still exists today. They are less in number as far as the larger and mid-size ones are concerned - the ones worth pursuing. The large companies have become larger by buying up many of the mid-size companies. On the dark side, vanity presses still exist under new guises, with the same distasteful business practices.
Today's literary climate paints a much different playing field for authors than that of only ten years ago; one that DOES offer realistic and quite palatable options. Often, going the traditional route is not to one's best interest. Still, just as often it is. But one thing can be asserted as being certain: THERE IS AN IDEAL PUBLISHING CHOICE FOR EACH AND EVERY BOOK AUTHOR based on their goals with their books.
The point of this article is not to list all publishing options - this would require a book or at least a chapter of one. The point is to make it known that THERE ARE PUBLISHING OPTIONS. Things have changed immensely in the publishing arena from the way they were only a decade ago to the point that failure is actually no longer an option as far as getting a book published is concerned. The answer to how to publish a book CAN be answered intelligently, and with confidence that the best publishing decision has been made. And you can learn to avoid "options" that are out there that shouldn't be. You can avoid the many pitfalls of publishing a book.
There is quite a bit of information on the Internet - some excellent, some existing only to sell only ONE publishing option. Once I write a book for someone, I want my clients to successfully get their books published in high quality, and I don't want them, or anyone for that matter, to get burned or taken advantage of. This is why I put together a very informative e-book on how to get a book published. If you're interested, you can find out more about it at the urls below. Otherwise, now that you know you have options, do your due diligence and find out what they are. Don't get caught into a web that you can't get yourself out of later. Now you can know how to get your book published with confidence that you've chosen the best option for you.
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