Finding the Right Software Publisher?

Ace905 asks: "I am a software developer looking to market my product, and after weeks of research and rejections I've come to a few conclusions that I hope are wrong; Software Publishers are looking almost exclusively for Game Software, To get big you have to already be big, and nobody comes to you even when you have a great product! I'm wondering if any other developers have similar experiences marketing their life's work? Are there any publishing companies that actively persue new developers? Where does a developer go to sell their cross-platform utility software? Your feedback is much appreciated!"

Comments

Sourceforge!

[eggstasy]

Why not just put it up on sourceforge? Really, if you want to have any hope whatsoever of selling a single copy of your software, it better be damn good. Your average user is quite satisfied with existing software and has no need for new one.
Since you can't afford the expensive marketing that would persuade people into thinking that they need your software, user feedback could be a precious help in getting your wares to meet the user demands in that particular field. You've been rather vague in the article, so I'm making some educated guesses here, namely that you've been developing this using a "cathedral" model where the software is your work and not many people actually get to see it until it's released.
I think you would help yourself better by revealing a few more details about your product so we could write better informed comments on your article. What with the huge amount of slashdot users reading this article, you'd be getting more advertising than you could ever afford, and free of charge as well.
Good luck with your product though! Hope you succeed where many others have failed.

Re:The Internet

[littlerubberfeet]

A Publisher is a publisher, no more. DO NOT let the publisher buy your product, merely let them shave off whatever percentage they need to. But keep the rights to your creation, as many small companies have found when getting bought out by Microsoft, Oracle, Intuit, or the other big ones.