How Many Publishers Are There In The World?

Agghhh! What a question! It is one of those, 'how long is a piece of string' questions ~ in other words, it's not really that easy to answer I'm afraid. There are many, many, many publishing companies doted around the world. As to whether they are legitimate companies, well that is a different matter all together!

Unfortunately, anyone can legally call themselves a publisher, but that doesn't mean that they have any experience in the publishing industry. Anyone can set up a 'publishing' company from their back bedroom. They simply place an advert in newspapers and specialist writing magazines requesting manuscripts and they're in business. So many people are desperate to become published writers that they will happily pay thousands of pounds to be told that their book will be published.

Obviously, not all publishers are dodgy. There are many very good ones, whose only aim is to help the author to sell their books ~ they also make a lot of money from authors, but legally! With more and more writers also becoming independent publishers, you cannot put a figure on how many publishing companies are in the world, but it would probably be quite a few thousand.