What do you look for in a christian book publisher before getting your first book published?

Do you have any advice about looking for a good one?What do you look for in a christian book publisher before getting your first book published?
1. Be sure you're finished with all revisions to your book.

2. Get a copy of The Writer's Market, current edition.

3. Study and practically memorize the first section: first section only.

4. Do not copyright your book. Keep a copy of it (on floppy, hard-drive and/or as a print-out) at home, with your name and the date (I use month and year, sometimes just year) in every header on every page. Page numbers I put in the bottom right of the footer. This 'at home' copy IS your copyright. Don't use that copyright symbol in the header, either.

You don't copyright it because copyrights in one form or another are what you sell to publishers.

5. Learn to write a query and a book synopsis, as they are the first to go out.

6. A query (to agent; very helpful people-- or publisher) is sent only to those who accept unsolicited queries in your field.

7. Send out more than one query a week.

8. When you get a response (which may be rejections, we all get them) that is favorable and asks for synopsis and/or a few first chapters, make sure your (brief) synopsis and the chapters are the very best you can make them.

9. Again, read The Writer's Market. Read about copyright, about contracts, about everything to do with publication.

*It will also tell you how to find out if an agent or publisher is a reputable one.*

10. Best of luck.What do you look for in a christian book publisher before getting your first book published?
The Writer's Digest gives guidelines on all publishers of note. Be prepared to go the literary agent route, because that is the recommended method. The agents relieve the publishers of mountains of mail. The Digest gives instructions on how to send inquiries, too. Good luck.What do you look for in a christian book publisher before getting your first book published?
The key to finding any good publisher is checking their distribution. Are their books available at Amazon? Are they on the shelves at Barnes %26amp; Noble and Borders? Are they available electronically at www.fictionwise.com?



If the answer is no to the first two questions, forget them. The third one is beginning to be important, but isn't essential if the answer is yes to the first two.



If a publisher doesn't get their books on Amazon, that's a serious strike against dealing with them. People who doesn't have access to brick-and-mortar stores order from Amazon (I'm one of them). If the books don't get in the largest chain bookstores, you've lost the impulse buyers. That can really hurt your sales. Independent bookstores are nice, but if they are in the chain bookstores, you are getting the best distribution.



Online (ebooks) are gaining in popularity. A lot of young people are buying them and so are folks who travel a lot and those who simply have too many books now (I fall in that category). Ebooks are easy to store and easy to move and you never have to dust them. People who buy ebooks go to either http://www.fictionwise.com or Amazon. I prefer Fictionwise. Much easier to use.



For a quick way to sort these publishers, go to your local bookstore and start pulling books off the shelves and note who the publishers are. You know they've passed one test that way. Next check for a book on Amazon and Fictionwise. Lastly, read up on them in Writers Market and on the publishers own webpage.