Finding a reputable company to publish your work can be quite a challenge. You can always self-publish, and there are plenty of vanity presses out there. Vanity presses are those where you pay to have your book published.

The big publishers are the most visible, the big New York houses that you see on all the bookshelves in your neighborhood bookstore. Names like Bantam, Penguin Press, St. Martins, Doubleday or Harlequin. The publishing world has changed a lot since the old days when there were dozens of presses available. Many of them have become corporations with dozens of  imprints. What this means is that it is more difficult than ever to get them to view your work because there is so much competition, and they are not likely to take on a new, untested author.

Many houses will not even consider a query from a new, unpublished author. You will need to find an agent first, who can present your work.  Some big houses do still take query letters from new authors. Each house, though, has its own submission requirements. The best way to decide the publisher you want to approach is to go to the bookstore and look over the books in the genre you are writing.  Check out the names of the publishers and make notes of their websites in the book jacket or on the back cover of a paperback. 

Next, visit the publisher's website and look for their submission requirements. Most will have a page just for that purpose.  Here you will learn if they take queries, how they want you to present your manuscript (some will not take e-submissions, while others will only accept a partial submission)

If you would rather e-publish, or have your books available in electronic form you can find a good many reputable e-publishers online who are looking for new authors. Ebooks are usually published much quicker than print books, but while they don't always pay advances, they do pay royalties. To find the various epublishers, you might visit a site like Fictionwise.com .   This website has a wide variety of ebooks.  Again, look for those which fall into your genre and see which epublisher is publishing that type of book. You will again need to visit the individual websites to see the various submission guidelines.

If you decide to forego the established print or epublishing routes and prefer to self-publish, there are established vanity publishers out there. Publishers like Xlibris or iUniverse are large-scale vanity publishers. Your book will be put into print, but you must bear some of the cost. You will not be paid a royalty or an advance with a vanity press or if you self-publish. If you want to go this route, you can, but you need to be careful of falling into the hands of scam artists who say they will publish your work and you end up spending thousands of dollars just to see your book in print.

A good place to check if you have questions about publishers is the preditor and editor website. This website has for years kept track of comments on various publishers and complaints against them. You can find them at anotherealm.com/prededitors.