Frustrated About Publishing Scams!!!

Have you looked at who publishes Mitch Albom, and similar successful titles to yours? And indeed who his agent is, etc? There are a lot of reputable publishers and agents out there - anyone who has a book in your local bookstore will generally have an actual publishing business instead of a scam.

Punster, if you want to self publish then you would be best off hiring your own editor, your own designer and so on: don't use any of the big publishing service providers as their services tend to be overpriced and not particularly good. Read some of the self publishing diary threads in our self publishing room, as you'll learn a lot from there.

If, however, you want to get a contract with a trade publisher, get paid an advance and royalties, and not have to do all the work of publishing your own work, you're best off finding yourself an agent and letting her guide you through the publishing minefield. I always recommend Carole Blake's book From Pitch To Publication, which will show you how trade publishing works. It's great.