22 Notable Traditional Publishers (Submission Links)

Traditional publishers pay you, not the other way round. The catch is that most of the famous ones only read work sent by a literary agent, so the useful question is not “who is biggest?” but “who will actually read me?”

The Big Five (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan) sit behind agents, and their published policies say so plainly. That still leaves real doors open: Kensington reads unagented queries, Harlequin runs a direct submission manager, Faber takes poetry without an agent, and Wiley, McGraw Hill and Chicago Review Press all accept proposals straight from authors. Each entry below says which group a publisher belongs to, and links its own guidelines instead of a summary. If you decide the agent route is for you, start with this list of literary agencies; if you want the full field, the 3,000 publishing companies directory is the hub for this whole series.

Every policy below was checked against the publisher’s own website. Last verified: July 30, 2026. Submission policies change without notice, so always confirm on the publisher’s page before you send anything.

Here are the top traditional publishing houses:

1. Penguin Random House

The largest trade publisher in the world, home to more than 300 imprints and a back catalogue that includes dozens of Nobel laureates. It is also the strictest gatekeeper on this list: Penguin Random House does not accept unsolicited manuscripts, proposals, illustrations or query letters, and its own guidance is blunt that an agent is normally required. The exception worth watching is its open-submission programs. Berkley has run short windows for unagented adult fiction under 150,000 words, announced on the imprint’s channels and not on a permanent page. Submission guidelines.

2. HarperCollins

The second-largest of the Big Five, publishing across every category from literary fiction to cookery, and now the owner of the former Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trade list. HarperCollins does not accept unsolicited submissions, with one standing exception written into its own rights page: Heartdrum, its Native-focused children’s imprint, reads picture book, chapter book, middle grade and young adult manuscripts, fiction and nonfiction, sent direct. Individual imprints occasionally open short windows of their own, so check the imprint you are aiming at, not the group page. Submission guidelines.

3. Hachette Book Group

The US arm of the French group Hachette Livre, covering Little, Brown, Grand Central, Orbit, Workman and more. Its FAQ is unusually direct: Hachette Book Group does not accept unsolicited manuscripts or queries at any of its publishers, unsolicited material will not be answered, and it may be destroyed instead of returned. Two imprints in the Workman division are the documented way in without an agent: Storey Publishing, which takes practical nonfiction proposals by email, and Timber Press. Everything else needs representation. Submission guidelines.

4. Simon & Schuster

A Big Five house with a deep bench of commercial and literary imprints. Its policy is that it does not review or return unsolicited manuscripts or artwork, and prospective authors should submit through a professional literary agent. The Submission Selector tool you may find in search results is an agent-facing database for choosing an editor, not an author route. One thing to note carefully: unagented authors are pointed toward Archway Publishing, a paid self-publishing service operated with Author Solutions. That is a service you buy, not a book deal, so treat it as a separate decision. Submission guidelines.

5. Macmillan Publishers

Macmillan’s US group covers Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt, St. Martin’s Press, Flatiron and Tor. Macmillan does not accept unsolicited manuscripts, proposals or query letters. The policy is published imprint by imprint, not as one group statement, and it is consistent across them. Macmillan also runs a standing fraud warning worth reading before you answer any flattering email: it never solicits authors, agents or job candidates through unsolicited messages, and any “letter of interest” asking you for payment is not from Macmillan. Submission guidelines.

6. Scholastic

The biggest name in children’s publishing and school book fairs. Scholastic does not accept unsolicited manuscripts; work reaches its editors through literary agents or by invitation. In the UK, Scholastic Children’s Books is closed the same way but does look at illustration samples sent by email, and the separate Scholastic Education arm accepts unsolicited enquiries direct. Scholastic publishes one line every children’s author should memorise: it will never ask you for payment as part of a submission or acquisition, and it does not partner with third-party author services. Submission guidelines.

7. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Read this entry before you spend a stamp on it. HMH sold its consumer trade division, HMH Books & Media, to HarperCollins in 2021 for $349 million, and the trade staff, authors and backlist moved with it. The company that kept the HMH name now concentrates on K-12 core curriculum, intervention and classroom technology. If you are writing a trade book, the imprint you have in mind almost certainly sits inside HarperCollins today, so aim there instead. HMH’s own submissions stance for education titles is not published in a public policy page.

8. Bloomsbury Publishing

The London independent that published Harry Potter and now spans trade fiction, cookery, natural history and a large academic division. Its writers’ page is unambiguous: Bloomsbury no longer accepts unsolicited manuscripts, you must have a literary agent, and material sent anyway will not be returned. The one genuine opening is Bloomsbury Academic, which takes scholarly proposals, but only while its submission window is open, which the press says happens roughly once a year. Download its proposal guidelines in advance so you are ready when the window opens. Submission guidelines.

9. Little, Brown and Company (Hachette Book Group)

Founded in Boston in 1837 and one of the most prestigious imprints in American publishing, with a list that runs from literary fiction to blockbuster commercial nonfiction. As a Hachette Book Group imprint it is covered by the group policy, so Little, Brown does not accept unsolicited manuscripts or queries and works exclusively through agents. Its sister imprints, Little, Brown Spark and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, operate the same way. If Little, Brown is your target, the practical first step is finding an agent who already sells to it. Submission guidelines.

10. Crown Publishing Group (Penguin)

Crown is the Penguin Random House division behind a long run of bestselling nonfiction and memoir, including presidential and celebrity titles, plus imprints such as Ten Speed Press and Clarkson Potter. Its contact page states that Crown welcomes submissions primarily through literary agents and is not able to consider unsolicited manuscripts or proposals at this time. Crown also warns that its editors never solicit payment and never write from Gmail or Hotmail addresses, which is a useful check against the impersonation scams that target hopeful authors. Submission guidelines.

11. Knopf Doubleday

Alfred A. Knopf, founded in 1915, remains the most decorated literary imprint in the United States, and the wider Knopf Doubleday group publishes Toni Morrison, Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy, John Grisham and Dan Brown. It is a division of Penguin Random House, so the parent policy applies: no unsolicited submissions, agent required. Knopf’s own site carries the same scam warning as its parent: its editors will never ask for payment or contact you from an unofficial email address. Submission guidelines.

12. Tor

Tor Books, the dominant science fiction and fantasy publisher in the English language, is part of Macmillan. Note the address change: the old tor.com address is now Reactor, the magazine Tor renamed in January 2024, so bookmarks pointing there no longer reach the publisher. Tor Publishing Group lives on Macmillan’s site, and it does not accept unsolicited manuscripts or queries, and submissions come through an agent. On limited occasions selected imprints run an announced “open door” period for unagented novels, publicised on the individual imprint’s social accounts. Submission guidelines.

13. Henry Holt and Co. (Macmillan)

One of the oldest publishers in the United States, founded in 1866, now a Macmillan imprint publishing literary fiction, history, biography and current affairs. Holt’s FAQ is candid about volume: because of the number of unsolicited manuscripts, proposals and query letters it receives daily, it is house policy not to read them, and unsolicited material sent in is recycled, not returned. Henry Holt Books for Young Readers publishes its own separate submission guidelines, which is the one part of the house worth checking directly. Submission guidelines.

14. Norton & Company

W. W. Norton has been independent since 1923 and is employee-owned, which makes it a genuine outlier among publishers of its size. It releases roughly 400 books a year across its trade and college groups, from serious narrative nonfiction to the Norton anthologies that a generation of students grew up on, and it also distributes for a number of independent client publishers. Norton does not publish a standing submissions policy page, so check the current contact routes on its own site before approaching it, and expect the trade list to work through agents. Publisher website.

15. Zondervan

The largest Christian publisher in the US and part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, best known for its Bibles and reference works. Zondervan accepts unsolicited proposals for two imprints, Zondervan Reflective and Zondervan Academic, sent by email with the imprint named in the subject line. Keep it to five pages: a short description, the book’s unique contribution, an annotated table of contents, your intended reader and your CV. If it fits, you hear back within six weeks. Fiction, poetry, devotionals and illustrations are not accepted. Submission guidelines.

16. Harlequin

The biggest romance publisher in the world, and one of the few large houses that has always read unagented work. Harlequin accepts direct submissions through its own submission manager: a query letter pitching the book, the full manuscript or the first three chapters, and a three to five page synopsis that tells the editors how it ends. Requirements vary by series, so read the writing guidelines for the specific line you are targeting. Love Inspired Suspense wants something different from Harlequin Desire. Emailed submissions are deleted unread. Publisher website.

17. Graywolf Press

A nonprofit literary press in Minneapolis with a reputation far larger than its output of about thirty books a year: poetry, memoir, essays, novels and short stories, chosen for a distinct voice and a distinct vision. Its submission manager currently shows no open calls, which is the normal state: Graywolf reads during announced windows and prizes, not year-round, and the Pegasus Poetry Book Prize it runs with the Poetry Foundation is one such route. Check the press’s submissions page periodically instead of sending unprompted. Publisher website.

18. Faber and Faber

Founded in 1929 and still the most storied independent in Britain, with T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney on its backlist. Faber is one of the few houses of its stature that keeps a door open: it accepts unsolicited submissions of poetry, and nothing else. For prose you need an agent. Faber also makes a point aspiring poets often miss: a poet does not need an agent to publish poetry, and independent presses, magazines and competitions are the normal route in. Submission guidelines.

19. McGraw Hill Education

An education publisher, not a trade house, which makes it the right target for exactly one kind of author: someone with a course, a discipline and a textbook or courseware idea. McGraw Hill accepts proposals directly through its Higher Education author support form, with no agent involved, and routes them to the editor for that subject area. Its published guidelines tell you what the proposal is judged on: the market, the competition, your outline and sample material, and what your project adds to the discipline. Submission guidelines.

20. Wiley

More than two centuries old and best known for academic and professional publishing, though its target markets also include trade and general books sold through ordinary retail. Wiley accepts proposals directly from authors: you complete a proposal submission form, and the content administrator team forwards it to the editor for your subject area, who decides whether to offer a contract. No agent is required. If your book is a professional or reference title with a clear readership, this is one of the most straightforward large-publisher routes on this list. Submission guidelines.

21. Kensington Publishing Corp.

America’s largest independent trade publisher, releasing over 600 titles a year in fiction and nonfiction, and the standout name here for unagented authors: Kensington accepts unagented queries. Guidelines are set per imprint (Kensington, Zebra, Pinnacle, Dafina, Citadel and the digital-first Lyrical Press), so identify where your book belongs before you write to anyone, and query one editor at a time, not the whole editorial team. Its strengths are commercial: romance, mystery, thriller, western and true crime. Submission guidelines.

22. Chicago Review Press

An independent Chicago publisher founded in 1973, with more than a thousand titles in print across history, music, popular science, biography and children’s nonfiction, and imprints including Lawrence Hill Books, Academy Chicago, Parenting Press and Interlude Press. It accepts proposals from authors and agents alike through its information page for authors and agents, and it tells you exactly what to send: a one-sentence summary, a synopsis of one to two paragraphs, and the estimated final word count of the manuscript. Nonfiction is where its strength lies. Submission guidelines.

How to use this list

Sort the twenty-two into three piles. The first pile, which will read you without an agent, is Kensington, Harlequin, Zondervan, Faber for poetry, Wiley, McGraw Hill and Chicago Review Press, so those queries can go out this month. The second pile is the agented houses, where the real next step is not a submission at all but building a shortlist of agents who sell to them. The third pile is the one people waste the most time on: publishers whose situation has changed, like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, whose trade list now sits inside HarperCollins.

Two habits will save you months. Check the publisher’s own guidelines page on the day you submit, because open windows close and policies get rewritten without an announcement. And treat any request for payment as disqualifying. Several publishers here, including Scholastic, Crown and Macmillan, publish explicit warnings that they never ask authors for money and never contact writers from personal email addresses.

Conclusion

Traditional publishing is slow. From signed contract to finished book is usually about a year, and you give up a good deal of control over the cover, the title and the release date. What you get back is distribution you cannot buy on your own, an editorial team, and an advance. If that trade sounds wrong for your project, the hybrid publishing companies guide covers the paid middle ground and how to judge whether a hybrid deal is fair. If you would rather widen the net, there are strong regional markets worth a look. See the book publishers in India and publishing companies in the Philippines lists, or browse the full 3,000 publishing companies directory.