23 Best Catholic Book Publishers (9 Accept Proposals)

You have written a book about the faith, and you want it published by a house that shares it. Here is where Catholic publishers stand today, and exactly how to reach the ones that will read your work.

Below you’ll find 23 Catholic book publishers grouped by how you get in. Nine take proposals from authors without an agent, from Ignatius Press and Ave Maria Press to Orbis Books and Liturgical Press. Ten publish actively but list no way to send them a manuscript, and four are not taking unagented work right now. For each one you’ll find what it publishes, what to send, and where its own guidelines live. If your book could fit a wider shelf, browse my list of 2,000+ publishing companies.

Submission policies change without notice, so check the publisher’s own page before you send anything, and never pay a reading fee. Last verified: October 1, 2026.

Catholic publishers you can pitch without an agent

1. Ignatius Press

Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, founded Ignatius Press in San Francisco in 1978 with Carolyn Lemon, to bring 20th-century theologians such as Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Joseph Ratzinger to English-speaking readers. Its catalog now runs to thousands of titles in theology, apologetics, spirituality, catechesis, and fiction, alongside Catholic films and audio materials.

Ignatius accepts manuscripts and proposals year round. Mail a double-spaced, single-sided, page-numbered hard copy with a cover letter to the Acquisitions department, and if you can, email the file to the acquisitions address as well. A proposal with a summary, a chapter-by-chapter overview, and two full sample chapters is also reviewed, though the editors may ask for the whole manuscript. Replies can take up to six months, and rejections come without detailed feedback. Submission guidelines.

2. Ave Maria Press

Rev. Edward Sorin, CSC, founded Ave Maria Press at Notre Dame, Indiana, in 1865, and it remains a ministry of the Congregation of Holy Cross. It began as a magazine honoring the Virgin Mary and moved into books in the 1970s. Today it publishes nonfiction on prayer, spirituality, faith formation, and Catholic education.

Ave Maria welcomes proposals for nonfiction by email. Send one document with your working title and subtitle, a one-paragraph description, why the book is unique, an annotated table of contents, a writing sample such as your introduction or first chapter, a short bio, and links to your platform with visitor or follower numbers. Adult and teen fiction, children’s books, poetry, and accounts of personal conversion or private revelation fall outside its list. Expect an answer within three to four weeks, although a full review can take months, and there is no fee to evaluate your work. Submission guidelines.

3. Paulist Press

Paulist Press belongs to the Paulist Fathers, the missionary society Fr. Isaac Hecker founded in 1858, and has carried the Paulist Press name since 1913. From Mahwah, New Jersey, it publishes theology, spirituality, Scripture, pastoral resources, and books for children, including the Classics of Western Spirituality series.

Paulist welcomes proposals from authors directly. Your cover letter should give the working title, subject, audience, comparable titles, and any endorsements, followed by a sample chapter and table of contents if you have them, an estimated word count, a completion date, and your CV. Do not send a complete manuscript unless asked, and note any art the book needs. Email the proposal with “Book Proposal” in the subject line or mail it to the Editorial Department. Materials are not returned, dissertations are out of scope, and replies take six to eight weeks. Submission guidelines.

4. Sophia Institute Press

Sophia Institute Press is a nonprofit publisher in New Hampshire whose nonfiction on spirituality, theology, and philosophy is faithful to the teaching of the Catholic Church. It writes for the average educated Catholic in the pew, so its books are accessible, practical, and usually under 300 pages.

Sophia accepts proposals by email only. Send a complete manuscript, or a sample chapter with a proposed table of contents, together with a formal proposal showing how your book meets its criteria: a clear benefit to readers, a compelling and unique angle, lasting value, and brevity. It publishes prose, not short stories, poetry, or academic studies. If you hear nothing within a month, the editors have passed. Submission guidelines.

5. Liturgical Press

Liturgical Press is the publishing house of Saint John’s Abbey, the Benedictine community in Collegeville, Minnesota, and has been publishing since 1926. It covers liturgy, Scripture, theology, prayer, spirituality, and monastic life for pastoral and professional readers, with series such as Little Rock Scripture Study, Sacra Pagina, and Wisdom Commentary, plus Give Us This Day and Worship.

Liturgical Press accepts proposals through an online project proposal form. Gather every element before you start, because the form does not save until you submit it. All proposals are reviewed and acknowledged within six weeks, and if no automatic confirmation arrives, write to the submissions address. You must be the legal and sole author of the work, including in any use of generative AI. Cistercian Publications has its own form. Submission guidelines.

6. Liguori Press

Liguori Publications is a nonprofit Catholic publisher owned by the Redemptorists of the Denver Province and named for St. Alphonsus Liguori, a bishop known for plain, warm preaching. It was founded in 1947 in Liguori, Missouri, as the publisher of Liguorian magazine, and it now produces books, pamphlets, parish materials, and digital resources.

Liguori welcomes proposals, and you do not need an agent. Your proposal should cover your bio and qualifications, a tentative title, the format (book, pamphlet, or digital), an overview with structure and word count, the question your book answers, a sample table of contents, one sample chapter, a timeline, your markets, competing titles, and contacts for endorsements. Email it as a Word or Google Docs file with your cover letter in the body; hard copies are not considered. Book-length fiction, poetry, biography, and private revelation sit outside its list, though short fiction and poems can go to the magazine. Allow eight to twelve weeks. The site runs a brief security check before the page loads. Submission guidelines.

7. Orbis Books

Orbis Books is the publishing house of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, launched in 1970 by Father Miguel d’Escoto to carry theology from the Global South to English readers. It published Gustavo Gutiérrez’s A Theology of Liberation in 1973 and still focuses on theology, spirituality, justice and peace, and the global Church.

Orbis welcomes proposals by email or post. Your cover letter should give the working title, subject, audience, comparable titles, the gap the book fills, and any endorsements, followed by a sample chapter and table of contents if available and your CV or qualifications. Send Word or PDF files with “Book Proposal” in the subject line, not a full manuscript unless asked. Orbis requires you to disclose any generative AI use and will not consider work where AI produced the ideas, structure, or draft. Replies take six to eight weeks. Submission guidelines.

8. Angelico Press

Angelico Press, founded by John Riess and James Wetmore and based in Brooklyn, publishes new work and returns out-of-print titles to circulation across apologetics, theology, philosophy, political and social thought, spirituality, history, art, biography, and literature. Its website now lives at angelicopress.com.

Angelico welcomes manuscripts by email: its contact page asks for the manuscript, a proposal, and your CV. It lists no response time, so give the editors a few months before following up. Submission guidelines.

9. Catholic Book Publishing Corp.

Catholic Book Publishing Corp. in Totowa, New Jersey, has served Catholics for more than a hundred years with liturgical books, missals, prayer books, children’s books, and Bibles, including the St. Joseph New Catholic Bible. It also runs Resurrection Press, an imprint for affordable books on prayer, healing, spirituality, and pastoral ministry.

Most of its own titles are written in-house or commissioned, so it accepts query letters, not full manuscripts, by post only, addressed to the Editorial Director. Agents are not part of the process, simultaneous submissions are refused, and replies take two to three months. Manuscripts are bought outright, with no royalties or advance. Resurrection Press works differently: mail a summary proposal and two double-spaced sample chapters to its editor, expect an answer in four to six weeks, and royalties are negotiable. Submission guidelines.

Catholic publishers with no published submission route

These houses are publishing new books, but none of them lists a way to send in a manuscript. Several reissue classics their editors choose, and others are the in-house press of a ministry. Read their catalogs before you write, and if you do make contact, keep it to a short, polite inquiry.

10. Loyola Press

Father William P. Lyons, SJ, founded Loyola Press in 1912, and it remains a nonprofit ministry of the Jesuits’ Midwest Province. It has more than 700 trade books in print, around 300 Spanish titles, and New York Times bestsellers such as Dear Pope Francis, along with faith formation and language arts programs for schools. Its books draw on Ignatian prayer and discernment.

The site no longer carries a submissions page, and Loyola publishes no current route for new authors. Check its About page for contact details if you have a strong Ignatian project.

11. TAN Books

TAN Books is a family-owned traditional Catholic publisher near Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 1967 and part of Saint Benedict Press since 2008, it has more than 1,000 titles in Thomistic theology, traditional devotions, doctrine, Church history, Scripture, and the lives of the saints.

Its submissions page explains that TAN can take on only a small share of the proposals it receives, that staff will contact you if they want to pursue your book, and that you should look elsewhere if you hear nothing in two months. It gives no address or form for sending work, so treat TAN as a long shot. Submission guidelines.

12. Emmaus Road Publishing (St. Paul Center)

Emmaus Road Publishing is the trade imprint of the St. Paul Center, the Steubenville, Ohio, institute Scott Hahn founded in 2001 to help Catholics read Scripture within the Church’s tradition. It publishes Bible studies, devotional books, and children’s titles, many by the Center’s own scholars.

Emmaus Road has no published submission page. Its scholarly sister imprint, Emmaus Academic, does post guidelines for academic manuscripts, so that is the route if your book is a work of scholarship. Emmaus Academic guidelines.

13. Angelus Press

Fr. Carl Pulvermacher, OFM, founded Angelus Press in Dickinson, Texas, in 1978, and Archbishop Lefebvre made it the official English-language publisher of the Society of St. Pius X. Now based in Saint Marys, Kansas, it is the communications arm of the Society’s U.S. District, publishing missals, theology, devotional works, and The Angelus magazine.

Angelus releases a small number of carefully chosen titles each season and publishes no author guidelines. Its contact form is the only way in.

14. Cluny Media

Cluny Media, an independent press in Providence, Rhode Island, was established in 2015 by the Dornay and Clarke families and has been run since 2017 by editor-in-chief John Emmet Clarke and Scott Thompson. It restores neglected Catholic books: each of its more than 300 titles is digitized, edited, retypeset, and given new cover art, and its ALLTA line brings illustrated classics to young readers.

Titles are chosen by the editor-in-chief, and the site has no submissions page.

15. Loreto Publications

Loreto Publications is a Catholic missionary apostolate in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, founded in May 1999 and named after the Litany of Loreto. It republishes works it considers fully in line with Catholic dogma and morals: apologetics, lives of the saints, Catholic social teaching, traditional missals, and the writings of Fr. Denis Fahey.

The site offers a general contact form but no author guidelines.

16. Mediatrix Press

Mediatrix Press is a small, family-run imprint that brings pre-Vatican II Catholic books back into print and publishes first English translations, such as St. John Fisher’s defense of the seven sacraments. Its books are printed on demand in paperback and hardcover, with ebook editions.

Mediatrix chooses the older works it restores and translates, and its site has no section for authors.

17. Sensus Traditionis Press

Sensus Traditionis Press is the publishing arm of Sensus Traditionis, the apostolate of Fr. Chad Ripperger, which aims to defend orthodox Catholic belief and encourage serious study of theology and philosophy. Its catalog spans prayer and devotion, theology, psychology, and sermons, including Deliverance Prayers: For Use by the Laity.

The press publishes the apostolate’s own work and lists no route for outside authors. Its contact page handles orders only.

18. The Word Among Us Press

The Word Among Us Press is the book arm of The Word Among Us in Frederick, Maryland, best known for its monthly magazine of daily Mass readings and meditations. Its recent list includes books by Fr. Jacques Philippe and Fr. Mike Schmitz, and it sells in bulk to parishes.

Its site has no book-submission page. The ministry’s article guidelines cover personal testimonies for the magazine, not book manuscripts.

19. Tumblar House

Tumblar House began in 2001 as the publisher of William L. Biersach’s Father Baptist mysteries and now works mainly as a personalized Catholic bookstore in Sierra Madre, California. It still sells its own lines, including books by Charles A. Coulombe.

Its contact page sends would-be authors to a partner, Rivershore Books, a separate company that charges between $1,000 and $2,000 for its publishing packages. That is paid self-publishing, so compare it with your other self-publishing options before you sign anything.

Catholic publishers not taking unagented work right now

20. Ascension Press

Ascension Press in Exton, Pennsylvania, publishes Catholic faith formation: the Great Adventure Bible study, Theology of the Body resources, and sacramental preparation programs, with authors such as Jeff Cavins, Fr. Mike Schmitz, and Edward Sri.

Its contact page states that Ascension is not accepting submissions. An older PDF of guidelines is still online, but it no longer applies.

21. Paraclete Press

Paraclete Press is the publishing house of the Community of Jesus, an ecumenical Benedictine community on Cape Cod, and has published for more than 40 years. It is an ecumenical Christian publisher with Catholic, evangelical, mainline, and Orthodox authors, and its lists include Paraclete Essentials, San Damiano Books, fiction, poetry, and sacred music.

Paraclete is not accepting unsolicited proposals from authors who have not published with it. Agents can send proposals, and existing authors write directly to their editor. Its design studio sells services to self-publishing authors, which is a separate, paid offer. Submission guidelines.

22. Baronius Press

Baronius Press, founded in 2002 and named for the 16th-century historian Cardinal Caesar Baronius, re-typesets traditional Catholic classics in durable editions. Its more than 60 titles include the Douay-Rheims Bible, the 1962 Daily Missal, Divine Intimacy, and the 1963 Roman Breviary.

Baronius does not accept manuscripts, because its schedule is already full of classics to bring back into print. FAQ.

23. Twenty-Third Publications

Twenty-Third Publications was founded in 1967, in the wake of Vatican II, and takes its name from Pope John XXIII. Part of Bayard and based in New London, Connecticut, it serves catechists, parish leaders, and RCIA teams with books, newsletters, and programs such as The Threshold Bible Study and Divine Renovation.

Twenty-Third is not accepting unsolicited manuscripts right now. When it reopens, its guidelines ask for your qualifications, an overview and audience, the book’s introduction, an annotated table of contents, and one or two sample chapters, emailed as Word files. Submission guidelines.

Names you may be looking for

Franciscan Media

Franciscan Media, the Cincinnati ministry of the Franciscan friars behind St. Anthony Messenger and its books since 1893, ended its operations at the end of 2025. Its free daily features, such as Saint of the Day and Minute Meditations, continue online, but there is no submissions route.

Final Thoughts

Nine Catholic publishers on this list will read your proposal without an agent, and each one has a clear shape: Sophia and Ave Maria want accessible books for everyday Catholics, Liturgical Press and Orbis lean toward Scripture, liturgy, and theology, and Ignatius takes everything from apologetics to fiction. Pick the two or three whose recent books look most like yours, follow their guidelines to the letter, and be patient with response times. If your book speaks to Christians of every tradition, my list of Christian book publishers is the next place to look.