3 Ways of Publishing that Marvellous Manuscript of Yours

For a poet, there are very few things that can measure up to the feeling of holding a finished manuscript in your hand. You put that final full stop to it. You can't even discern whether you are exhausted, thrilled with joy, or a little bit of both. It is normal to feel overwhelmed because you just poured all of your sweat and tears into your book-baby, and it was only the beginning. Next comes the daunting process of actually publishing the thing.

When a poet or a writer tells you; 'I write for me,' it's okay for you to raise your eyebrows a bit. Because let's face it, being a wordsmith without an audience is totally fine if that's your thing, but most of us want to share our words with other people.

This is exactly the reason why so many publishing companies are overburdened with manuscripts. Reputable or not, large or small, they receive more reading material than they can ever read, let alone publish. So many manuscripts, especially debut novels and poetry, end their journeys before they ever start - in a drawer of some overworked editor's desk.

Despair not, though, my poetry dudes; there are several ways to get your work published, and it's not always by getting a million rejections by the before mentioned, overworked editors.

Self-printing and hustling your arse off

You can go to your local copy shop and print a bunch of copies of your manuscript. After this, you start hustling like all the other Millennial kids, and you probably end up giving away most of your books. You try your luck in small, independent bookshops, pitching your work to a caffeinated bookseller, and then losing your books because of this thing called 'in consignment.' You keep going back and forth to these bookshops to see if your books are still on the shelf to end up being ignored by email and phone calls when you finally worked up the courage to ask for your money. You huff, and you puff and wonder where all those readers are hiding.

If you decide to go the self-publishing road, we think you should make use of Barnes and Noble's services, or run with Evil Amazon. We can get our knickers in a twist about Amazon's horrendous reputation, and we should, but most of us don't have the luxury to print anywhere else and actually be read.

Traditional Publishing

Another thing to try is to stalk a reputable publisher. If you're not posting your menstrual blood on Instagram, or you don't run around with a silver mask on your stupid reality TV show face; chances are this route will only cause you heartache. If your daddy runs Random House, go ahead and write that pitch. If not, we believe that the traditional literary world is completely elitist, and it crushes more dreams than it makes come true. Big publishing houses rarely have that idealistic streak anymore, they basically look at what sells. We recommend finding your friendly neighbourhood indie press, looking at what they have published in the past and deciding if you would be proud to be published by them.

Self-publishing companies

If the above options don't look very appealing to you, and self-publishing seems exhausting to you, you can always scout for some well-respected self-publishing companies. Proper self-publishing companies charge you for proofreading, editing, designing your covers, and printing your book. Some of them even offer marketing services. Most of them offer packages, so there will be no hidden costs afterwards. These companies don't look at anything other than a finished product, though. They're not there to consult or to give feedback, they are not connected to people who might help spread the word about your book. They are simply there to get paid for delivering a finished product. You will still have to do the rest yourself, but at least you will have a properly edited book with a decent enough cover. A proper self-publishing company will call itself just that, whereas a vanity press calls itself a publisher and will take your money and disappear.

Tip: sometimes that little indie press you love offers self-publishing services, or their editors do. If you go down this road you cut out a lot of noise, and you don’t have to worry about the following:

A Word of Warning

There are many companies out there pretending to be publishers, charging you a ton of money for 'getting published with them.' Basically, any publisher that charges you for their services without calling itself a self-publishing company should be avoided.

Because we really have to walk the dog, we will leave you with Wikipedia's words so that you can protect yourself when looking for a publisher:

Where mainstream publishers aim to sell enough copies of a book to cover their costs, and typically reject a majority of the books submitted to them, a vanity press will usually publish any book for which an author is willing to pay their fees. Because vanity presses are typically unselective, publication by a vanity press is typically not seen as conferring the same recognition or prestige as a commercial publication. Vanity presses do offer more independence for the author than the mainstream publishing industry; however, their fees can be higher than the fees normally charged for similar printing services, and sometimes restrictive contracts are required.

While a commercial publisher's intended market is the general public, a vanity publisher's intended market is the author and a few interested members of the public.

That's it for today, kids. We will come back to bring you a cautionary tale about vanity presses soon.