First of all, if I could decide the way my career would go, I would like to start by having Merilee Heifetz from Writers House as my literary agent.  She currently represents Neil Gaiman, whose work I enjoy immensely and whose fantastic notions I seem to have an affinity for.  On the first tier of publishing, my dream publishing house would be William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishing that publishes a wide range of genres.  They publish Neil Gaiman and Ray Bradbury so I would be in great company.  HarperCollins also publishes C.S. Lewis, whose work I greatly admire.  As I would expect from this tier, HarperCollins does not accept unsolicited manuscripts or query letters outside of Avon romance.  This is where Ms. Heifetz would come in.  After I secure her services by winning her over with first my query letter and then my manuscript, we would (hopefully) perfect my manuscript and then submit to publishing companies of this ilk.  Still, my chances of being published this way are very small as this tier is very competitive and flooded with submissions.

 

If my career were to follow the middle tier of publishing, I would hope to be published by Small Beer Press.  They are of a good size--they publish as Small Beer Press, Big Mouth House, Peapod Classics, and also do chapbooks and have a "zine."  A very recent release of theirs is a collection of short stories by Karen Joy Fowler; they are also publishing Holly Black of the Spiderwick Chronicles fame.  I was very excited to discover Small Beer Press because the material they publish sounds quirky and magical but real enough, just the sort of niche I deeply appreciate.  SBP does not accept unsolicited manuscripts, but they do accept queries by mail.  Even if I could query for myself, I would feel more comfortable going through Ms. Heifetz (should I have her services) when submitting to them.  They have some good authors with them, but I would definitely have a better chance of being published in this arena than in the first.

 

On the third tier, I have my eye on Cantarabooks.  They publish mainstream fiction as ebooks and paperbacks and have a literary magazine.  Two authors that interest me at Cantarabooks are Theodore Irvine Silar and Michael Matheny, whose works (as usual) incorporate elements of the fantastic.  Cantarabooks is only open to unsolicited submissions, so I wouldn't need Ms. Heifetz to be published by them.  To put myself in the running, I would need to email my entire manuscript.  Despite their size, I would likely have a good amount of competition since they take submissions from authors who lack an agent.  Still, there is a significantly better chance than at HarperCollins.

 

On the fourth tier, I think I would go with Lulu, a website (at lulu.com) that allows one to basically design a book and sell it on the website.  Jaida Jones, who wrote Havemercy and Shadow Magic with Danielle Bennett, went this route earlier in her career with an artist to produce a book that was part-text, part-art.  This method of publishing gives a lot of freedom to the creator and does not require a submission process (other than uploading one's document to the website).  There is no competition, but it relies on self-promotion to sell.  I do not have a platform or an established audience, and am not sure this would be the best way to sell my work, though it is a decent way to actually produce a bound work.

 

I would love to be a HarperCollins girl, but I think I'd be very happy with Small Beer Press.  I really like the work I see on their website and would love to be among their list.