Ibrahim Masoodi asked Werner A. Lind:

Hello sir, I want to seek guidance regarding publication of my manuscript ?

Werner A. Lind Ibrahim, that's a difficult question for me to advise you on, because I don't know anything about your manuscript. If it's in Arabic, I don't really know anything about the Arabic publishing industry.

If it's in English, all of the large, "mainstream" publishers who dominate the field refuse to accept manuscript submissions from authors directly; you have to submit through an agent. Legitimate agents do NOT charge you fees up front; they make their money from a share of what the publishers pay you (so they don't make money unless they're successful in marketing your work.

IMO, your best bet for being published (in English) is through a small press, which is the route that I went. These will generally accept manuscript submissions from you directly, and are more open to new writers. They generally post their submission guidelines on their websites. You can find listings of legitimate, royalties-paying publishers (and legitimate literary agents) in standard annual reference works like The Literary Marketplace, published by Bowker, or The Writer's Market. Publishers may vary greatly in the types of books they publish, so you want to pay careful attention to that area, and submit to those which are a good fit. (Note that small presses typically don't have much, if any, money to spend for advertising your book, and probably won't be able to market it to bookstores or libraries --they usually don't offer traditional bookstore/library discounts.)

Legitimate publishers pay YOU (in the form of royalties for copies of your book that sell); they don't expect you to pay them for publishing the book. Those who do ask you to pay them are called "vanity presses" (Publish America is the biggest and slickest of these), and aren't well respected in the book trade; they also don't make any effort to sell your book for you. Your best bet is to stay strictly away from these operations.

Closely related to vanity presses is the option of self-publishing. This means you can get your book into print immediately, without waiting for an editor to vet it; the converse is that many readers don't trust books that haven't been vetted, so yours will join a glutted market of unvetted books. If you do decide to self-publish, www.lulu.com is a printing and distribution service that, for their basic package, won't charge you anything up front; they make their money from a cut on copies that sell. (Many self-publishing authors use Amazon's CreateSpace as their printing and distribution service, but I don't have experience with them.)

Nowadays, submissions are usually made in electronic format. Be sure you comply with all the guidelines for formatting your submission; and make sure it's thoroughly proof-read before you submit it. My advice is not to do your own proofreading; get someone you can trust to do it for you, and preferably get at least one or two other writers to "beta read" (that is, both proof read and offer editorial suggestions) the manuscript before you submit it. (That's even more important if you intend to self-publish!)

Hope this helps! Best wishes for success (or at least personal satisfaction and fulfillment) in your writing endeavor.

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