Who would the best publisher be for publishing my book?

[Jo Pete]

So, I am writing a book called "The Unified Universal Theory"(maybe title) and it is about theories and scientific study of unifying quantum mechanics and general physics, and I was wondering what publisher is recommended for this type of book. I was thinking about publishing it to Lulu.com since I am low on money, but I wanted everyone's opinion. Thanks.
Do my qualifications really matter at this moment? I have enough qualifications to make a book like this.

[cathrl69]

And your physics qualifications are...?

"Do my qualifications really matter at this moment?"

Yes, of course they matter. If you're serious about this, then what you do is go to an academic publisher (in the UK it might be Oxford University Press) and get an advance based on your outline. But you'd need to be a recognised expert with a bare minimum of a doctorate and a lectureship in the area of physics you want to write about.

Vanity publishing is _never_ recommended, but if you have nothing more than a physics degree, it's pretty much your only option for something like that.

[IStoleThisUsername]

Pardon?

[Nathaniel]

cath, I find your sarcasm irritating

[Joss]

Yes, your qualifications matter when you're writing non-fiction. So does having a platform. You NEED a platform. There's no way around it. Do you have a platform? If not, you need to start establishing it right now. You need to approach publishers with a platform already established. There are many great books that are rejected because the author doesn't have a platform, and that's regardless of his/her qualifications to write on the subject. And, make sure you go over your qualifications in your proposal; it's important. But, there's nothing to worry about if you're an expert in the field.

Generally, you'll get an agent. The agent finds you a publisher. You might want to check publisher's weekly website. They recently published an article about self-published book sales (non-fiction and fiction and ebooks and physical books). There was some interesting data in there. I was surprised at how well non-fiction books were selling. Though, I dont' think it specified what types of non-fiction books were selling, if that matters.

Find books that are in the same realm of what you want to write and see who the author's literary agent is - authors thank their agents in the acknowledgements section. You need a proposal and you can learn how to write one online. For non-fiction you dont' need to write the full book for a publisher can buy it. The publisher can buy it on your credentials alone - they will ask for the proposal and they might want the first 3 chapters to review. Know your competition. Know your target audience. Know how your book differentiates from the similar books on the market. Otherwise, know your the book market for which you want to write.

aaronline.org has some agents. You can look through the agency websites, decide who represents non-fiction and if they represent science, and read their submission guidelines. see who their authors are and what books they've sold and which publishers they've sold those books to.

anyway, good luck with your book. Find other writers on social media sites like twitter. Especially find non-fiction authors. See how they're writing their books, going about getting them published, promoting and marketing them, etc.

There's nothing wrong with self-publishing. Many people self-publish for different reasons. Most people don;'t do true self-publishing; they use a vanity press. I've never heard of anyone in trade publishing (including literary agents) say that no one should ever use a vanity publisher or that all vanity publishers are bad. They know that's not true and they know that there are a myriad reasons people self-publish and it isn't always because they got turned down by every publisher in town.

[Mac]

Amazon