30 Best Publishers for First-Time Authors (12 Open Now)

Finding the right publisher as a first-time author should not be a difficult task. Whether you write novels, poetry, memoir, or practical nonfiction, here is where 30 well-known publishers stand today, and exactly how to reach the ones that will read your work.

Below you’ll find them grouped by how you get in. Twelve take submissions from writers without an agent, from Baen and Harlequin to Chronicle Books and Skyhorse. Three are self-publishing and hybrid routes, where you decide when your book comes out. Five literary presses read only during announced windows, and ten, including the Big Five, are best approached through a literary agent. For each one you’ll find what it publishes, what to send, and where its own guidelines live. If none of them fits your book, browse my directory of 2,000+ publishers.

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.

Publishers that accept submissions from first-time authors

1. Baen

Jim Baen founded Baen Books in 1983, and from Wake Forest, North Carolina, it has become one of the best-known science fiction and fantasy houses, with a loyal fan community and an early lead in ebooks.

Baen accepts unagented manuscripts through its own submission form, which makes it one of the few large genre publishers a debut novelist can reach directly. Send the complete novel with no query letter needed, and aim for 100,000 to 130,000 words. Email submissions are no longer used. Submission guidelines.

2. Harlequin Enterprises

Harlequin was founded in Winnipeg in 1949, and this Canadian book publisher, now part of HarperCollins, is the name most readers think of when they hear category romance. Its series lines run from inspirational love stories to romantic suspense, and its Afterglow and Carina imprints add longer romance and romantasy.

Harlequin accepts unagented manuscripts for its series lines, Afterglow, and Carina through Submittable only, and emailed submissions are deleted. Pitch one series with one manuscript at a time and expect a reply within about twelve weeks. Depending on the line you send the full manuscript or three chapters with a synopsis, and Afterglow wants 75,000 words or more with a query letter and a three-to-five-page synopsis. Love Inspired Trade works only with agents.

Harlequin Special Edition has a “Hometown Happily Ever After” call open through October 31, 2026. Harlequin never charges authors, so treat anyone claiming to be one of its editors and asking for money as a scam. Submission guidelines.

3. Turner Books

Turner Publishing has worked out of Nashville, Tennessee, since 1984 and has appeared more than once on Publishers Weekly’s list of fastest-growing publishers. Its catalog of more than 5,000 titles covers history, current events, business, psychology, science, health, and cookbooks, plus romance, fantasy, thrillers, and literary fiction.

Turner accepts queries from unagented authors through QueryTracker. Fiction needs the complete manuscript as a Word file, and nonfiction needs a detailed proposal with word count, completion date, a synopsis, marketing details, and your author platform. It does not take picture books or other children’s books, novellas, story collections, or fiction anthologies, and it may not reply if it passes. Turner pays advances and never charges authors, and it has no connection to a paid service called Turner Book Writers. Submission guidelines.

4. Skyhorse Publishing

Tony Lyons founded Skyhorse Publishing in New York City in 2006, and it has grown into one of the biggest independent publishers in the US, with a list that runs from history, sports, and current events to humor, business, health, and true crime.

Skyhorse accepts submissions by email. Its list of categories runs from sports, history, business, and humor to fiction and literary nonfiction, and you name the one that fits your book in the subject line. Submission guidelines.

5. Chronicle Books

Chronicle Books, a large independent publisher based in San Francisco, is known for books where the design matters as much as the words, from cookbooks and art books to picture books, games, and gifts.

Chronicle accepts unagented submissions by email under an open submissions policy. Its adult list is nonfiction: cooking, fine art, design, photography, pop culture, fashion, beauty, and home decor, plus gift formats. It does not acquire adult fiction, so novelists should look elsewhere on this list. Submission guidelines.

6. Chicago Review Press

Chicago Review Press publishes history, biography, memoir, popular culture, and books for young readers, though not picture books. Its imprints include Lawrence Hill Books, Academy Chicago, Parenting Press, Amberjack, Interlude, and Council Oak.

Chicago Review Press accepts proposals from authors as well as agents. Email a one-sentence summary, a synopsis of one or two paragraphs, and your estimated final word count to the address on its page for authors and agents. Information for authors.

7. Gibbs Smith

Gibbs M. Smith founded Gibbs Smith in 1969, and from Layton, Utah, it publishes interior design, architecture, cookbooks, crafts, humor, and gift books, along with board books and other children’s titles.

Gibbs Smith accepts proposals by email only. Send a description of the subject, a market analysis, your qualifications, a promotion plan, an outline, and a writing sample, keeping attachments under 3 MB. For a children’s book, add an illustration sample; activity books should stay under 15,000 words. It replies only if interested, within about twelve weeks, and simultaneous submissions are fine. Submission guidelines.

8. Page Street Publishing

Page Street Publishing, an independent publishing company in Massachusetts founded in 2012, publishes young adult fiction, horror included, alongside illustrated nonfiction on cooking, sports, science, nature, interior design, crafts, and parenting.

Page Street accepts queries for young adult fiction by email or through its online form. Put a one-page query and your first three chapters in the body of the email, with a synopsis, word count, category, short bio, and your social media presence. It looks for edited, proofread manuscripts of 60,000 to 90,000 words with a protagonist aged 15 to 18, and it does not publish board books, early readers, chapter books, or middle grade. Guidelines for each nonfiction category sit on the same page. Submission guidelines.

9. Epicenter Press

Epicenter Press was founded in Fairbanks in 1988 and is a regional publishing house in Alaska. It publishes books about the people, history, and landscapes of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest: memoir, biography, history, humor, true crime, Native culture, and regional fiction.

Epicenter accepts queries from unagented authors by email. Send four Word files: a one-paragraph query letter, your first 50 pages, a three-to-five-page synopsis, and a bio with your promotion plan. It prefers 50,000 to 100,000 words and does not want horror, science fiction, fantasy, poetry, children’s books, previously published books, or AI-generated writing. If you have not heard back in four months, it asks you to send your query again. Submission guidelines.

10. Black & White Publishing

Campbell Brown and Alison McBride founded Black & White Publishing in Edinburgh in 1999, and it is now one of Scotland’s largest publishers, with more than 200 books in print by writers such as Andrew Cotter, Estelle Maskame, Coinneach MacLeod, and Peter Sawkins.

Black & White accepts proposals for nonfiction by email. Send a one-page proposal in English; celebrity memoir, biography, sport, and humor top its wish list. Fiction works differently: it stopped taking unsolicited fiction from authors in October 2019 and reopens only in announced windows, though agents can still send it novels. Submission guidelines.

11. Persea Books

Michael Braziller founded Persea Books in New York City in 1975, and it is known for literary work of lasting value: poetry, fiction, essays, and creative nonfiction, from Anzia Yezierska and Christine de Pizan to Oscar Hijuelos and Carl Friedman.

Persea is not taking unsolicited fiction or nonfiction at the moment, but poets have a clear route. Persea accepts queries from poets by email with up to twelve sample pages, and the editors ask for more if they are interested. It also runs the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry, made for exactly the writer this list is for. Submission guidelines.

12. Unsolicited Press

Unsolicited Press publishes literary fiction, poetry, essays, memoir, short story collections, experimental work, and narrative nonfiction, and as its name suggests it reads work from emerging and mid-career writers who do not have agents.

Unsolicited Press accepts unagented submissions year round. Send a query letter with the full manuscript for fiction or poetry, or several chapters for nonfiction, as Word files. It does not take previously self-published books or formula genre fiction. Two things to weigh before you send: it charges a one-time $5 submission fee that covers every future submission, and it sells optional paid feedback, although neither affects acceptance. It takes fewer than 1% of the manuscripts it receives, and replies take at least six months. Writer guidelines.

Self-publishing and hybrid routes

13. IngramSpark

IngramSpark is the self-publishing platform of Ingram Content Group, one of the world’s largest book wholesalers. A print book or ebook you set up there can be ordered by bookshops and libraries through Ingram’s catalog, which is the main reason indie authors choose it.

There is no submission to pass, because you are the publisher. Opening an account and uploading a print or ebook file costs nothing; you pay the printing cost of each copy, and a distribution fee comes out of each sale. Pricing.

14. Lulu

Bob Young founded Lulu in 2002, and it is one of the longest-running self-publishing platforms. You upload an interior PDF and a cover PDF, and Lulu prints your book on demand, whether that is a paperback, a hardcover, an ebook, a photo book, or a planner.

There is no submission to pass. Creating an account, uploading, and editing are free, printing is charged at cost with no minimum order, and production takes about three to five business days. You keep control of your design and files, and Lulu offers free templates plus a distribution guide for selling through retailers such as Amazon. Publishing toolkit.

15. She Writes Press

She Writes Press is a hybrid publisher for women authors, founded in 2012 by Brooke Warner and Kamy Wicoff. It is now an imprint of The Stable Book Group, based in Phoenix, Arizona, and Simon & Schuster has distributed its books to the trade since August 2024.

As a hybrid, it asks you to invest in a publishing package, and in return you keep up to 70% of net royalties and get professional editing, design, and distribution. Manuscripts come in only through its submit page, with a $40 submission fee, and it is currently acquiring books for its Summer 2028 list. Its annual STEP contest awards two full publishing packages and a 500-copy print run to women writers of color; the ninth round ran from June 29 to September 10, 2026. How to submit.

Literary presses that open in windows

16. Graywolf Press

Graywolf Press is a nonprofit literary book publisher in Minnesota, founded in 1974. It publishes about thirty books a year, mostly poetry, memoir, essays, novels, and short stories, and it has a long record of launching new voices.

Graywolf is not accepting submissions outside its announced calls and prizes, and its submission manager currently shows no open calls. Bookmark that page, because Graywolf’s calls are one of the few ways a new literary writer can reach a press of its standing without an agent. Submission manager.

17. Tin House

Tin House is a literary publisher in Portland, Oregon, known for award-winning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Its magazine ran in print for 20 years, and it still hosts workshops and a podcast for writers.

Tin House is closed to submissions right now, and its Submittable page shows no open calls. It has run short, fee-free windows for unagented writers before, including one for debut novels and novellas, so watch its site and Submittable page for the next one. Submission manager.

18. Coffee House Press

Coffee House Press is a nonprofit publisher in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, that describes itself as working at the vanguard of experimental literature. It publishes literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and world literature in translation, and it has long been one of the few established presses to read full manuscripts from unagented writers.

Coffee House is not accepting submissions while its open reading periods are paused, because the volume outgrew its small staff, and it has set no date to reopen. It will post any news on its submissions page, and it warns that emails impersonating its staff are fraudulent. Submissions page.

19. Two Dollar Radio

Eric Obenauf and Eliza Wood-Obenauf founded Two Dollar Radio in 2005, and this family-run publishing company in Columbus, Ohio, publishes bold literary fiction and nonfiction and also makes independent films.

Two Dollar Radio is closed to submissions while it works through a backlog, and it may reopen only in limited windows. When it does, it takes completed manuscripts through Submittable only, asks for a note on why it is the right home for your book, and does not publish poetry. Submission guidelines.

20. Small Beer Press

Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant founded Small Beer Press in 2000, and from Easthampton, Massachusetts, it publishes literary fantasy, short story collections, poetry, and books that ignore the line between genres.

Small Beer is closed to submissions for books right now, as both its homepage and its guidelines page say, and it publishes a clear policy on AI. Submission guidelines.

Publishers to approach through a literary agent

21. Penguin Random House

Penguin Random House is the largest trade publisher in the world, formed when Penguin and Random House merged in 2013, and it is run from New York City, the center of book publishing in New York. Its imprints, among them Knopf, Doubleday, Viking, Berkley, and Crown, cover almost every shelf in a bookshop, from literary fiction, mystery, and fantasy to cookbooks, children’s books, history, and biography.

Penguin Random House does not accept unsolicited manuscripts, proposals, or query letters, so the main way in is a literary agent. The exceptions are short open-submission programs run by individual imprints, such as the Berkley Open Submission Program for unagented adult fiction, which opens for brief windows. If you write commercial fiction, it pays to watch the imprint pages. How to get published.

22. HarperCollins

HarperCollins is one of the Big Five, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan. Its roots go back to 1817 in New York, and today it publishes in 17 countries and 16 languages across fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, young adult, and reference. Its authors have won the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and the Booker Prize.

HarperCollins does not accept unsolicited submissions. One imprint is the standing exception: Heartdrum, its children’s and young adult list for Native voices, takes submissions directly when they fit its focus. Submission guidelines.

23. Simon & Schuster

Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster founded Simon & Schuster in 1924, and a century later it is still one of the Big Five, publishing fiction and nonfiction for readers of every age. Its books are regular winners of the biggest prizes, including David Blight’s Frederick Douglass, which took the Pulitzer Prize in History.

Simon & Schuster does not accept unsolicited manuscripts or artwork, so your book has to reach it through a literary agent. Its FAQ points unagented writers to Archway Publishing, a paid self-publishing service, which is a very different offer from a trade publishing deal.

24. Hachette Book Group

Hachette Book Group, often shortened to HBG, is the American arm of France’s Hachette Livre, and its imprints include Little, Brown, Grand Central, Orbit, and Workman. Together they publish romance novels, fantasy, nonfiction, self-help, travel, and books for children and teens.

HBG’s publishers cannot consider unsolicited manuscripts or queries, and anything sent unasked is not returned. Within its Workman division, Storey Publishing and Timber Press post their own proposal guidelines, so read them if your book is about gardening, homesteading, crafts, or the natural world. Submission guidelines.

25. Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury is the London house that first published Harry Potter, and one of the best-known book publishers in the UK. With a US headquarters in New York, it publishes literary fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books alongside a large academic list.

Bloomsbury no longer accepts unsolicited manuscripts, so its trade fiction and nonfiction lists need a literary agent. The routes without an agent are Bloomsbury Academic, which takes proposals from academics, and three specialist imprints, Adlard Coles, Conway, and GreenTree, which take unsolicited submissions directly. Submission guidelines.

26. Sourcebooks

Dominique Raccah founded Sourcebooks in 1987, and it has grown into one of the largest independent publishing companies in Illinois, with lists in romance, fiction, memoir, history, self-help, and children’s books.

Sourcebooks no longer posts submission guidelines, and its old guidelines page now leads to a not-found notice, so most of its authors reach it through agents. Its page on publishing scams confirms that it never charges authors a reading fee.

27. Counterpoint Press

Counterpoint Press is a California-based book publisher in Berkeley, part of Catapult Book Group and distributed by Penguin Random House. It publishes literary fiction, nonfiction, memoir, history, literary biography, religion and philosophy, natural history, and graphic novels.

Counterpoint does not accept unsolicited submissions, so you need a literary agent to reach it. It does not publish genre fiction such as romance or science fiction, art books, cookbooks, how-to, YA, or children’s books, and it is not reading poetry at the moment. Submissions page.

28. Melville House

Melville House was founded in 2001 and named after the author of Moby-Dick. From Brooklyn and London it publishes literary fiction, political and activist nonfiction, books about food, and a classics series called The Art of the Novella, and its authors include two Nobel laureates, Imre Kertész and Heinrich Böll.

Melville House does not accept unsolicited submissions, so you need an agent to reach it. It also warns that unexpected emails claiming to come from its staff are not genuine. Submissions policy.

29. Europa Editions

Sandro Ferri and Sandra Ozzola Ferri founded Europa Editions in 2005 to bring contemporary fiction from around the world to English-language readers, and it became the English-language home of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels. Most of its list is translated literary fiction, with a strong line in international crime.

Europa does not accept unsolicited submissions. It also warns that scammers pose as its editors to ask writers for manuscripts, so trust only messages you can confirm through its official address. Contact page.

30. Akashic Books

Johnny Temple founded Akashic Books in Brooklyn in 1997, and it is best known for its Noir series of city-based crime anthologies, alongside literary fiction, memoir, poetry, and books about music.

Akashic is not accepting submissions of any kind, and it has ended its flash fiction web series such as Mondays Are Murder. Its submissions page points writers to IBPA, The Center for Fiction, and CLMP for other opportunities, and its homepage warns about people impersonating its staff. Submissions page.

Final Thoughts

If this is your first book, start with the twelve publishers at the top of this list: each one will read your work without an agent, and each has a clear shape. Baen and Harlequin want genre fiction, Page Street wants young adult novels, and Chronicle, Skyhorse, Gibbs Smith, and Chicago Review Press are strongest for nonfiction. Pick the two or three whose recent books look most like yours, follow their guidelines to the letter, and give them time to answer. If you would rather keep control and publish on your own schedule, IngramSpark and Lulu are ready when you are. And if you are aiming for one of the big houses, your next step is a guide to the top literary agencies.