There's a book in you

The goal of many writers and poets over the centuries is to have their work published; however, that lofty ideal was realized only for a select few until a few decades ago.  Prior to the 1990s, most all writers needed  literary agents to negotiate book deals with prospective publishers. Often they would also help to negotiate contracts for a fee.  The mainstream, twentieth century publishers that are still solvent require authors to have literary agents and will usually not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Many authors today are quite successful at self-publishing in all genres. There are myriad avenues for authors to publish their books outside of mainstream production, and can be done quite simply on the Internet.

Mainstream publishers and manuscript submission criteria

There has been a drastic reduction in the number of mainstream, twentieth century publishers. Presently, there are about six major publishers that are both national and international. These publishers are Random House, Hachette Book Group, MacMillan Publishers, Penguin Group, HarperCollins and Simon and Schuster.

Random House requires an "established literary agent" or "mediator " before they will consider an author's work. Hatchette does not offer a direct link for an author's submission, but it does offer information about steps to take to enter a monthly sweepstakes conducted by one of its secondary publishers. Macmillan does not list submission standards, although it has five main subsidiary publishers that are listed on its home page that may provide further information. The Penguin Group does not show submission standards. It has about 40 ancillary publishers that seem to be stand alone with respect to submissions. HarperCollins accepts only unsolicited manuscripts for its Avon Romance Division. Simon and Schuster offers no submission guidelines; therefore, it's safe to assume all manuscripts must be submitted by an established literary agent.

Mainstream Self-publishing - fee based

Over the last two decades, there have been numerous start-up self-publishing companies. Simon and Schuster is the only mainstream, big six publishers to provide a self-publishing option in its Archway publishing company. Archway offers several packages by genre. The costs to the author depend on the services provided and can range from a low $2,000 up to $15,000.

Amazon's self-publishing company - no  fee

Amazon.com has its own publishing company, Createspace, which provides a panoply of self-publishing services. There are free services if you are a "do it yourself type"; however, they also have complete packages of their services that range from about $700 to $4,600. The lower costs are its standard package and the higher are the top of the line.

Top Self-publishing companies - fee based

Top Consumer Reviews provide a list of self-publishing  sites that is validated by the Better Business Bureau. The self-publishing companies listed on this site show the ratings, costs and services. Publishers, such as Author house and Tate offer a plethora of low-cost services.  Author house works with an author by assigning to each "a personal publishing consultant, who provides guidance throughout the self publishing process."   Since 1997, Author house has published over 40,000 books and has many success stories for those wanting to know more about their services.  Tate, on the other hand, is more mainstream. It is a "Christian-based, family-owned,  mainline, publishing organization with a mission to discover and market unknown authors."

Print on demand

Print on demand is similar to self-publishing, but "unlike self-publishing, you don’t have to commit to ordering a press run of a few thousand books at the cost of several thousand dollars and then undertake the ongoing hassle of order fulfillment yourself." Infinity publishing charges a flat fee of $599 for all their services. The Bookpatch is self-publishing made easy. An author is able to publish a 77 page, 6" x 9" book for only $2.77 a piece. Book patch has many online writing tools that are free. McNally publishing offers both low cost publishing as well as print on demand services.

This list of publishers, self-publishing and print-on-demand services is by no means conclusive, but it does represent some of the most highly favored, professional companies.  The standards for most of the companies are quite high, so if you plan to publish, ensure you have done a good editing job or plan to hire an editor to review your work before you contact one of the publishers. Many of the publishers that offer self-publishing offer a plethora of additional services; therefore, as a writer or poet, peruse as many of the sites as possible to ensure you are getting only those services you need to get your work published. The goal of most poets and writers, if they choose self-publishing,  is to reduce costs.