?With regard to getting published. There is no definite way to have your book accepted by a publisher regardless of how well written it is. However, I do recommend checking out Poets and Writers magazine's classified section at www.pw.org. This section always has publishers looking for new books,and they don't require the books to go through an agent.
Regardless of how difficult it is to getting a publisher to publish a book you can always resort to self-publication. Many well know authors have resorted to this technique. Further, current technology makes this choice a far less costly and emotionally difficult course to take.
It used to be that if you published your own book, you paid for having around 5,000 copies printed and tried to sell them. What usually happened is that you ended up giving them away as Christmas presents, funerals, etc., and having abut 4,900 copies left molding in the basement when you gave up writing.
Now, there is print on demand publishing, and anyone can have their book printed at essentially no financial or emotional cost. In this light, I recommend taking a look at www.cafepress.com.
Cafepress is a print on demand company where you can offer everything from buttons to t-shirts to books that you write.
Each person doing business with cafepress is given a "store". If you offer a single item, such as a book, there is no charge to run your store. If you offer numerous items, it's about $5 per month to maintain your store.
Cafepress creates the button, book, t-shirt, greeting cards, etc. when an order is placed, ships it, bills it, and sends you a check for your sales. They have a set base price for an item, and you charge above that for whatever profit you want to make. For a book, they have a base price of so many cents per page. Advertising your store is up to you.
My wife and I have a store at cafepress, and you're welcome to check it out at: www.cafepress.com. Our store is called earthmoonmars.
I've worked in children's book publishing for almost 20 years and know a number of successful authors who don't have agents. The situation is more difficult in the general adult market, however. So you need to do some research.
Reference books such as "Writer's Market" and "Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market" are a good place to start.
Independent publishers, as distinct from the large, corporate publishers, are more likely to look at submissions from unagented authors. Here's a good list of independent publishers: http://bookmarket.com/101pub.htmlAre there any publishing companies that accept books by authors without agents?
Okay... uh..
You said "I have wrote a book".
I don't think that you need to be publishing anything . . .
There are a number of avenues for you to take. I agree with the earlier post which states that “Writer’s Market” is a valuable tool. You may also want to look at the “Novelist and Short Story Writer’s Market,” it is the same thing but more heavily dedicated to fiction (and therefore has more fiction listings than “Writer’s Market). Most libraries carry a recent copy of either in the reference section. The “Market” books are helpful because they provide detailed descriptions of the publishers, and also have helpful icons that signal different information about the publishers (there is an icon which denotes how often the publisher takes new authors, another icon tells you if the publisher seeks un-agented fiction, etc.). It is a very comprehensive reference guide that is easy to use.
If “Writer’s Market” doesn’t pan out for you, then you can look into “The International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses,” published by “Dustbooks Publications.” This book is like “Writer’s Market,” with helpful information about publishers, but it is more focused on small independent presses. For a first book, these smaller presses are often more willing to look at your work. “Writer’s Market” is a good resource, but the “Directory” is good for getting your foot in the door.
Along the lines of getting that foot in the door, it is also helpful to note the general idea that authors often work their way up from the bottom. A good way to help get an agent, or to get a publisher interested in your book WITHOUT an agent, is to start building up credentials. The more publishing experience you have, the more likely book publishers will take you seriously. This method is the most time-consuming, but it is the most likely for success. Most writers will tell you that they started small, with a short story here, a poem there, and then eventually publishers were asking them bigger and better projects (i.e. full-length novels). If you haven’t written shorter fiction, you may even be able to chop out a chapter or two from your novel and see if you can mold it into a self-contained tale. Turning chapters into stories not only give you experience in the publishing game, but they also give editors and readers a taste of your novel (and then maybe they’ll come back wanting more). Aim for magazines and university literary journals, start building up a publication resume, and then go for the bigger fish.
If you are very confident in your writing skill (don’t let that post by “Shannon” get to you, because nobody checks grammar or spelling on internet posts for Pete’s sake), then you may want to consider contests. Contests are a good way to get around that resume requirement that many publishers are looking for. Good literature contests are often “blind,” that means that the contest will request that your name is on a cover letter, but you leave it off of the manuscript. This removal of the author’s name helps eliminate the biases that any judges of the contest might have. They will judge the work solely on its literary quality, so if you’ve written a good book, you may end up winning a contest. Many contests offer cash prizes or even publication for winning manuscripts. “Writer’s Market” offers a good list of contests, and doing some simple web searches can also bring up some results.
Lastly, there is what a different person posted: self-publishing. I wouldn’t recommend this method, but it is a good last resort if all other methods fail. On-demand publishing has made self-publishing more cost-effective than ever. Publishers like Cafepress.com and Authorhouse.com can give you good deals on printing, and even offer attractive marketing options. BUT, what you’ve got to remember is that the literary community does not respect these publishers as much. Readers know that on-demand publishers (or any form of self-publisher) print anything. All a person has to do is pay for the printing and then he or she has a book. There is no requirement that the book has to be of good literary quality, because you’re essentially buying printing services from a company, you’re not actually earning it from a publisher. This is not to say that self-publishers have not succeeded in the past, but rather that it is often harder for them to gain acceptance by scholarly peers. Many prominent literary awards are not given to self-publishers, so even if a book is very good, it may not be eligible for certain honors and recognitions if it is self-published. If your main concern is just getting your ideas out there for everybody to read, then self-publishing may be a good option, but if you want to get it out there for people to read AND for the literary community to embrace (by promoting, giving awards, reviewing, writing criticism, etc.) then self-publishing should be a last option (literature buffs may still embrace the book, but it will be less likely).
There are, of course, a plethora of other options. There are online publishers of e-books, there are foreign publishers that often are eager to add prestige to their operation by publishing overseas authors, there are other reference books (like “Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents”), there is the possibility of you teaming up with established authors to co-write something, there are writer’s groups and organizations that sometimes sponsor new authors…the list goes on and on, I can only offer the most pertinent advice at this time. Dig deep into the literary community and you’ll find options emerging left and right. You won’t become a New York Times bestselling author overnight (in fact, most authors never make it “big”), but you’ll be able to get people reading and thinking about your work. Good luck, and whatever you do, don’t give up writing regardless of how tough it seems to get people interested in your work.Are there any publishing companies that accept books by authors without agents?
There are very few of the mainstream publishers left who still take unagented submissions these days.
Last I checked, most submissions were still taken by those who were represented by agents. (80%)
However, small press and some medium-press publishers still accept unagented submissions.
Indies too.
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