#small presses

27 Book Publishing Companies For Authors Without Agents

By Dave Chesson, Last updated on October 10th, 2024

If you've ever considered seeking publishing companies to take a look at one of your books, you could find a literary agent, or there are plenty of legitimate publishing companies that accept proposals from authors without agents too!

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Although small publishing houses don't have the same clout with retailers or the same resources for marketing and publicity, most still have talented editors, designers, and passionate professionals for publishing great books.

Table of contents

Thinking of the Big 5...Maybe Not?!

Publishing Companies To Consider (Even If You're a New Author)

27 Book Publishing Companies That Accept Proposals Directly From Authors

Here's How To Find More Publishing Companies

Beware of Vanity Pressess...

Please reblog if you know any avid readers who frequently review books online! Especially if they enjoy novels containing: - fae - witches - angst-free queerness - romance - a cozy noblebright mood even amid magical disaster - '90s cover bands I seek reviewers and general word-of-mouth-spreaders for my novel Ballad for Jasmine Town, which contains all of the above. (As to the romance and queerness, the main couple is a trans man and a bi woman, in case you prefer to know such details.) It can be requested on NetGalley and Edelweiss right now, or I could email you an ARC in PDF or epub format.

Here is the publisher page if you’d like to read more about it. (Though distributed by Simon & Schuster, the book is independent-press-published. The publishing world is complicated.) For those who've read Lava Red Feather Blue: it takes place in the same country and has some overlapping events, but you don't have to read one book to make sense of the other. They are both stand-alones. Thank you in advance, and I hope it finds some happy readers!

OK since my post about small press publishers has gotten a bit of attention lately, I thought it might be nice to follow up with some tips for what to look for if you’re thinking of submitting your book to a small press publisher. 

First: Why go small press? 

The odds are, if you’re going with a small publisher, you’re not going to get any lavish book tours, end up on a best-seller list, or see wide bookstore distribution in major chain bookstores. 

Then again, you probably weren’t going to get that as a debut author anyway, so get that straight in your mind. 

Here’s the deal: There’s nothing a small press can do that you cannot also theoretically do as a self-publisher. The difference is that if you’re doing it yourself, you need to spend $$ up-front. You have to be prepared to pay for:

Cover art

Interior design/formatting

ISBN# 

Printing costs/distribution 

Audio recordings if you want audio books 

Professional editing

And you carry 100% of the costs of marketing/promotion. 

Yes, you can DIY the things above, but you’ll be competing with people who are hiring professionals to do it, so you won’t be on even footing. 

So: What an indie publisher does for you is absorb the start-up costs. You should still go into it expecting to have to market your ass off to get the book noticed. With me so far? 

Not All Publishers are Created Equal

Ok. So you’ve decided you want to query a publisher. First, how do you find one? 

You can search market listings with a resource like Writer’s Market, Duotrope, Ralan’s, Dark Markets, etc. 

Or you can look for books like the one you’ve written, or books that are doing well in your genre, and look up who the publisher is on each one. 

Or you can find the genre award (say, a Hugo or a Stoker) for the last few years and look up who all the publishers are. 

Whatever the case, make yourself a list of promising-looking publishers. Then assess each one: 

Does the website look professional? It doesn’t have to look super polished, but it should look like it wasn’t slapped together on Angelfire in 1996.

Does the site look like it’s primarily geared toward people looking to buy books, or to writers? You should be able to find a submissions/guidelines page somewhere, but that shouldn’t be the sole focus of the site. 

Navigate to the catalog. How many books do they release at a time? A publisher with a ton of titles per month probably isn’t giving them much individual attention and is instead just shotgunning them out hoping that 1 or 2 will stick. 

Have you ever heard of any of the authors they’ve published? Google them. You’ll probably see a lot of debut novelists, but you should be cautious if they’re only publishing debut novelists. Who are these authors? Are they winning literary awards? Do they have social media presence? Do they have decent reviews? Are they “somebodies” in any sense? 

Order a book or two. How does the cover look? How does the interior look? How is the editing? Does it look clean and professional? Would you pay money for it? Does it look like somebody did pay money for it? 

Do they have social media? How many followers? Do people seem to be engaged and friendly or are there a bunch of angry reviews, spam, etc? 

Cross any publisher off your list who’s churning out work that looks like something you could do yourself. 

Next up, verify that the publisher is legitimate (OK you can do this step first, but I think the research is easier with a shorter list, and you can knock a bunch of publishers out of the running just by glancing at their website)

Do a google search for the company + the word “scam” and see if anything incriminating pops up 

Check in with the site Preditors & Editors (currently under maintenance) or SFWA’s Writer Beware section: https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/

Check the Absolute Write watercoolor forum. You don’t have to join or post - you can just do a cursory search.

In general a publisher you work with should have an established presence on the internet, and that presence should be basically positive. One angry Yelp reviewer or ranting blogger isn’t necessarily a disqualifier...but anything that looks like a pattern of bad behavior should immediately knock the publisher off your list. 

If the publisher seems on the up-and-up, go ahead and read their submission guidelines, and take some time to make sure you’re following them all by the letter. (One exception: Simultaneous submissions. Some publishers don’t mind them, some say they’re not allowed. You can generally ignore that. It can take up to a year to hear back from some publishers, you can’t wait on a string for them. Just send it where you’re going to send it, and if you sign a contract, email everyone else to withdraw the manuscript). 

Okay. So now you’ve submitted your manuscript, and they’ve offered you a contract! What are you looking for? 

You should be paying NOTHING of your own money out-of-pocket for editing, packaging, or distributing the book. You do not send a publisher money. You either are paying professionals yourself to outsource things, or your publisher is absorbing those costs. You do not pay the publisher. 

The royalties should be reasonable. 10% on hardback/paperback and 30% on ebooks is pretty standard. Some places offer a higher %, some lower, but if they’re outside of that range, there should be a reason why that makes sense. 

Is there an advance? There may not be, and that’s fine -- their monetary investment in your book is an advance. But if there is an advance, how are you being paid, and how does that advance affect the royalty rate? 

What rights are they buying? Ideally you’re wanting to keep as many rights as you can, and want to avoid selling rights for things the publisher can’t actually do (ie, don’t sell international rights if the publisher doesn’t distribute internationally). 

When do rights revert back? You should never be selling lifetime rights to something, or exclusive rights to future projects, or anything else extreme like that unless, like, they’re giving you a shit ton of money and even then maybe not. A lot of publishers will have something like, they own the rights until the book has gone X long without selling X copies, X many years after publication, and that’s what you want. Then the book can be reprinted or whatever in the future. 

Every contract is different, so all I can really advise you here is to read over it with a fine-tooth comb, look up any terminology you don’t understand, and ask someone to help if you have someone available. Mostly, go with your gut. Do you feel happy with what they’re offering? Or does it make you feel uneasy? 

What to Avoid? 

In general, you should avoid querying any publisher who: 

Advertises directly to you via spam or targeted ads in your email/social media

Charges you money for anything or offers to upsell you on “premium” services 

Has no existing catalog of work* 

Isn’t producing something you’d want to buy (as a reader) or pay for yourself (as a writer/self-publisher) 

As a non-profit organization, we are not in publishing for the money. Instead, we are focused on bringing fresh new voices to the world of poetry. Our decision not to charge submission fees benefits poets of all ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, abilities, and economic status.

The condition of "starving artist" is a reality for many poets, both established and emerging. By supporting our mission with your donation $$, you provide the starving artist looking to submit their manuscript to a publisher, with a cost-free alternative.

Your donations will go to specific operational needs:

1) Publishing costs: designing, laying out, printing, & delivering books

2) Operating expenses: website, payment services, etc

3) Community outreach: We are partnering with other non-profits to provide workshops & poetry readings. Your donations will help us to pay artists sharing their gifts with the community.

4) Grant matches: Certain grants require the requestor to match the requested grant amount dollar for dollar. You donations will make us a better candidate for state and local funding.

Every contribution is tax deductible, so your donations are mutually beneficial.

Your support means the world to me and more than that, it means the world to the hopeful poets submitting their manuscripts! I am a poet. There are few feelings in the world like holding your first book for the first time. Please know that your donations will be rewarded with the gratitude of our poets, and of the voracious readers we are cultivating and connecting with.

Thank you. Mad love.

Roberto Carlos Garcia

Publisher

I’ve been seeing some things on my dash over the last week containing some confusion regarding publishing + the multiple options, so I’m going to do a fast little write-up that shares what is essentially a major part of what I do. While I am an editor, part of the service I bring to the table is guidance in publishing. I have walked authors through self-publishing, as well as walked them through the journey of submitting to small (also known as indie) presses, or aided authors in finding an agent who can pitch work to the Big Five.  There are considerations for all of these forms of getting your work to market, + the considerations are also financial. Self-publishing is a greater financial risk, but it is a fantastic option if you have the money, time, + motivation to build a brand---a name. I usually only recommend it for books that are either very niche (to such an extent that I do not see the book appealing to presses) +/or authors who already have a platform to launch from. Considering self-publishing always circles back to finances + time. You can save money by creating the book’s layout design yourself. You can save money by creating the cover, spine, + back cover by yourself. These things take time to learn (+ you also need to know how to save + then upload things correctly into websites that offer printing + distributing services), but there are free programs that can help with all of it. E-books will require different formatting than the physical books, which is another consideration as making sure things translate + look nicely across the board is important. I do often offer to do the book design + covers for clients who are interested in self-publishing because I already have those skills in my toolbox. But, it’s an added cost to hire someone to do these things for you. But, if you want to have them done correctly, hiring help is often an easier, less-stressful route to self-publishing. There is also how you are going to distribute your book, who will you choose to print it, what markets will carry it, marketing, so on + so forth. The main issue is always financial risk. You can put a lot of money, time, + labor into self-publishing  + see very little return. Most self-published books will receive no more than 250 downloads. While some authors are very successful at self-publishing, many, many, many are not. It requires an added layer of labor. If your goal is not to have your books sold, but to merely publish your book for yourself. Self-publishing can also be quite apt in those situations. There is nothing wrong with publishing as a pet hobby. Self-publishing can also be an attractive option for people who are uncomfortable with giving up creative control, but my advice is still to always hire an editor at the very least to do substantive edits. These edits are in-depth, story-level edits that can be expensive + take a long time depending on the complexity of your text + the length of your manuscript, but they are worth it. People who do well at self-publishing will push self-publishing, but be mindful of what it has taken them to do well + consider if it is truly your best option. I like self-publishing, but there are too many options in publishing to say that one is objectively better for every author + every book.   Small presses come next in the hierarchy. Finances do come into play here as well, but in a different way. Some small presses have open + free reading periods, but many small presses require a reading fee to sustain their business + pay their staff. You can make the contest rounds by submitting to the annual contests hosted by small presses, but these always require a reading fee + it is usually somewhere between ten to fifty dollars depending on the press + the type of work the press is considering (an average number for poetry manuscript contests is around 20 bucks). You will want to have already hired + worked with an editor before you begin seeking publication with small presses. Your editor, depending on their qualifications, may be able to help steer you toward the presses that they think will have the most interest in your work. I would suggest finding an editor who can do that, because there are many small presses + some are better than others. It’s difficult to wade through them all yourself + try to pick the ones that would be most worthwhile to pay to send to. Small presses will often combine some of the pros of self-publishing with the pros of publishing with one of the Big 5 houses. How much they offer does depend on the press though. Some will create a cover to your specifications (that also suits them) while others will give you four mock-ups to choose from while others will say “this is the cover.” They may also suggest, or require, further edits to your work. After acceptance, the cost of printing + marketing falls mostly on them, but you will likely still have to do some of the marketing legwork on your own + out of your own pocket. Payment will vary depending on the press. Some presses buy a manuscript out right. Some presses pay only royalties. Contests often offer prize money + royalties. It is dependent on the market + the press. With all things considered, small presses are a good option for many authors (+ you can see some very big names publishing with these smaller independent houses). You will often have more control when working with a smaller press, but they will receive a cut of the book’s earnings (which you would not have with self-publishing - well, depending on how you self-publish). For most authors + most books, I prefer the small press route seven times out of ten. You may also still need to consider an agent for this route, but it isn’t as automatically required as it is with one of the Big Five. Small presses, with how many there are, present options within the option. In the terms of considering publication with one of the major presses (penguin etc), this is something that is difficult to attain. I rarely suggest it to authors I work with (+ the ones I do suggest it for have written something I know is extremely marketable). Nonetheless, I have helped authors through the process. You will very likely need an agent unless you somehow already have contacts within one of the houses (so it’s good to have already edited your manuscript with a professional before shopping it to agents). Agents will want to be paid somehow. They will also only take you on if they feel confident that they can place your book somewhere (because they want to be paid). I suggest agents that work on commission + not ones that want a flat up-front fee for exactly that reason. Agents that take up-front fees are more likely to take any book whether they think they can place it or not. Major press houses offer the big book deals. These deals can be a lot of money or hardly any money at all (some people walking away with checks of only 12k for a book that sat on the bestseller list - make sure you have an agent who will fight for you in this regard). Books that can become series are often very attractive to the major publishing houses + those can see deals of 100k + a percentage of the royalties for three books. 

Will we see you at the Bay Area Book Festival this weekend?📚 

Find us at booth #120! 

And if you're looking for more to do, we recommend checking out some of these exciting panels featuring SPD publishers, authors, and friends:

SATURDAY

The Legacy of Adrienne Rich and the Shape of our Feminist Future, Saturday May 4 | 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM

Jill Bialosky, Aya de Leon, Susan Griffin, Nell Painter, Morgan Parker, moderated by Sandra Gilbert. 

Queer Poetics, Saturday May 4 | 11:45 AM - 1:00 PM

w/ Franny Choi, Tommy Pico, Sam Sax, Brenda Shaughnessy, moderated by Ari Banias

A Celebration of The Paris Review, Saturday May 4 | 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM

w/ Franny Choi, R.O. Kwon, Kiese Laymon, Emily Nemens, moderated by Christian Kiefer

Political Optimism, Political Despair, and the Wilderness, Saturday May 4 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM

w/ Pam Houston, Katie Peterson, moderated by Lucille Lang Day

Writer to Writer: Ishmael Reed and Morgan Parker, Saturday  May 4 | 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM

w/Morgan Parker and Ishmael Reed, moderated by Ismail Muhammad

SUNDAY

Straddling Worlds: Native Writers Reinvent Identity, Sunday May 5  | 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM

w/ Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Susan Devan Harness, Tommy Pico, and Rebecca Roanhorse, moderated by Greg Sarris

Lawrence Ferlinghetti at 100: A Tribute, Sunday May 5 11:45 AM - 1:00

w/ Garrett Caples, Julien Poirier, Barbara Jane Reyes, Maw Shein Win, moderated by Emily Nemens

Poetry For The People, Sunday, May 5 | 12:45 PM - 1:45 PM

w/ Aya de Leon, Yvonne Onakeme Etaghene

Literature Will Save Your Life, Sunday May 5 | 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM

Jill Bialosky, Niloufar Talebi, moderated by Rebecca Foust

Also, be sure to drop by and say hello to the other awesome booths, including:

Green Apple Books and Music (Booth #1)

Poetry Flash (Booth #31)

Prisoners' Literature Project - Berkeley (Booth #225)

Berkeley Public Library (Booth #61)

San Francisco State University (Booth #131)

Saint Mary's MFA in Creative Writing (Booth #138)

Left Margin LIT: A Creative Writing Center in Berkeley (Booth #136)

Mills College MFA & Lit Programs (Booth #7)

Moe's Books (Booth #130)

East Bay Booksellers / Diesel (Booth #5)

++ many more!

Hope to see you there!