All of the presses on this list meet all but one of our guiding principles. All of these presses only accept work from writers with a specific geographic region or nationality.
Because of that, we have never reviewed these presses, but they are still good presses.
This is our update of the initial list, which was a bit of an experiment, but a lot of writers were excited by it, and we got great responses.
This list is organized by country. It only covers a limited number of countries at this time. If this article does well, we will keep expanding the list and include more countries in the future.
Currently, this list only covers the US, Canada, and Australia, but we are hoping for that to change.
Not all of the publishers on this list are currently open to unagented submissions, but most are.
I’ve done basic research about the publishers, but I haven’t done in-depth research as I do for a full review, so keep that in mind.
If you know of a press to add to this list, please send me an email at support@authorspubish.com.
United States
This multi-genre small press has managed to end up with a number of books on the New York Times Bestseller list. They are only open to submissions by US based writers.
Allium Press of Chicago publishes literary fiction, historical fiction, mysteries, thrillers, and middle grade/young adult fiction. All of the books they publish have a strong connection to Chicago. Although the author need not currently live there.
Hub City Press A respected press with great distribution. They publish books of literary fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, regional nonfiction, nature, and art. They only publish work for adults. They accept non agented submissions in March/April and September/October. According to their website “Hub City publishes writers living in or from the South. What’s the South? A complicated issue, to say the least, but the short answer for our purposes: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia. At the same time, we’re interested in boundaries, borders, and in-betweens, so if you want to make a case for a state not listed here, we’ll take a look.”
They publish poetry and prose focused on the American West, with special interest in things relating to Wyoming. They publish about four books a year.
Canada
A wonderful Canadian press focusing on publishing a wide range of literary works.
Caitlin Press is a British Columbia based literary press. They only publish authors from BC.
They publish literary fiction and memoirs writers based in British Columbia.
Invisible Publishing publishes literary fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction by Canadians.
A new publisher of middle grade, young adult, and children’s books with a focus on diversity and global themes.
Coach House Books is one of the largest publishers in Canada. They are a wonderful press that only publishes Canadian authors.
Cormorant Books publishes literary fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, and translations of Québécois authors. They are only open to Canadian authors.
One of the largest Canadian presses. They have over 2,500 books currently in print. They publish a variety of fiction and nonfiction.
Ekstasis Editions
A Canadian publisher of poetry manuscripts, fiction, and children’s books. They have been around since 1982.
They are only open to fiction and poetry books submitted by Canadians; there are no citizenship restrictions on writers submitting nonfiction.
A Canadian press that started out as as an imprint but is now independent. They publish literary fiction, literary nonfiction, memoir and graphic literature. They have good distribution.
A literary house that publishes a wide variety of work including children’s books. They accept work only from Canadian citizens or landed immigrants to Canada.
NeWest publishes outstanding literary works by established and emerging Canadian authors at the rate of 10-12 books a year. They have good distribution.
Mansfield Press
This Toronto based small press publishes poetry, literary fiction, and creative nonfiction.
They publish work of significant literary or cultural importance by Canadian authors.
Australia and New Zealand
Brio Books publishes trade fiction and nonfiction by Australian and NZ authors under four imprints that range from literary to romance. The submission guidelines are listed on the individual imprints page.
Hachette is a big five publisher, and they are only open to direct submissions from residents of Australia or NZ.
They publish children’s books and are open to submissions from residents of Australia and NZ.
Another big five publisher. They are only open to submissions from Australians.
They are open to a variety of fiction and nonfiction genres including memoirs. They only accept submissions from Australians or New Zealanders.
A literary press that publishes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction manuscripts by Australians.
This established and award winning Australian press has imprints that focus on non-fiction and fiction.
Victoria University Press is New Zealand’s leading publisher of new fiction and poetry, and a scholarly publisher specializing in NZ history, biography and essays. Submissions are restricted to people who live in or are strongly connected with Aotearoa/ New Zealand.
They are a publisher of mainstream fiction and narrative non-fiction for adults. On their website they state “We want to publish Australian authors, but we want the books also to have global appeal, as we work closely with our UK sister imprints.”
Ginninderra Press
A small press that focuses on publishing quality non-fiction, fiction, and poetry.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, The 2019 Guide to Manuscript Publishers, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The Authors Publish Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Publishing.
She occasionally teaches a course on manuscript publishing, as well as a course on publishing in literary journals.
