Never Pay To Publish Your Books

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?

^{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.

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

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.

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!