If you are reading this, you are most likely a first time author seeking to get your work published. Right now, you are where millions of hopeful writers have been before you, and millions will find themselves after you. You have just finished writing and slaving countless hours over your first novel that you have poured your heart and soul into for several years. You are excited, happy, confident, and ready embarking on a journey that leads down the rough road of getting your work published. As with all writers, you know deep down inside that you have produced a masterpiece that readers around the world will enjoy. However, the harsh reality of literary publishing kills an individual’s drive, buries dreams, and lays to rest the passion of 98% of aspiring authors, many of whom, have wonderful stories to tell that the world will never have the pleasure of experiencing.

Before going any further on this path, you must first have an understanding of the book industry. It operates on trends such as the vampire romances that have been the mainstay for several years. Other than that, celebrity gutter trash is at the top of the heap, and if your book does not fit into these categories, you are going to have difficult time ever becoming a published author with a well-know firm. That statement sounds unrealistic looking in from the outside, but comes directly from a top literary agent.

It is the dream of all authors to have his or her masterpiece published by a well-known publishing house, but the truth is, the odds of that dream coming to fruition are slim to none. Give me a moment and allow me to explain why.

The traditional route to becoming a published author starts with the difficult task of obtaining a literary agent. A large publishing house will not accept unsolicited manuscripts. They do not want to be bothered with the troublesome of having to sift through the thousands of manuscripts submitted monthly. Instead, the large publishing houses have handed the job of finding marketable manuscripts over to literary agents. In order to get through the door of well-known publishing houses you must have an agent behind you, and acquiring an agent is almost impossible. The agents have thousands of manuscripts go across his or her desk every month and they select manuscripts that only fit his or her personal taste in literature. Right out of the gate, you can see your odds of being signed to a large publishing house begin to dwindle. In a calendar year, out of all manuscripts submitted, only 2% obtain a publishing contract.

Your first step in obtaining an agent begins with the “query letter” where you have to sell your book concept in three paragraphs. If you cannot seize an agent’s attention in the first few sentences, known as loglines, your query letter put in the slush pile or simply tossed into the trash. Here is a nice little fact for you. Most agents never even see your manuscript. They have interns sift through the daily acquisitions, and just so you know what may really be going on as you nervously wait for a response from an agent that may never come, your future may be in the hands of a 19 year old that is counting the hours until Friday to go out and party. After fifty rejects, you will end up doing more drafts of the query letter trying to perfect it than rewrites and edits of your book.

If by chance, you get lucky and obtain a literary agent, you will then have to produce a book proposal. There should be a college course on book proposals alone for the information required in it. The book proposal could very well end up with more pages than your book. Large publishing firms want you to have an established platform, meaning you already have a large fan base built for sales. No matter which way you choose, you are the sole salesperson of your work; you become an entrepreneur, a marketing specialist, and head of public relations. It can take years to build a platform when you do not have an existing product to promote. You can build an audience using sample chapters by using social media outlets, which is necessary for any author regardless, but in the time it takes to have the correct amount of numbers that will appeal to a publisher, you have already lost many of those that once had interest in your book due to the long wait. Without a platform and a large fan base, you will not get a contract regardless of how well crafted your literary work is. We are constantly striving for new ways to build your platform, and to do it quickly, without conning you into purchasing services that will have no benefit whatsoever.

In all honesty, large publishing firms couldn’t care less what the content of your book contains. They used to have pride in what they produced; however, this is not the case any longer. That went away when they stopped when mass sales took precedence over good story telling. One of the reasons book sales have declined over the past few decades is the uninteresting garbage they continually market. Publishers have lost touch with what people want to read.

Right now, you are having dreams of success with a bestselling novel. It pains me to have to burst your bubble, but you are where so many others have been before. Realistically, even if you are able to obtain a contract with a large firm, all your hopes and dreams will quickly be crushed. You will be given a $1,000 to $3,000 advance. You will have to dump your advance into advertising because the publishing firm will not invest any money. In addition, by signing with that large publishing firm, you will have given up the rights to your book. They now own your work. A board of directors will dictate the final content of your interior, formatting, book cover, and price. They will have you rewrite your story until it becomes what they feel it should be. The company will print a small test run of approximately 10,000 copies, and if your book doesn’t become an instant hit, that’s it, game over. Your book gets canned, they own the rights, and there is nothing more you can do. If your book does happen to sell well, you will receive minimal royalty payments that almost make you feel as if you have been robbed. The publisher takes most of the money and your agent gets 15%. If your book is sold on Amazon, where they sell your book at a discounted rate, they also take a nice chunk of the royalty. Everyone in line has his or her hand in the pot. For all your hard work, you may end up only averaging less than a $1.30 per book. It is solely up to you to generate sales because they will not. Writing your book was the easy part, now you have to become the salesperson. You do 90% of the work and everyone else keeps most of the money. Therefore, you must ask yourself, “Then why would I even want to get published by a large well-known publishing house?” Unless you are an established well-known author, forget about making millions of dollars or even thousands for that matter by signing everything over to a publishing firm. When publishing with Empire Publishing, you receive 100% of your royalties (excluding fees and percentages by retailers such as Amazon) and retain 100% ownership of your work.

Many of you reading this may have already figured this out and are shopping around for a micro-publisher. Be careful as well, as you search the Internet for options, you will run across organizations trying to sell you the so-called secrets of publishing and false promises of making you into a bestselling author. Most of them are scams designed for their own profit, not yours, and prey on those without any knowledge of the publishing industry. Then you will come across micro-publishers advertising that they take on all genres, they do not turn down any submissions, and the author will have no out of pocket expenses. Their sales pitch sounds very appealing to first time authors, but please remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. If a large publishing house requires an author to build his or her platform to generate sales, why would anyone think that a small publisher, which is most likely operated in a person’s home, would be able to get a book sold? In reality, writing a book is the easy part. As an author, you are going to be the key salesperson regardless of which company publishes your book, so don’t be led astray or fooled into believing otherwise.

The literary publishing industry is rapidly changing and shifting in a new direction. What was the in the past regarding publishing is no longer what will be in the near future. Digital publishing is on the rise, but for those that love books, do not fret, printed books will never go away. Self-publishing and micro-publishers were frowned upon in the past, which was rightfully so due to the poor quality of the product, but not anymore. Small publishers are printing high quality books that are equal to those by the large publishing houses. Nowadays, independent publishers are the ones that are making the money, and large amounts money! However, be cautious when choosing a micro-publisher because there are those that prey on first time authors. I have seen a few that offer services that are simply bogus. One in particular offers celebrity endorsements for your book for a fee of $190.00. Looking deeper into it, all they do is supply you with addresses for celebrities, some that may not even be valid any longer as noted on the advertisement, and it is up to you to make contact with the celebrity. This is just stupid... anyone can find address for celebrity, and even if you pay for that information on the Internet, it is only $25.00.

Agents will mislead you by saying that large publishing houses will not offer a contract if you originally self-published. That’s a lie! 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James is the perfect example of a self-published success story due to an author’s determination. The book was originally titled “Masters of the Universe” and was self-published as an e-book. It acquired massive amounts of horrible reviews, mostly noting its very poorly written qualities. As you know, it eventually became a bestselling novel boasting 70 million copies sold worldwide. Literary agents are still to this day publically bashing the book that they all turned down. This proves that they have lost touch with what the public wants to read.

There is no reason to sit and wait wasting valuable time as you receive one discouraging rejection after another as you keep changing your proposal trying to get an agents attention. If your dream is to be published in the future by a large well-known publishing house, by all means, continue to pursue it. You are not under any contract with us nor do you have any obligation to Empire Publishing after you are published. Remember, you own 100% of your rights. Empire Publishing is a company created by authors for authors. We’ve been through it all and are here to save you many headaches.

You will want to have your manuscript as polished as can be before publishing. Every writer knows this. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to pay an editor $20 per page to edit his or her work, and editing your own work is almost impossible to do. We offer professional editing services in our packages that are not going to break your bank account.

The best books from top authors released by major publishing houses have mistakes in them. This comes to one of the most dreadful aspects about going with a large publishing firm that no longer has proofreaders and one of the best aspects about publishing with print to order. There is no large costly inventory in stock and an error can be quickly rectified. If you happen to find a mistake at a later date or need to make a change, those changes can be made within 48 hours.

As the industry changes and is evolving, micro-publishers are becoming a force to reckon with. However, many of them only accept specific genres, which limit their manuscript acceptance and overall sales power. Some overcharge and prey on those that do not have the knowledge of publishing, printing, graphic design, and marketing. Many of them offer services that are unnecessary and a waste of money.  We feel a successful business is achieved through honor and providing the best service possible. We have even seen contracts where the author is required to order 500 copies of their book. That is insane! Using our sources, you don’t need to order a single copy if you choose not to.

We have seen publishers offer a website and e-store to the author, only to have them disappear after a year. You own and have full control over everything you do with Empire Publishing. You are in the driver’s seat. Actually, we are so confident about our services, we encourage you to shop around before deciding how you want to go about making your publishing dream into a reality. We do not discriminate and believe everyone has a unique voice. With passion and a commitment to excellence, our agency brings heart and precision execution to each of our tailor-made marketing campaigns.

After you have poured your heart and soul into a story that you want to share with the world, your publishing experience should be an exciting adventure, not one filled with one disappointment after another. We are here to make that journey easy and rewarding. Do not be led down the wrong path as so many others have before. If you look around, you will see that micro-publishers are sprouting up like weeds. On one end of the scale, some are charging outrageous fees, and on the other end, some are charging such low rates that it almost seems too good to be true, which in most cases, they are. We are a team of authors and publishing professionals that have been through it all. We are here to help you, and not take advantage of you as so many others do. Inside our website, you will notice our brutal honestly and not flowery sales pitches to get you to spend money. Our goal is to dominate the self-publishing industry, and we will do so by providing the best services available at a reasonable rate. We are a publisher/service bureau that you can trust and we will be around for a very long time.

What are you waiting for? Look around our website, shop around with others to see what they offer, and then let us turn your dream of being a published author into reality. We make it easy, quick, and hassle free. We stand beside our authors and will be there to assist you long after your work is published. We are constantly experimenting with unconventional methods of marketing, and as a Empire Publishing author, only you will be privy to that information. When you are ready, contact us, and we will get the ball rolling in the right direction for you.

www.empire-publishing.com