Have you considered “self-publishing?” I have publishing experience with AuthorHouse (probably around $500 to get a standard paper back out there), but have subsequently really gotten involved with “CreateSpace,” a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com. It is so easy to publish your own works - you just have to be prepared to market aggressively (which they can also help you to do). I have published 3 books, and about to release my fourth. It costs about $35 to set up, plus each “proof” you utilize costs about $35, by the time you make changes and then approve. They have templates for you to use for cover design, etc. When you finalize, your royalties are huge, compared to what you can obtain from traditional publishing concerns. They distribute through all the traditional channels (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, etc.). If you have a website, and if you take advantage of book-signing promotions and marketing materials, etc., you should still be way ahead of the traditional routes. Besides, most of them won’t even look at your manuscript anyway - their policy is often not to even open your envelope. Contact me privately if you wish, and I will give you the benefit of all my trials and errors. Best of luck.
It may come to that, but I’m going to try the traditional route first. Congrats on your success. I have 15 years of publishing experience (not my stuff though) so I know how self-publishing works. Just wanna give traditional a chance.