Publishers

Let me remind you. There are two types of publishers you might consider; traditional publishers and maybe, hybrid publishers. There's also a third type of publisher, known as a vanity publisher, which you should avoid at all cost. Vanity publishers don't make money from books - they make their money from authors  who are foolish enough to pay them thousands.

There are thousands of small publishers, many of whom are owned by... 

The Big Five Publishers

There are five huge multinational publishing firms who you have no doubt heard of. If you manage to get published by them, then your chances of success are greatly increased. Each of these big 5 publishers has a number of subsidiaries known as imprints. I've listed the major ones here. I've also added a link to each publisher showing their submission policy:

As you will see, none of these big five accepts direct submissions but it's worth reading what Penguin Random House have to say on this.

Remember, traditional publishers make their money by selling books. They won't accept any book where they feel they can't make money selling it.

A Warning

Beware of a firm called 'Author Solutions' which has links to some of these publishers. They manage a number of vanity publishers. Remember - a REAL publisher won't ask you for any money.

If you are in any doubt, check out the publisher at the Writer Beware website and do a Google search for the publising firm name in quotations and the word 'scam' e.g. ["Author Solutions" scam] (without the square brackets.)

Next: Taking the self-publishing route.