Avoid the Vanity Press.

Don't pay to publish your book. Except you want to print your book.

thanks you so much ORINKILA. i know your advice comes from a good heart but what do i do?
recently a friend took me to a published proffessor in literature , he(proff) adviced i publish my works(3 from the 9 i have writen )with them for starters. He said i have to pay for prooff reading and editting.Actuallty it is the amount he mentioned that kept me away.

can i get more infor from you as to y i shouldn`t?

Nwadinma,
Please, let me know the following:

1. The genre of your literature.
2. Your resume and
3. When you want to release your books.

^{Orikinla, please don't lure people away from the forum.}

I think the first question is this: why do you want to publish the book in the first place? If all you're interested in is getting people to read your work, then you should just post it on the Internet. Problem solved.

yes i want people to read me work, i also want them to pay for it.
by the way, the genre is sci/fi and romance.

For people to pay to read your story, it has to be really good. The only way for you to know how good it is is to show it to strangers and watch their behaviour. Example: www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-17390.0.html

Okay Seun.

May I ask Nwandinma, to find a way to send her manuscripts to Karen King-Aribisala of the Department of English, University of Lagos. Because, she can help to evaluate your literature.

I write. But I stopped posting my prose online, except my poems.
I have only posted two shorts stories, Daughter of a Beggar and Love Song. But they were only the extracts of the stories.
http://www.radiopalmwine.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=48&highlight=

You can simply post some samples.
That's all.

orinkinla,
do i post my resume to this site or do i send it personally to you?
the genre of my work is scientific -fictions and fantasy.
my manuscript is ready for pulication.

Why contact e-mail address is available through my blog http://kissesandroses..com and shown in my profile.

Professional critics are over-rated. Do you know that Ayn Rand's books were scored low by critics because of their length, clumsiness and black and white morality and still ended up as best-sellers? Post the first chapter under fiction and if people like it, you can self-publishing and retain 100% of the sales profit!

There's so much talk about Vanity Publishing and Self-Publishing these days.

If one has a good manuscript, and wants to self-publish, do we need to pay for editing and proofreading services too?