How to Find the Best Self-Publishing Firms

In Today's Competitive Literary Market, More Authors Are Self-publishing Than Ever Before

After almost two-years of my agent and I trying to find a traditional publisher for my non-fiction book for teens, I decided to take the plunge into self-publishing. I came to this decision after articles I read on AC, as well as from magazines such as Writers Digest. I eventually chose iUniverse as my self-publishing firm after thoroughly researching this market. If you are considering self-publishing, you need to take the following steps before you decide on a self-publishing firm. This is how I came to my decision.

1) I familiarized myself with the names of top self-publishing firms, such as Authorhouse, Xlibris, iUniverse, etc., and checked their status and ratings by the Better Business Bureau. I learned to do this after hearing about people's experience with PublishAmerica, a publishing house that is not a self-publishing firm, but pitches that they will publish your book like a traditional publisher. Checking with the Better Business Bureau uncovered many problems with this firm, and prompted me to check every other firm I was considering.

2) Searching through Google and Netscape, I plugged in "Ratings of self-publishing firms" and came up with various types of reviews including those who had direct experience with self-publishing firms, as well as independent reviewers of those firms. Some reviewers did not speak highly of self-publishing firms in general, but many more recognized self-publishing to be right the answer for many authors.