Rejected a Publishing Contract Today

Sometimes doing the right thing hurts; but, in the long run, it hurts less than doing the wrong thing.

Sounds like you got some red flags. Good for you for listening to them.

That's tough, but good for you for being strong. You'd probably have regretted it more in the long run if you had signed and then been screwed over by them or found they weren't competent enough to do the best job with your book.

Hey, if book=baby think of finding a publisher as similar to finiding child care. You wouldn't hand your darling cherub over to anybody you're not comfortable with.

You did the right thing. If you're not completely comfortable with the publisher, you wouldn't want to hand over your hard work.

That nagging voice in the back of your head is ALWAYS right.

There's plenty of other publishers out there.

Do not start at the bottom.

In publishing, things are in reverse. Start at the top with the biggest dog on the block and work your way down. Go to a bookstore, look for books like yours and check inside the first page to see who published it.

Ditto for finding agents. Email writers of similar books. See who reps them. Most don't mind sharing.

Yeah, that sucks! But any suckiness now is going to last not nearly as long as the regret of signing with the wrong publisher.