MICHAEL G'FRANCISCO Chicago's-Mystery-Author

Publishers sell books to bookstores on a returnable basis, which means they (the bookstores) have 120 days to either pay the bill or return all or part of the order. Superstores purchase many books for a reason, to use most of them as "WALLPAPER". The greater the shelf area means these stores continued to buy a vast quanity of books and use them as props. If they don't sell they are returned. So, publishers are reluctant to publish an unknown fiction author for the fear of getting them back.

Publishing houses have a penchent for publishing known authors with a following (book fans), noted polititians and famous people. It stand to reason and is good business sense to put books on a shelf that are going to be sold.

Then, again, on the plus side, the superstores must carry a wide range of subjects to satisfy the buying public. Another field, nonfiction is experiencing a leg up because they are "niche topics" and provide readers something to read that is in tune with the newspaper topics or the political agends of the day.

Books get into stores from catalogs that are put out by publishing houses. In these catalogs a book's importance depends on how much page space a book has given. The amount of space tells how important, in commerical terms, the publisher considers the book. This can induce a book buyer into buying a supply. Also, the large publishing houses have a sales force calling on the major chains, such as; Barnes & Noble, Booksamillion, etc. while the smaller ones only have commissioned reps stopping by to see them.

But, there are small presses that have developed a following for certain types of genres. The trick is to find the press(s) that publishes your type of work. The best thing to do is compile a list of publishers (small independent presses) that are interested in your subject area. Then send or go on-line to see their catalog to make sure they carry a line of your genre.

Also, call or write the publishing houses that you have choosen to forward your work and asked them who edited the books similar to yours. If you use their services, it could get you to the right editor.

In this big publishing era, the world of publishing has gotten bigger, yet, it has gotten smaller. Mergers and acquisitions have caused this to happen.

There are 6 major publishing houses with many imprints, such as; SIMON & SCHUSTER with 21 imprints--HARPERCOLLINS with 47 imprints--RANDOM HOUSE, INC. with 125 imprints--PENGUIN GROUP (USA), INC. with 45 imprints--AOL TIME WARNER BOOK GROUP with 12 imprints--HOLTZBRINKCK PUBLISHERS (GERMANY) with 21 imprints. But, these imprint number can change at any time depending on the publishing industries game of musical chairs.

On the flip side of the publishing business, there are hundreds of small to medium-size publishers eager for intelligently written and marketable books. Listed in, our bible, WRITER'S MARKET there are over 40 traditional/royality publishers of poetry, 125 publishers of mysteries (all genres) and about the same number that publish historical; novels. Also, there are over 200 traditional/royality publishers of biographies and more than 175 who publish children's books.

To get published, it takes a good structure of words that are edited properly, knowledge of the publishing business, patience, perservence and a drop or two of good ol' fashioned luck.

There are different ways a writer/author can publish their work, such as; TRADITIONAL/ROYALITY, VANITY PRESSES, SELF-PUBLISHING, ELECTRONIC (E) PUBLISHING and MAGAZINES.

TRADITIONAL/ROYALITY: These publishers add value to an author's work. Essentially, an author sign away his/her rights to their work because publisher's take over the responsibilties of producing our work, such as; getting peer-reviews, proofing, copy-editing, typesetting, marketing and distribution. So, we (authors) provide "the material" and publishers provide "the value" to make it all happen. Publishers gain money and we (authors) gain fame and money.

Authors get advances and royalities based on book sales. Usually, the terms are worked out in a contract. Just make sure you either have an agent or a lawyer to help in the legality of a book deal.

VANITY PRESSES: They are also called subsidy publishers. These are production houses for hire. In other words you pay the full coat of printing, but you retain all rights to your work. They do very minimal marketing and promotion.

Oh, some of them in vague contract terms, say they will assist in promotion and selling copies of your work and pay royalities on their sales, but don't bet the farm on their help because it is almost none existing. They already have their money.

The only advantage, you the author get to keep 100 percent of the sales. Which means, you better sell a lot of books to get your invested money back.

There are disadvantages also, you have risked your money, your book probably won't get a review by a credited peer and in some cases the appearance of the book is usually of a lessor quality than one of a traditional/royality publisher.

SELF-PUBLISHING: This means that you have established a publishing company and get a ficitious business name, purchase your own block of ISBNs, and set up an office to operate the selling of your books. You get your work ready for publication, hire a printing company, and you are responsible for distribution and shipping. This all takes time and money.

Publishing with a FB POD (fee based print on demand) is not self-publishing. Most bookstores will not buy or stock POD books, because of their no-return policy.

Be careful when it comes to reading the "PUBLISH YOUR BOOK" ads. They all are looking to get your money and sometimes leave you hanging out to dry when it comes time to help you promote or sell your book.

Now, there are exception to the rule, such as; university or scholarly presses. Just remember, if you are asked for a fee it is a subsidy publisher.

ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING: E-publishing produces and stores stories and books electronically in files or a series of files. They are distributed in a variety of ways, such as; on-line, on disk, or on CD-ROM OR DVD. The files can be downloaded to an electronic reader or to a personal computer.

This form is still in its infancy and some are betting the future will become bright. Maybe so, but at present, very few people read books on their computers screens. It's a bit awkward and strains the eyes.

Something else to think about when selling to an electronic publisher, it omits the rights of a tradional/royality publisher to owning it. This could prove to be a hinderance in selling your book to them.

There are a lot of pros and cons in E-publishing, so research is the key word, yep, do your homework before deciding on this type of publishing.

MAGAZINES: By this term, one means "FREELANCE WRITER". It has a lot of benefits, that's if you can cut the mustard and have discipline, patience for research and the financial means to stick to it. First of all, one must be a very talented writer and able to write about a variety of topics.

The main goal of a freelance writer is to establish a long-term relationship with many differnet clients. One must possess versatillity which include different types and styles of writing.

To find clients for your work isn't as hard as one may think. One has to be abreast of what is big at the time and be able to sit down an punch out an artictle or story at the drop of a hat.

Magazines pay by-the-word-count. Newspaper are somewhat lower in their pay schedule, but are usually willing to give a good freelance writer work.

A hot market today is for business writers. There are many companies looking for experienced writers for writing sales campaigns and manuals, preparing proposals and writing text for web sites.

P.S. There is one publisher who will publish your book absolutely free with no strings attached. PUBLISHAMERICA is the largest independent publisher in the world. They will sell your books to you at several discount levels, depending on quantities.