Nonfiction

Looking for a publisher for a memoir, an essay collection, or a book built around your own expertise? Nonfiction covers an enormous amount of ground, and figuring out which publisher actually fits your project is half the battle.

The category spans very different kinds of books: narrative nonfiction that reads almost like a novel, biography, popular science and history written for a general audience, investigative journalism, and personal memoir. Some publishers focus tightly on one of these lanes; others run a broad nonfiction list and pick projects case by case.

This list gathers English-language nonfiction publishers actively looking for new material, useful whether you're an author with a finished project (or just a strong idea) or a reader hunting for your next serious, well-researched read.

How do you submit a nonfiction manuscript?

Nonfiction usually works differently from fiction here: rather than a completed manuscript, most publishers want a full proposal first, an overview of the book, a chapter-by-chapter outline, a sample chapter or two, a competitive analysis of similar titles, and a clear sense of who the audience is and why you're the right person to write it. That last part, sometimes called your platform, existing expertise, a following, prior publications, matters more in nonfiction than in almost any other category.

Before you submit, make sure your proposal actually answers the question editors ask first: why this book, and why you? A strong idea with a vague pitch tends to go nowhere, while a clear, well-argued proposal can sell a book that isn't even written yet.

If your project needs an agent (common for narrative nonfiction and memoir aimed at larger houses, less so for niche or specialist presses), look for one who already represents nonfiction in your specific area. And whatever the topic, a professional edit of your sample chapters rarely hurts your odds.