30 Australian Book Publishers (12 Accept Manuscripts)

Australian publishing has spent the last two years consolidating, and a list written before that will send you to doors that have since been closed, absorbed or sold.

Australian trade publishing has consolidated hard, so start with where each door stands today. Twelve are open to unagented writers without charging you, eight of them right now and four inside a window or a competition. One more takes submissions but charges a reading fee, and two others sell publishing packages. Ten are closed at the moment, several with published reopening dates. And five have changed into something else: one publishes no submissions page at all, one has been absorbed into another publisher further down, one is now a speakers agency, and two domains have been parked or put up for sale. No agent required for any of the twelve. For the wider view, browse the database of over 3,000 book publishers, or the city lists for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

Windows and ownership change without notice, so check the publisher’s own page before you send anything. Last verified: August 1, 2026.

Open To Unagented Manuscripts Right Now

Eight publishers a writer can send to today, without an agent, a fee or a window to wait for. Read each one’s genre limits before you spend a week on a proposal, because several are narrower than their size suggests.

1. Allen & Unwin

Allen & Unwin accepts unsolicited submissions, and The Friday Pitch is the most established open-submissions system in Australian publishing. Work in any genre goes to an in-house Submission Editor and not into a slush pile nobody owns. The guidelines add a line worth quoting because it saves people a week of waiting: despite its name, The Friday Pitch is open to submissions all week.

Routes are split by genre: adult fiction, non-fiction and illustrated; children’s and young adult; and a separate New Zealand stream. Follow the link for yours instead of sending to the general address. Beyond the pitch it runs the Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award, the Allen & Unwin Crime Fiction Prize, a First Nations Picture Book Mentorship and a Picture Book Portal. Electronic submissions only: anything posted in hard copy is recycled unread.

2. Hachette Australia

Hachette Australia accepts submissions from residents of Australia or New Zealand, which makes it one of the very few publishers of its size anywhere with a standing open door. There are two portals: adult work goes to manuscript.submission@hachette.com.au, children’s and young adult to Childrens.Submissions@hachette.com.au.

Put the title and genre in the subject line, and use the body of the email for a cover letter with your contact details, a short summary, the intended audience and any comparable authors or titles. It is not looking for illustrated books, cookbooks, poetry, screenplays or academic works. It will not give feedback on unsuccessful submissions, but its page does something better than most, listing every state writers’ centre for anyone who wants development before submitting.

3. Text Publishing

Text Publishing accepts submissions and says so in five words at the top of its page: it is open for submissions. Australian and New Zealand citizens and residents only, one manuscript per person at a time, through a form and not by email.

Word counts are specified: 10,000 to 80,000 for junior fiction and middle grade, 40,000 to 120,000 for adult and young adult, no requirement for graphic novels. Simultaneous submissions are welcome as long as you say so in the covering letter. About three months to a decision. It is not considering poetry, play scripts, screenplays, picture books, activity or poster books, individual short stories, technical manuals, cookbooks, how-to guides, travel guides or educational textbooks, and it warns that missing a guideline means the manuscript is not read at all.

The ownership has changed recently, and it matters for how you plan. Text’s own news feed carries the announcement that Text Publishing has joined Penguin Random House, in a deal covering all of the company, so entry 3 and entry 13 now sit inside one group, even though Text still runs its own submissions and Penguin’s are shut. The same feed says farewell to the Text Prize after sixteen years, while asking writers to keep sending manuscripts.

4. Hardie Grant

Hardie Grant Publishing accepts submissions through a general form: a brief overview of the project plus any supporting material. It reviews everything it receives but does not reply individually, and will make contact only if it wants to pursue your book.

Two things to get right here. Most lists link the children’s submissions page, and Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing is separately closed for unsolicited submissions, so that link leads to the one division that is shut. Use the general form above. And Hardie Grant is larger than it looks: its imprints include Hardie Grant Books, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing, Hardie Grant Explore, Hardie Grant North America, Ultimo Press and Pantera Press, which appears further down this same list as though it were a separate company. It also runs the Ampersand Prize and the Little Hare Illustration Prize. The list spans food and drink, art and photography, travel, design, biography and illustrated books.

5. Black Inc.

Black Inc. accepts proposals, on a rhythm you can set a reminder for: the first week of every month, the 1st to the 7th, by email only. Anything sent by post is not read, and anything sent on the 8th waits for next month.

You get automatic confirmation of receipt and a reply within eight weeks only if it wants to take the conversation further; there is no editorial feedback and nothing is discussed by phone. Note what is currently excluded, because it is most of what a first-time novelist would send: unsolicited fiction, poetry, plays and scripts, young adult, middle grade and picture books, and the page adds that anything generated by artificial intelligence is refused. What remains is where Black Inc. is strongest anyway: politics, essays, current affairs and serious non-fiction. Its La Trobe University Press imprint publishes to separate guidelines on the same page.

6. Melbourne University Publishing

Melbourne University Publishing accepts proposals through Submittable, and as Australia’s first university press it is the natural home for a book that started life as research. It publishes scholarly and trade non-fiction aligned with Melbourne University’s academic strengths, plus lavishly illustrated books on national history, art, photography, architecture and gardens through its Miegunyah Press imprint.

Send a detailed chapter breakdown, a sample chapter, preferably the opening or introduction, and details of any illustrations. Hard-copy proposals are not read. All scholarly titles go through two blind peer reviews and an Editorial Advisory Board. Allow three months; no answer after twelve weeks means move on. It does not publish fiction, children’s books, poetry, how-to guides or textbooks. The page linked above also carries a very good guide to rewriting a thesis into a book.

7. Big Sky Publishing

Big Sky Publishing accepts manuscripts, and then narrows the field harder than any other open publisher here. Its page is in capitals about it: it is only accepting non-fiction, and asks that you not send children’s or fiction titles because they will not be reviewed. Within non-fiction it names three areas: history, military history and true crime.

If your book is one of those, this is a real and unusually accessible route. Send a synopsis of no more than one page, the first four chapters double spaced (or the complete manuscript), and a two-to-four page overview covering why someone would read the book, the target audience, similar titles and how yours differs, key selling points, and your writing background and networks. Four months of silence means it has not gone further, and it suggests a professional manuscript assessment if you want a report on the work itself.

8. Federation Press

The Federation Press accepts proposals in law and related disciplines, and it is the entry here that most actively wants people who have not published before. It runs the biannual Holt Prize specifically to find and support new authors, and says on the same page that it encourages first-time authors to publish with it.

A proposal wants the rationale in about 100 words, the proposed length including footnotes and its current status, a draft chapter outline with 50-word abstracts and word counts, roughly 100 words on what qualifies you to write it, the subject categories, the competitive advantage over rival books, and the intended readership. Email it to publishing@federationpress.com.au. Receipt is acknowledged within two weeks and a decision usually comes in one to three months. Books are produced locally with in-house editors, so you deal with your editor directly.

Open, But Only In A Window Or A Competition

Four more publishers are open on a fixed calendar. Diarise these instead of emailing today, because three of the four bin anything that arrives outside the window without reading it.

9. Scribe Publications

Scribe accepts unsolicited submissions, from unagented writers, and then defines exactly when. To cope with the volume it reads only during seasonal three-week windows, which for 2026 are 1 to 21 April and 1 to 21 September. Anything received outside those periods is neither read nor responded to.

What goes in is a pitch and a short writing sample in the body of an email. Attachments, multiple submissions and hard copies are all refused outright, and it warns that submissions ignoring the requirements will not be read: “don’t go to all that effort for nothing”. It is a trade publisher interested broadly in literary fiction and serious non-fiction, and it is not taking poetry, plays, young adult fiction, individual short stories or children’s picture books, the last of which belongs to its Scribble imprint and its own window.

10. Pan Macmillan Australia

Pan Macmillan Australia accepts submissions during named periods, and its 2026 Winter and Spring windows fall in July and October. Submit one manuscript per category per period, and expect it to be read within the period and not instantly.

Postal submissions are refused at any time. It is not taking picture books, poetry, scripts, plays, textbooks or other academic texts. Like several publishers here it now states an AI policy explicitly: it checks for AI-generated content and does not publish AI-generated material. The page asks you to polish both the sample and your answers to its questions, and to look through the catalogue first, which is reasonable advice at a house that publishes across sport, cooking, fiction and children’s genres.

11. UWA Publishing

UWA Publishing accepts submissions through one route and one month: fiction, narrative non-fiction and poetry for the Dorothy Hewett Award, in November. The rest of the year the page is explicit: it is not accepting general adult fiction, poetry, YA or children’s manuscripts, and any change will be announced there.

Two details make the November window better than most competitions: there is no submission fee, and you may submit multiple manuscripts. Everything goes through Submittable; no picture books. The press highly encourages writers who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, and it cannot give feedback on work it turns down. Formatting is specified down to the font size, 11 or 12 point in a standard face.

12. Stringybark Stories

Stringybark Stories accepts submissions to its competitions, and understanding what it actually is will save you a wasted email. It is not a book publisher you send a manuscript to. It is a short story competition organiser that publishes its winners. Prize-winning and highly commended entries go into its anthologies, sold through its own bookshop.

The site lists open competitions, future competitions and past ones with entry conditions attached, and results for the Stringybark Open Award 2026 are already up. Themes vary between competitions, so there is usually something to write towards. Judging is on the writing and not the name attached to it, which is the point of the thing. Its newsletter, The Black Stump, announces new competitions and results.

Closed Right Now

Ten publishers that are trading and publishing but will not read your manuscript today. Four publish the date they reopen, which makes them calendar entries and not dead ends.

13. Penguin Random House Australia

Penguin Random House Australia is closed to submissions on both sides of the house: its getting-published page reads “Adult submissions are currently closed” and, immediately below, “Children’s submissions are currently closed.”

That is worth re-checking instead of abandoning, because the page explains the structure: there is an adult division and a children’s division, each with its own guidelines and its own open and closed periods, and it asks that you only submit when the relevant one is accepting. It is also now the parent of Text Publishing, which is entry 3 above and is open: the same corporate group, two very different answers. Penguin’s footer carries an “Avoid publishing scams” page, which is a sign of how much fraudulent activity trades on names this size.

14. Harlequin Books

Harlequin does not accept submissions at the moment: “Due to the high number of submissions received, the HQ submissions inbox is currently closed.” The page apologises to anyone still waiting on a reply, which suggests a backlog and not a policy change.

When it is open, the HQ list at HarperCollins Australia covers gritty crime, layered historical novels, romance and contemporary book-club fiction, and it rules out erotica, horror, children’s and young adult fiction, with a warning that sending those anyway is unlikely to get a reply. The address has moved: the live page is now under /pages/hq-books-submissions, not the older /harlequin-books-submissions/ path.

15. Fremantle Press

Fremantle Press is closed to submissions today and publishes every date it reopens, which makes it the most plannable entry here. Fiction, narrative non-fiction and short stories reopen on 1 October 2026 and close on 12 December 2026. Poetry reopens on 15 March 2027 and stays open for six weeks.

The standing policy is geographic and generous within its limits: when a window is running it reads work by authors of Western Australian origin or whose main place of residence is Western Australia, and considers writing by others where the subject matter has a strong Western Australian connection. Any use of AI must be disclosed at the end of your synopsis. It also runs two awards that are routes in their own right: the biennial Fogarty Literary Award for Western Australian writers aged 18 to 35, worth $20,000 and a publishing contract, and the Hungerford Award for an unpublished Western Australian writer.

16. Walker Australia

Walker Books Australia does not accept submissions from un-agented writers. That is the whole of the manuscript policy.

Illustrators are treated completely differently, and this is the useful half of the entry: Australian and New Zealand based illustrators may email a portfolio of six to ten samples as JPEG or PDF, under 5MB, to illustratorsubmissions@walkerbooks.com.au with full contact details. It cannot reply to each one, but work that might suit the list is filed for future consideration. It asks that you not call to chase a submission, and the live page is /submissions/.

17. Ginninderra Press

Ginninderra Press is not accepting submissions, and you can tell before the page even loads, because the URL is /submission-portal-closed/. Its text confirms it: the submission portal is currently closed, with updates promised on the site when it opens again.

The page is more useful than most closure notices because it sets expectations for when the portal does reopen: roughly twelve weeks from submission to hearing back if your work is accepted, and then twelve to eighteen months to publication. The press has long been one of the more accessible small publishers in Australia, taking poetry and fiction from writers without a track record, and it now operates from PO Box 2, Bentleigh, Victoria.

18. Margaret River Press

Margaret River Press is not accepting unsolicited manuscripts, or “not accepting any”, in its own words. The sentence is easy to miss, which is the point worth making about this entry: it sits in the middle of a fully detailed set of guidelines, Word document, 12 point font, double line spacing, 3.5cm margins, send three chapters, so a writer skimming for formatting rules will format a manuscript nobody is going to read.

The Western Australian press built its reputation on short story anthologies and remains active. It notes that it cannot give critical feedback given the volume it receives, and that submitting adds you to its mailing list automatically. One quirk: its homepage returns an error to automated tools while the submissions page itself loads normally, so an automated check sees the opposite of the truth here.

19. Tenth Street Press

Tenth Street Press is closed to submissions for the year, and the status arrives as a parenthesis inside an otherwise welcoming sentence: the page describes itself as open to unrepresented authors and reading work without an agent, then adds in brackets: currently closed for 2026.

Worth watching, because the terms it publishes are unusually clear for a small press. It is a royalty-paying publisher working between Melbourne, London and Seattle, distributing internationally in print and electronically, with copyright staying with the author. It prefers 40,000 to 90,000 words, wants a Word .doc file, and says plainly that it can guarantee no sales volumes and pays no advances. Its list is humour, noir-esque thrillers and historical sexuality; it is not looking for general romance, fantasy, poetry, children’s books, young adult, war stories, memoirs, Christianity or diet books.

20. Cohesion Press

Cohesion Press is closed to submissions between anthology calls, which is how this horror publisher has always worked. There is no standing inbox, only the current call. The most recent, SNAFU: Level Up, wanted LitRPG stories of 2,500 to 12,000 words at 5 Australian cents a word, and is marked “Submissions NOW CLOSED”.

This is a page to bookmark, not abandon: the next call appears in the same place, the SNAFU military-horror anthologies have been running for years, and the rate is real money for short fiction. The site also carries one of the more direct AI policies in publishing: “WE DON’T USE AI, SO YOU CAN’T EITHER!”

21. Echo Publishing

Echo Publishing does not accept submissions, and this is the most misleading entry on the page for anyone checking quickly. The site looks wide open: the navigation carries a Submissions link, and the homepage has a panel headed “Get Published” that says “we look forward to reading your work”. Click either and you get a 404. The site links to its own dead submissions page.

The reason is upstream. The Bookseller reported that Bonnier Books UK would cease acquisitions for its Australian imprint Echo Publishing, effective immediately. The publisher is still very much alive, with new titles and author events through 2026; it just is not taking anything new on. Both the /submissions/ and /submissions paths its own menu points at return nothing.

22. Giramondo Publishing

Giramondo is closed to submissions at the moment. Its page explains the pattern and not just the state: the Sydney press accepts unsolicited book submissions for a limited period each year through Submittable, and that period is not currently running. The newsletter is where the next window is announced, so subscribing is the practical move.

Two other doors on the same site stay open and are often missed. Giramondo publishes HEAT magazine, which takes submissions through its own separate page and is a serious route into the press’s attention. And it runs two competitions, the Novel Prize and the Poetry in Translation Prize. It also expects writers who submit to have read what it publishes, which for a press with a list this distinctive is not a formality.

Where The Author Pays

Three companies here charge the writer. None of them hides it, and the fees and packages are on their own sites, but a list of publishers “accepting manuscripts” should say which way the money moves. A publisher pays you; a service charges you.

23. Interactive Publications

IP accepts submissions, with a condition that is the single largest cost a writer meets anywhere here: “All unsolicited submissions are subject to an initial reading fee of AUD179.”

That is disclosed plainly on its own services page, which is also where the shape of the business becomes clear: publishing support through manuscript development and production, professional editing, marketing strategies, collaborative editing and initial manuscript assessment. The Brisbane company has a real publishing history in poetry and fiction, and the fee buys an assessment and not a place in a queue. Whether that is worth $179 is a decision to make with your eyes open, and it is not the same proposition as the eight publishers at the top. The live page is /services/.

24. Vivid Publishing

Vivid Publishing does not accept unsolicited manuscripts for its no-fee contracts, and says so in the same sentence that offers you the paid alternative: it is not currently considering non-agented manuscript submissions for no-fee traditional publishing contracts, “however we can certainly assist in your venture to get published”, through fee-for-service publishing via the Vivid Publishing imprint.

That is an unusually honest way to put it, and it is exactly the distinction this section exists for. The free door is shut; the paid one is open. The Western Australian company’s own navigation keeps the two apart, with “For Authors – Getting Published” alongside “Custom Publishing” and bespoke work for businesses, and it publishes across business, fiction, general non-fiction, coffee-table, mind-body-spirit, self-help and children’s books. If you are weighing this route, compare it against the self-publishing companies that do the same job.

25. Aurora House

The navigation is the disclosure. Aurora House sells Self Publishing Packages, Publishing Packages, Book Cover Design as a full-range service, Manuscript Editing, Manuscript Assessment, Book Promotion Plans, book tours and trailers, and social media packages. The author buys a package; the company delivers it.

The Victorian company publishes across a broad genre list: fiction, historical, thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, young adult, children’s chapter books, plays, spiritual and business titles, and its site includes author testimonials and articles. It is a legitimate service, openly described. It is not an acquisitions route, so this entry makes no claim about what it reads.

Five That Are No Longer Publishers You Can Pitch

Five companies that have changed into something else. Each is worth knowing about, and none of them is a publisher waiting for your manuscript.

26. Ventura Press

Ventura Press publishes no submissions page at all. Its /submissions address is a 404, and the site’s whole navigation is About, Books, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Authors, Podcast and Contact Us, with no replacement anywhere on it.

The Sydney independent is trading and its list is current, across fiction and non-fiction. It simply does not publish a policy either way, so this entry makes no claim about whether it reads submissions. If you want to approach it, the contact page is the only address it gives. Its list would suit anyone looking at independent book publishers.

27. Pantera Press

Pantera Press is no longer an independent publisher and no longer has a website of its own. panterapress.com.au now redirects to Hardie Grant’s page for the imprint, which is why entry 4 and entry 27 are the same door.

The sequence matters if you were planning to submit. Founded in 2008 by John M. Green and his daughter Alison Green, Pantera built a reputation for backing emerging Australian writers. Hardie Grant acquired it in September 2024, keeping key publishing and marketing staff. In July 2026 Hardie Grant announced that future Pantera titles would be published across its other imprints and that Pantera staff would be departing. There is no separate submissions route; Hardie Grant’s general form is the live one.

28. Creative Kids Tales

Creative Kids Tales is not a publisher any more. The domain redirects to CKT Speakers Agency, which brings the magic of children’s literature to classrooms, festivals and conferences nationwide: a booking agency for authors and illustrators, with a navigation of About, Speakers, Promotions, News and Contact.

That is a real and useful business, just not this one: there is no publishing programme and no submissions route on the site, and the tracking-your-submissions address resolves into the agency site instead of any guidelines. If you write for children and want a publisher, the list of children’s book publishers is the better starting point; if you are already published and want school bookings, the agency is worth a look on its own terms.

29. Bareknuckle Books

The domain no longer serves the press. Both its homepage and its guidelines address return the same 114-byte document: a bare HTML shell whose only content is a script bouncing the browser to /lander, which is the standard shape of a parked domain waiting to be sold or monetised.

Searching turned up nothing about the press’s current status in either direction, so this entry makes no claim about whether Bareknuckle Books is still operating, only that its published address stopped being its address. If you went there expecting poetry guidelines, that is why you found nothing.

30. Papyrus

The domain is for sale. Both its homepage and its submissions.html address now return a four-kilobyte parking page, served in Polish: “Ta strona jest na sprzedaż!”, or “This page is for sale!” Anyone following the old link lands on a domain broker.

The entry described Papyrus Publishing’s Australian Multicultural Book Review, which took submissions three times a year. The National Library of Australia catalogues that journal as published by Papyrus Publishing of Upper Ferntree Gully, Victoria, and dates it 1993 to 2004. Nothing found establishes current trading, so this entry makes no claim about the company itself, only about where its address now leads.

Conclusion

For anyone with a finished manuscript and no agent: Allen & Unwin and Hachette Australia are the two large houses with standing open doors, and The Friday Pitch is the single best-known route into Australian publishing. Text Publishing is open and takes Australian and New Zealand writers only. If your book is history, military history or true crime, Big Sky Publishing is unusually accessible. If it is law or academic work, Federation Press actively wants first-time authors and runs a prize to find them.

If you are early, put four dates in a calendar: Scribe reads 1–21 April and 1–21 September, Pan Macmillan opens in July and October, Black Inc. takes proposals in the first week of every month, and UWA Publishing’s Dorothy Hewett Award runs in November. Fremantle Press reopens for fiction on 1 October 2026 and for poetry on 15 March 2027, Western Australian writers only.

Two habits are worth more here than any list. Read the publisher’s own submissions page before you send: Echo Publishing’s own menu still advertises a submissions page that returns a 404, and Margaret River Press buries “currently not accepting any unsolicited manuscripts” inside a full set of formatting rules. And check who owns whom before you plan a campaign. Text now belongs to Penguin Random House, and Pantera Press has been folded into Hardie Grant, which means four of the thirty entries here are two corporate groups. If you want to widen the search, try the publishers accepting new authors, the Canadian book publishing companies, or the dozens of publishers in the wider database. Rejection is most of this work, so keep a list and keep sending.