Excerpted from Patricia Fry’s book, Publish Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/PublishYourBook.html
Once you have found several appropriate publishers, visit their websites for more specific information. Print out a copy of their submission guidelines (or “editorial guidelines” or “writers/authors guidelines”). Sometimes the guidelines are difficult to find. If you don’t see a link button to the submission guidelines, click on “About Us” or “Contact Us.” If you don’t see the guidelines on either of these pages, look for a new link on that page. Sometimes there will be more link options available to the left or across the top of that page. No luck? Go back to the home page and search links within links. Put your cursor on the available link buttons and see if a menu appears. Read the selections on the menus. Also check the links that sometimes appear at the bottom of the home page.
If you cannot locate the guidelines at all, email the editor and ask for a copy. Or send a letter of request for submission guidelines in the mail along with a self-addressed-stamped envelope (SASE). That is, an envelope with your name and full address as well as enough postage for the return trip.
Before you can attract a publisher’s attention, you should know what he or she requires. You have a better chance of being noticed when you send the publisher exactly what he wants in the manner he wishes to receive it. In today’s highly competitive publishing industry, it is not easy to stand out from the crowd. One way to do it is to follow policy. Each publisher sets his or her own policy and standards. While some are certainly lax, others want authors to jump through hoops. If it is important to you and your project that you land a publishing contract, you must conform.