oldcharliebrown knows whereof he speaks -- if you look at his profile you'll see his credentials. :-)
Looking at science fiction and fantasy -- the SFWA list of qualifying markets for membership is a good starting point. After that you need to look at small press, but you also need to think about putting those in order. For print the first test is as we've said -- can you find their books in a chain bookstore? (For comparison on the romance side, if you look in Borders you will find print titles from Ellora's Cave, Samhain and Loose Id on the shelves -- and they are primarily epublishers.) If not, can you find their books on the shelves of smaller specialist bookshops that focus on that genre?
A good place to start making a list is Ralan's market listings at http://ralan.com
After that, check out what people are saying about a publisher at the Absolute Write Water Cooler http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/ or similar forums. Handle with care, because you get writers in the first flush of enthusiasm after being accepted, and writers with an axe to grind; but if there's a pattern of complaints, or bad reactions from the publisher and/or its authors to criticism, stay away.
Check their website. Do they look like a publisher you would buy books from? If not, cross them off. (At the bottom end of the ladder, one of the fastest ways to weed out vanity presses is to check their website. If their focus is selling "being published" to authors, rather than selling books to readers, run away.)
Then of course there's the whittling down by are they open to submissions, and what are they looking for.
I'm out of touch with the current state of the sf markets, but as Sean dropped by to comment, I had a look at the Wildside site to see what their imprints are doing at the moment. (This isn't a specific recommendation, just an example of what information I'd be checking if I was looking for a publisher. Juno's got a decent reputation but I don't focus on them as a market because I'm all about the pretty boys, and they're female protagonist focused, Wildside is primarily reprints, I'm not really familiar with the others.) Looks like Juno is currently open to fantasy, and Cosmos is about to open for sf submissions. Juno's got really good detailed guidelines which make it easy to work out whether your manuscript is likely to be a good fit for them right now.
no subject
Looking at science fiction and fantasy -- the SFWA list of qualifying markets for membership is a good starting point. After that you need to look at small press, but you also need to think about putting those in order. For print the first test is as we've said -- can you find their books in a chain bookstore? (For comparison on the romance side, if you look in Borders you will find print titles from Ellora's Cave, Samhain and Loose Id on the shelves -- and they are primarily epublishers.) If not, can you find their books on the shelves of smaller specialist bookshops that focus on that genre?
A good place to start making a list is Ralan's market listings at http://ralan.com
After that, check out what people are saying about a publisher at the Absolute Write Water Cooler http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/ or similar forums. Handle with care, because you get writers in the first flush of enthusiasm after being accepted, and writers with an axe to grind; but if there's a pattern of complaints, or bad reactions from the publisher and/or its authors to criticism, stay away.
Check their website. Do they look like a publisher you would buy books from? If not, cross them off. (At the bottom end of the ladder, one of the fastest ways to weed out vanity presses is to check their website. If their focus is selling "being published" to authors, rather than selling books to readers, run away.)
Then of course there's the whittling down by are they open to submissions, and what are they looking for.
I'm out of touch with the current state of the sf markets, but as Sean dropped by to comment, I had a look at the Wildside site to see what their imprints are doing at the moment. (This isn't a specific recommendation, just an example of what information I'd be checking if I was looking for a publisher. Juno's got a decent reputation but I don't focus on them as a market because I'm all about the pretty boys, and they're female protagonist focused, Wildside is primarily reprints, I'm not really familiar with the others.) Looks like Juno is currently open to fantasy, and Cosmos is about to open for sf submissions. Juno's got really good detailed guidelines which make it easy to work out whether your manuscript is likely to be a good fit for them right now.