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DIRECTORY

Best Book Publishing Companies

Showing 553 publishers that match your search.

HarperCollins

Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Cookbook, Religion & Spirituality, Science Fiction, Mystery & Crime, Business, Self-Help, Picture Book, Nonfiction, Short Story, and Novella

Location: New York City, US

Website: https://www.harpercollins.com/

Accepts unagented submissions

No

Largest

💥 Hit titles
Yellowface

R.F. Kuang

Twice

Mitch Albom

The Sunflower Boys

Sam Wachman

Simon & Schuster

Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, Literary Fiction, Mystery & Crime, Thriller & Suspense, History, Politics, Romance, Young Adult, Sports & Outdoors, Nonfiction, Short Story, and Novella

Location: New York City, US

Website: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/

Accepts unagented submissions

No

Largest

💥 Hit titles
In the Blink of an Eye

Jo Callaghan

King of Kings

Scott Anderson

The Slip

Lucas Schaeffr

Oxford University Press

Genres: Education & Reference, Academic, Math & Science, History, Politics, Art, Architecture, Literary Fiction, Medical, Law, and Nonfiction

Location: Oxford, GB

Website: https://global.oup.com/?cc=us

Accepts unagented submissions

No Book proposals - View guidelines →

Largest

💥 Hit titles
Conquering the Ocean

Richard Hingley

The Edge of Sentience

Jonathan Birch

From Tudor to Stuart

Susan Doran

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Bloomsbury

Genres: Academic, African-American, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cookbook, Diverse Literature, Historical Fiction, History, Literary Fiction, Mystery & Crime, Nonfiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller & Suspense, and True Crime

Location: New York City, US

Website: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/

Accepts unagented submissions

No

Largest

💥 Hit titles
Outlawed

Anna North

Salvage the Bones

Jesmyn Ward

The Priory of the Orange Tree

Samantha Shannon

Macmillan Publishers

Genres: Literary Fiction, Romance, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Mystery & Crime, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction, Biographies & Memoirs, Politics, Cookbook, Self-Help, Picture Book, Nonfiction, Short Story, and Novella

Location: New York City, US

Website: https://macmillan.com/

Accepts unagented submissions

No

Largest

💥 Hit titles
The Nightingale

Kristin Hannah

Intermezzo

Sally Rooney

What Stalks the Deep

T. Kingfisher

DC Comics

Genres: Comics & Graphic Novels

Location: Los Angeles, US

Website: https://www.dccomics.com/

Accepts unagented submissions

No

Largest

💥 Hit titles
Batman

Bob Kane & Bill Finger

Superman

Tom King & Andy Kubert

Wonder Woman

William Moulton Marston

Hachette Book Group

Genres: Literary Fiction, Romance, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Mystery & Crime, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction, Biographies & Memoirs, Politics, Cookbook, Nonfiction, Short Story, and Novella

Location: New York City, US

Website: https://www.hachette.com/

Accepts unagented submissions

No

Largest

💥 Hit titles
Swan Song

Robert McCammon

Just for the Summer

Abby Jimenez

The World We Make

N.K. Jemisin

Scholastic Press

Genres: Picture Book, Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Education & Reference

Part of: Scholastic, Inc.> Scholastic Press

Location: New York City, US

Website: http://scholastic.com/

Accepts unagented submissions

No

Largest

💥 Hit titles
Best of All Worlds

Kenneth Oppel

Dog Man: Big Jim Believes

Dav Pilkey

Goosebumps

R. L. Stine

Penguin Random House

Genres: Literary Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Mystery & Crime, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction, Biographies & Memoirs, Politics, Cookbook, Romance, Picture Book, Nonfiction, Short Story, and Novella

Location: New York City, US

Website: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/

Accepts unagented submissions

No

Largest

💥 Hit titles
I'll Be Right Here

Amy Bloom

Villa Coco

Andrew Sean Greer

The Morningside

Téa Obreht

Montlake

Genres: Romance and Women's Fiction

Part of: Amazon Publishing > Montlake

Location: Seattle, US

Website: https://amazonpublishing.amazon.com/montlake.html

Accepts unagented submissions

Yes

Mid size

💥 Hit titles
Dating After the End of the World

Jeneva Rose

Learning Curves

Rachel Lacey

Variation

Rebecca Yarros

What do book publishers do?

Sure, a book publisher prints and sells your book. But what they do behind the scenes encompasses much more than that. Publishers handle the entire publishing process for books, including: 

  • Editing the book, i.e. developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading; 
  • Designing the book, i.e. book cover design and any necessary interior book design;
  • Promotion and marketing, i.e. writing the book’s blurb, email marketing, setting up media interviews, etc.; and
  • Production and distribution, i.e. formatting and distributing hardback, paperback, and ebook versions of the book to stores, both online and brick-and-mortar. 

Note that the structure of publishing companies may differ, depending on their size. Bigger book publishers may be made up of publishing houses which may, in turn, be made up of imprints — each of which will have its own brand identity in terms of the type of books it publishes. 

However, regardless of a publisher’s size, the scope of their work shouldn’t change. Once you sign with a publisher, they will do everything that it takes to bring your book to market. 

What are the most prominent book publishing companies?

If we define success by sheer sales volume, then we might point towards the "Big 5" presses and educational publishers (who rake in a LOT of money). Over the past few decades, these giant publishing companies have merged with and acquired most of the mid-sized publishers in the industry. However, a few still remain. Here are today's biggest book publishing companies:

  • Penguin Random House (Big 5)
  • Hachette Book Group (Big 5)
  • HarperCollins (Big 5)
  • Macmillan Publishers (Big 5)
  • Simon & Schuster (Big 5)
  • Scholastic Corporation
  • Pearson Education
  • McGraw-Hill Education
  • Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • Cengage Learning

Together, these largest publishers dominate the publishing landscape. Countless beloved books come from their imprints, many of which you’ll find in our directory. 

The rest of the publishing landscape is largely made up of small publishers, or independent publishers. Most big publishers don’t directly accept unsolicited submissions without a literary agent — but smaller publishers do, making them a realistic and worthwhile route to publication. 

I have a long list of publishers. What next?

Congratulations! Now take a moment to thoroughly vet every publisher on your longlist. Scams are a dime a dozen in the publishing industry, and you want to make 100% sure that you’re dealing with a legitimate publishing company. Again, we strongly recommend reading this post and Writer Beware to know what red flags to watch out for.

When you’re confident in all of the publishers on your longlist, it’s time for the most nerve-wracking step: submitting your manuscript to them. 

Check out our free resources if you’re feeling daunted by what comes next. Whether you’re learning how to research publishers or how to personalize a submission, we've got you covered.

Free online materials

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