28 Book Publishers in India (Verified Submission Links)

India is one of the few large publishing markets where the biggest houses still read manuscripts that arrive without an agent. Penguin, HarperCollins and Hachette all take direct submissions in Delhi and Gurugram while their London and New York offices refuse them outright.

That single fact is worth more than any ranking, so this list is organised around it: who pays you, who charges you, and who is not reading anything at the moment. If you want the wider field afterwards, the 3,000 publishing companies directory is the hub for this series, and India has a literary tradition deep enough to justify the homework.

Submission policies change without notice, so confirm on the publisher’s own page before you send anything, and never pay a reading fee. Last verified: July 31, 2026.

Publishers that pay you: open to direct submissions

These houses commission books, carry the production cost themselves and pay the author a royalty. None of them asks you for money, and none of them requires a literary agent for the routes described below.

1. Penguin Random House India

The largest trade publisher in the country and, unusually for a Big Five subsidiary, one that reads unagented work. Its Publish With Us page asks for a covering letter, an author bio, a synopsis and three sample chapters. The contrast with head office is stark: Penguin Random House in the United States states plainly that it considers no unsolicited submissions at all, and points writers to literary agents instead. The India list runs from literary fiction and translation to business, sport, biography and children’s titles, with Hind Pocket Books publishing in Hindi. One practical note: the submission page moved to the /community/ path, so older links into this site now land nowhere. Submission guidelines.

2. HarperCollins India

Three times Publisher of the Year in India, and it welcomes proposals directly from writers: fiction, non-fiction, or, as its own page puts it, something else. Again the comparison is instructive. HarperCollins in the United States turns unsolicited work away, with the single exception of its Heartdrum imprint, so an Indian writer approaching the Delhi office has a route their American counterpart does not. The page walks you through what to send, where, and how long a reply takes. If your book is a debut, this is one of the two or three most realistic serious targets on this list. Submission guidelines.

3. Hachette India

Worth reading the small print on this one, because the policy is split. Hachette India accepts direct submissions for children’s books, to a dedicated address, and its Reference Division takes proposals for all ages at another. Adult trade titles go through literary agents, and the submissions page names the agencies it works with, which is a useful list if you are trying to work out who represents your kind of book in India. Send a children’s manuscript to the reference address, or the reverse, and the page says it will simply not be answered. Hachette Book Group in the United States considers no unsolicited manuscripts in any category. Submission guidelines.

4. Westland Publishers

Now trading as Westland Books, and the story behind the name change is the most dramatic in Indian publishing this decade. Amazon, which had owned Westland since 2017, announced in February 2022 that it was ending the business, and on 31 March 2022 the company formally stopped being an Amazon subsidiary. Every publishing agreement lapsed and the authors were released. Pratilipi, the Bengaluru digital writing platform owned by Nasadiya Technologies, then built a new publishing division from June 2022 around largely the same team, including publisher Karthika VK and chief executive Gautam Padmanabhan. Legally it was not an acquisition: a new company took the old one’s place. The list is strong on narrative non-fiction and journalism, with Context and Eka among the imprints. Submissions go to the editorial team at the pratilipi.com domain, and the catalogue now lives at pratilipibooks.in.

5. Rupa Publications

Founded in 1936 and one of the largest publishers and distributors in the country. Rupa accepts unsolicited fiction and general non-fiction in English, asking for a synopsis and three sample chapters by email to its editorial address. It is the house that made Chetan Bhagat a mass-market phenomenon, and its commercial instincts still shape the list. The submission page is at /how-to-publish; the /submissions/ path you will find on older lists is not the live one. Rupa’s founding family also part-owns Aleph Book Company, further down this page. Submission guidelines.

6. Juggernaut Books

The most editorially ambitious of the independents. Juggernaut was founded in New Delhi in September 2015 by Chiki Sarkar, previously publisher of Penguin India and founder-publisher of Random House India, and it launched India’s first mobile publishing app in April 2016. It is primarily a non-fiction house and its brief is refreshingly specific: two chapters and a one-page synopsis, emailed to its submissions address. The list runs to Nobel laureates, film stars, historians and a steady stream of first-time writers. Small team, sharp taste, fast decisions. Submission guidelines.

7. Roli Books

Founded in 1978 and headquartered at Greater Kailash 2 Market in New Delhi. Roli built its reputation on illustrated and photographic books, and its non-fiction is largely written by scholars and specialists but pitched at a general reader. It also designs and produces a line of gift and stationery products sold through its own stores. Proposals go by email to the editorial address, and the page specifies the subject-line format it wants, which is a small test of whether you read instructions. As with Rupa, use the /publish-with-us path, not the /submissions/ URL quoted in older lists. Submission guidelines.

8. Jaico Publishing House

Founded in Mumbai in 1946, Jaico was India’s first publisher of English-language paperbacks and began life as a distributor, because founder Jaman Shah started publishing because he could see the demand for affordable books he had no supply for. The list leans towards self-help, business, spirituality, philosophy and popular science, and has carried Robin Sharma, Stephen Hawking, Deepak Chopra and the Dalai Lama. Proposals go through a form on its own site; the /BookSubmission path in older roundups no longer routes there. Submission guidelines.

9. Srishti Publishers & Distributors

The most openly submission-friendly house in Indian trade publishing. Srishti is open to considering unsolicited fiction and general non-fiction in English, and founder Jayanta Kumar Bose has said in interviews that the company finds its writers through unsolicited submissions and reads every manuscript that arrives. It publishes what young India buys: commercial fiction, romance and campus novels. It does not do textbooks or scientific and technical titles. Based in New Delhi. If you are unpublished and writing popular fiction, start here. Submission guidelines.

10. Scholastic India

Children’s publishing, and it welcomes unsolicited manuscripts in English across fiction, non-fiction, mythology, anthology, biography, self-help, picture books and activity titles. Online submissions only, to a manuscripts address on the scholastic.asia domain. The India list features Ruskin Bond, Gulzar, Deepa Agarwal and Arti Sonthalia; internationally the same company publishes J. K. Rowling, R. L. Stine, Philip Pullman and Suzanne Collins. Illustrators are explicitly invited too: send a portfolio, an account of your influences and examples across different mediums, to the same address. Submission guidelines.

11. OM Books International

Headquartered in Noida and one of the larger English-language trade publishers in the country, with more than sixty years of history behind it. The list covers popular and literary fiction alongside narrative non-fiction, cookbooks and biography, and the company also runs a retail arm, which gives it a distribution position most independents of its size do not have. Proposals go through a route set out on its own site, with a published FAQ explaining what happens after you send one. Submission guidelines.

12. Fingerprint Publishing

The adult imprint of Prakash Books, whose distribution arm has been trading for over sixty years and is among the largest in India. Fingerprint handles commercial paperbacks and e-books: self-help, biography, philosophy, spirituality, popular science, and a fiction list covering romance, crime, thriller, fantasy, science fiction, horror and poetry, plus translations into Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam. Digital submissions only, and it will not consider anything posted on paper. Send a detailed proposal with a synopsis and a few sample chapters through the form on its site or to the submissions address at the prakashbooks.com domain, and allow four to six weeks. Its site is at fingerprintpublishing.com; the Facebook page that turns up first in search is not where the guidelines live.

13. Pan Macmillan India

Listed here for years as “Macmillan India Ltd”, which is a different and much older business. The live Indian trade operation is Pan Macmillan India, and its submissions page sets out the categories it wants: modern contemporary fiction, horror, historical fiction, thriller and suspense among them. Manuscripts go to the editorial address on the macmillan.co.in domain, and the contact page lists a Delhi telephone number alongside it. Part of Pan Macmillan, one of the Big Five, which is owned by the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. Submission guidelines.

Academic, educational and professional publishers

Different game entirely. These houses commission from subject expertise, not storytelling, they work from proposals instead of finished manuscripts, and peer review usually sits between you and a contract.

14. Cambridge University Press

The oldest university press in the world, granted letters patent in 1534, and it publishes academic books across 29 subject areas. Proposals go by email to the commissioning editor for your subject, to one editor only, with an executive summary in the body of the message, and never through LinkedIn, which the press states explicitly. Two structural facts matter here. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessment on 1 August 2021 to form Cambridge University Press & Assessment, though the Press keeps an independent existence inside the larger organisation. And its Indian arm has been registered in New Delhi since February 2004, so a proposal from an Indian academic is not being routed to a foreign company with no local presence. Find an editor.

15. S Chand Publishing

Founded in Delhi in 1939 and one of the largest education publishers in the country. S Chand invites manuscripts through a Book Proposal Form sent to its helpdesk address, and publishes across school, higher-education and regional-language lists. This is not a route for a novel, because the company’s business is textbooks, competitive-exam material and children’s educational titles, and a proposal succeeds or fails on whether it maps to a syllabus and a market. If you teach a subject and can see the gap in what your students are made to buy, that is the pitch. Publish with us.

16. Wiley India

Wiley’s recognised Indian publishing centre, developing textbooks for Indian students instead of simply importing the American list. Its Precise series of higher-education textbooks was built specifically for this market. Wiley India Private Ltd is registered at Ansari Road, Daryaganj, in New Delhi. Book proposals go through Wiley’s central proposal form, which routes to the commissioning editor for your subject area; the company’s author resources explain what a proposal needs to contain before you start writing one. Academic, professional and higher-education titles, not trade. Author resources.

Closed to unsolicited manuscripts

Both of these are excellent publishers, and both are on this list because a reader deserves to know before spending a week on a submission package.

17. Aleph Book Company

Aleph Book Company does not accept unsolicited submissions, and its own page adds that it takes no responsibility for any manuscripts it receives. That is worth stating plainly, because Aleph is one of the most admired literary houses in India and appears on almost every list of places to send your book. It was founded in New Delhi in May 2011 by David Davidar, the novelist and former president of Penguin Books Canada, in partnership with R. K. Mehra and Kapish Mehra of Rupa Publications. The list includes Romila Thapar, Shashi Tharoor, Khushwant Singh, Ruskin Bond and Vikram Seth. The realistic route in is a literary agent.

18. Seagull Books

Seagull Books is not accepting unsolicited manuscripts until further notice, and the reason it gives is simply that the team is very small and could not reply to what would arrive. Founded in Calcutta in 1982 by Naveen Kishore, it began with serious books on art, theatre and cinema and became one of the most respected literature-in-translation publishers anywhere. Two of its authors have collected the highest honours in the field: Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012 and Laszlo Krasznahorkai the Man Booker International in 2015. If you translate from a European or South Asian language, keep watching that page instead of emailing.

Real publishers, but no published submissions route

Both companies below are trading and easy to verify. Neither publishes a page telling authors how to approach it, so this list makes no claim about how, or whether, they take on new writers.

19. Taxmann Publications

The legal name is Taxmann Publications Private Limited, with two n’s, incorporated on 1 January 1972 and registered with the Registrar of Companies in Delhi under CIN U74899DL1972PTC005926, current status active. It has spent more than six decades publishing on Indian tax and corporate law and is trusted by hundreds of thousands of legal professionals; the group runs its own printing operation and in-house research. What it does not publish anywhere on its site is an author-submission or proposal page, so if you are a practitioner with a book in you, the route runs through its editorial board instead of a form, and you will have to ask.

20. Pustak Mahal

Trading since January 1974 and a genuine phenomenon of Indian mass-market publishing: the Rapidex English Speaking Course, its best-known title, taught basic English to a generation. The list is low-cost paperbacks in Hindi and English: self-help, classics, reference, astrology and children’s general knowledge, printed in the millions of copies. Its website is a bookstore, with no submissions or proposal page anywhere on it, so nothing can be said here about how it takes on new authors.

Author-pays services: you pay them, not the other way round

Everything in this section is a service you buy. That is not an accusation, because for many books it is the right choice, and India has some of the best-value self-publishing infrastructure anywhere. But the money flows in the opposite direction to the section above, and any list that mixes the two is doing you a disservice. Read the hybrid publishing guide before signing anything, and get every quote in writing.

21. Notion Press

The biggest self-publishing platform in the country, started in Chennai on 1 January 2012 by Naveen Valsakumar, Jana Pillay and Bhargava Adepally. The free DIY route really is free if your files are ready, and it publishes in English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Gujarati and Kannada. Beyond that sit paid packages and a hybrid programme called Outpublish. Do the royalty arithmetic before you choose: author earnings differ substantially across the basic, India-and-international and Outpublish distribution tiers, and Notion Press takes a twenty per cent distribution fee on orders through its own store. Its published worked example is clear enough that you can model your own book from it, which is more than most competitors offer.

22. Pothi

Print-on-demand and self-publishing, and refreshingly unglamorous about it. No minimum order, one copy or ten thousand, no inventory to finance, and distribution through its own store plus Amazon.in and Flipkart. More than 18,000 books have gone through it. Files go by email to its writer address, or by FTP if they are too large, and the FAQ walks through trim sizes, formatting and cover preparation in more detail than most paid services bother with. For an author who has done their own editing and design and simply needs printing and distribution in India, this is usually the cheapest honest answer.

23. 24by7 Publishing

A full-service self-publishing company: you pay, you keep copyright, and the ISBN is free. It advertises fast turnarounds and offers cover design, formatting and launch support alongside printing, with author-promotion extras that run to merchandise and contests. Manuscripts go in as a Word or PDF file with a high-resolution author photo, bio and blurb. The live route is the /publish page; the /upload-manuscript.html address still quoted elsewhere returns a 404.

24. CinnamonTeal Design & Publishing

Launched in Margao, Goa in August 2007 and one of the first self-publishing services in India, it trades as Dogears Print Media Pvt Ltd and also runs the Dogears Bookshop. Beyond the standard design, print and distribution work it has done unusual preservation projects, including reissuing older Goan texts. The manuscript assessment is free: email the details and a portion of the manuscript to its contact address and it will come back to you. Its FAQ is unusually candid about the things nobody mentions, including the deposit copies you must supply to the National Libraries if it issues your ISBN.

25. Become Shakespeare

A Mumbai self-publishing services company offering editing, design, printing, marketing, distribution and translation, all paid for by the author. One relationship worth knowing about: Leadstart’s own submissions page names Become Shakespeare as a sister entity and refers self-publishing enquiries to it. The two appear as separate, unrelated companies on most lists. That is not a mark against either, but if you are comparing quotes, two of the names on your shortlist may be the same house.

26. Leadstart Publishing

Mumbai-based, trading as One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd, and it runs two tracks: conventional publishing at a fifteen per cent royalty, and “partnered publishing”, where the author contributes to the cost. Which one you are offered depends on how the manuscript is evaluated, and the difference between them is the whole deal, so establish in writing which track a contract sits on before you sign. The company states it provides no self-publishing services itself and refers those authors to its sister entity above. Submissions go by email with a concept note, synopsis, contents list, two sample chapters and an author write-up; the concept note is expected to cover audience, market segment, comparable titles and word count. Submission guidelines.

27. APK Publishers

A Pune house established in 2008 whose stated mission is getting first-time writers into print, publishing English fiction and non-fiction for adults, children and young adults. It asks for a detailed synopsis plus three sample chapters, or three sample stories for a collection, and it publishes a grammar checklist alongside the guidelines that is worth reading whoever you submit to. It also assists with printing, which is the detail that places it in this section and not the first: ask directly which costs, if any, fall to you before you get attached to the idea. Submission guidelines.

28. Pirates

A Delhi creative studio that works across books and films, with centres in Rajinder Nagar, Faridabad, Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur, and claims over 1.5 million books sold across romance, thrillers, autobiography and mythology. Manuscripts go to the address on its Get Published page. The thing to be clear about is which company you end up contracting with: the paid self-publishing side of the operation runs under a separate brand, Quignog, and the two are marketed together. Ask which entity your agreement names and what it commits either side to. Get published.

Two more names you may see on other India lists

Mahaveer Publishers is worth approaching carefully, because two different companies share the name. The domain usually listed belongs to Mahaveer Publications, a printing and publishing firm in Assam selling course books for the new four-year degree programme, law guides and Assam Direct Recruitment exam series. A Delhi trade publisher of a similar name does appear at Ansari Road, Darya Ganj in directories, but it publishes no website and no submissions page. Check which one you are writing to.

Petals Publishers & Distributors is a real Ludhiana house dealing in fiction and non-fiction across several languages, with pan-India distribution, offering both conventional and paid publishing routes. Ask which of the two routes a contract puts you on before you sign.

How to approach an Indian publisher

Four things separate submissions that get read from submissions that do not.

Send what the page asks for, in the format it asks for. Several publishers above specify a synopsis and exactly three sample chapters; Juggernaut wants two chapters and a single page. These are not arbitrary. They are how a small editorial team triages a hundred manuscripts a week, and ignoring them is the fastest way to be filtered out before anyone reads a sentence.

Target the list, not the logo. Srishti built its business on commercial fiction by unknown writers; Cambridge University Press wants a subject specialist with a peer-reviewable argument. Sending either the other’s book wastes a month. Look at what a house published in the last two years, not what it published in 2005.

Understand which side the money is on. Everything in the first two sections pays you. Everything in the author-pays section charges you. Both are legitimate, but the questions you should ask are completely different. For a paid service, ask who distributes the finished book and to which retailers, what exactly is itemised in the quote, what royalty on net, and who owns the ISBN and the files if you walk away.

And check the page before you send. Submission windows open and close, addresses change, and this list replaced three dead links and two mislabelled companies in a single pass. A two-minute check on the publisher’s own site is worth more than any roundup, including this one.

Conclusion

The headline for a new Indian writer is a good one: three of the Big Five read unagented manuscripts through their Indian offices, and Srishti, Jaico, Rupa, Juggernaut and Om Books add a serious independent tier on top of that. Very few publishing markets in the world are this open. The two doors that are shut, Aleph and Seagull, are shut for honest reasons, and both said so on their own websites instead of leaving writers to find out by silence.

If your book is not a fit for any of them, the author-pays section is a real option and not a consolation prize, provided you go in knowing you are buying a service and you compare at least three quotes. And if you would rather look further afield first, the traditional publishers guide covers the international houses that read unagented work, publishing companies in the Philippines covers the nearest comparable market, and the full 3,000 publishing companies directory is the place to find a press that already publishes books like yours.