Have you ever dreamed of seeing your books on the best-sellers’ lists? Would you like to get published, but don’t know where to start? Big publishers don’t seem to accept submissions, smaller presses publish books you’ve never heard of, and the one publisher which is keen to publish you has demanded money, which doesn’t seem right.

Publishing is a complex and counterintuitive business full of confusing jargon, protocols and systems. It’s made even more confusing by the vast amount of misinformation available on the internet, the often extraordinary misunderstandings that people have about publishing’s workings, and an underclass of predatory people who lurk in publishing’s peripheries, waiting to cheat the unwary.

Add to that the huge number of people who dream of being successful writers and it’s perhaps no wonder that so many of them get sucked into dubious publishing schemes and end up losing the rights to their own work—and a lot of money, too.

You’re different. You’re determined to avoid all the pitfalls and predators, and get published properly. But how can you be sure you’re on the right track?

Simple. Read this website. You’ll find out exactly how publishing really works.

I can’t guarantee you a publishing deal: that depends on your talent, tenacity and luck. But I can help you avoid the inept and ill-intentioned, and show you how to work in the most professional, effective way possible towards your publishing goals.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be adding information about publishing, publishers and agents: what they do, what they don’t do, and how to distinguish the good from the bad. The main pages will contain the basic information, which should be enough to get you started: but the real action happens at my blog,, where you’ll find detailed information and discussions you can contribute to.