Now, while I may not be a publisher, I did at one point go through the process of looking for and choosing a publishing company to pursue. In this blog I will cover some of the most basic of steps towards getting published.
The first step that you should take, is deciding what genre your writing falls under. After you determine this, you can easily pick out which publishing company you wish to proceed with.
The second step that anyone should take, is researching the various publishing companies that are out there that support your genre. The internet is a amazing tool if you know how to use it. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of avenues to getting published, don't confine your search to just a few companies. One of the best, free, tools on the Internet is a website called Agent Query. This website provides hundreds of agents with dozens of publishing companies that can make your publishing process easier.
The third step is starting to get in touch with the publishers you've chosen. The only way to truly get noticed by a publishing comapny is to contact them yourself, getting your name out there. Publishers will not come to you on their own, there are too many people in the world for them to actively search through.
After selecting and getting in touch with your potential publishers, send them an excerpt from the work you're trying to get published. They will review the work that you've sent and decide whether or not you're the kind of author they are looking for.
Finally, stay in contact with the publisher that has decide to support you. Things such as book design, editing, revisions, and potential cutting of your work will begin to occur very rapidly. Keep an open mind to what your publisher is trying to tell you and the changes that they are trying to make. They tend to know more about what sells a book than the author does.
This was just a simple, personal, look at what the publishing process is like. It will most likely be different for each publisher so keep your eyes open and your mind sharp as you go through this process.