1David C Cook
A long established religious publisher producing church curriculum, Sunday school resources and trade Christian books. One of the larger publishing employers on the Front Range.
The 4 Best Book Publishing Companies in Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is the largest book publishing centre in Colorado by employment, and almost nobody outside the industry knows it. The reason is that the publishing here is almost entirely religious. NavPress, the publishing arm of The Navigators, has worked from the city since the 1950s. WaterBrook, the Christian division of Penguin Random House, was founded here in 1996. David C Cook moved its headquarters here from Illinois, and Focus on the Family brought a substantial publishing operation with it when it relocated in 1991.
That makes the city a specialised hub rather than a general one, and the practical advice follows from that. If you are writing Christian non-fiction, devotional work or inspirational fiction, four serious publishers are within a few miles of each other and understand the market better than anyone in New York. If you are writing anything else, the city has a rich literary past but no trade publisher for your book, and the honest thing to do is say so.
4
Publishers listed
1996
Publishing since
Featured publisher
Western Reflections Publishing Company
For authors in Colorado Springs and the surrounding area, Western Reflections offers something most of the houses on this page cannot: a direct read, a written response and a publisher who will say plainly when another Colorado press is the better home for your book. We have published regional history, biography and memoir from Colorado since 1996 and work with authors nationally by email and phone.
Services are quoted individually and never as a package, you retain copyright and all files, and books stay in print. A quote costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Contact
The listings
Book publishers working in Colorado Springs
Contact details are the ones each publisher lists itself. Anything we could not confirm is left out rather than guessed.
2WaterBrook and Multnomah
The Christian publishing division of Penguin Random House, operating out of Colorado Springs rather than New York. Publishes inspirational non-fiction, Christian living and fiction.
3NavPress
The publishing arm of The Navigators, publishing Christian discipleship books and the Message Bible paraphrase. Distribution moved to Tyndale in 2014, but editorial has stayed in Colorado Springs.
4Focus on the Family
A ministry with a substantial book and magazine publishing operation, best known for family and parenting books and the Adventures in Odyssey childrens audio series.
Local context
Professional Book Publishers in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Two of the most quoted pieces of American writing were produced here within twelve years of each other. Helen Hunt Jackson moved to Colorado Springs in 1873 for her health, and from a house on Kiowa Street wrote A Century of Dishonor, the 1881 indictment of federal policy toward Native Americans that she sent to every member of Congress, and then Ramona, the 1884 novel she hoped would do for that cause what Uncle Tom’s Cabin had done for abolition. She is buried in the city. In July 1893 Katharine Lee Bates, a Wellesley professor teaching a summer course at Colorado College, rode to the summit of Pikes Peak and came down with the opening lines of the poem that became America the Beautiful.
Colorado College itself, founded in 1874, has anchored the city’s intellectual life for a century and a half, and its Block Plan has drawn a steady traffic of visiting writers. The Pikes Peak Library District runs one of the more active public library programmes in the state. But the publishing that actually happens in the city came from a different source: a set of national ministries that chose Colorado Springs as a headquarters between the 1950s and the 1990s, and brought their publishing operations with them.
The Navigators settled at Glen Eyrie, the castle estate built by the city’s founder, in 1953, and NavPress grew from there. Focus on the Family moved from California in 1991 and now occupies a campus on the north side of the city. David C Cook and WaterBrook followed. The result is a concentration of religious publishing comparable, within its own market, to what Grand Rapids is for Michigan, and it employs editors, designers and marketers in numbers that the rest of Colorado’s publishing does not.
Routes in
Getting Published in Colorado Springs: Who Reads Directly, Prizes, and Where Books Launch
Poor Richard’s on Tejon Street has been the city’s bookshop, cafe and events venue since 1977 and is where a Colorado Springs book launches. The Pikes Peak Library District runs one of the more active programmes in the state, and Colorado College’s Visiting Writers Series brings authors to the city through the academic year. The Pikes Peak Writers conference, held every spring since 1993, is one of the larger regional writers conferences in the mountain west and brings agents and editors to the city, which for an unagented author is the practical way to meet them.
The religious publishers are reached through agents and through the Christian writers conferences, of which the Colorado Christian Writers Conference at Estes Park each May is the closest and best established. NavPress, WaterBrook and David C Cook all send editors to those events. For a general author the direct routes are the Denver and Boulder houses an hour up the interstate, and Western Reflections, which publishes the mining, railroad and regional history of the Pikes Peak region and reads proposals from anyone. The Cripple Creek District Museum, the Manitou Springs Heritage Center and the Pioneers Museum downtown all sell regional titles and are where a Pikes Peak history book finds its readers.
What we do
Book Publishing Services We Offer in Colorado Springs
Every service is quoted on its own, so you buy the stages your manuscript actually needs rather than a package built around the ones it does not.
Editing
Developmental, line and copy editing, plus proofreading, quoted by manuscript length and condition.
Learn more →Cover Design
Original cover artwork and typography, supplied as layered source files you keep.
Learn more →Formatting & Typesetting
Print ready interiors and reflowable ebook files built from one typeset source.
Learn more →Printing
Short runs, offset runs and print on demand, with paper and binding specified to the book.
Learn more →Marketing & Promotion
Launch planning, retailer metadata, review outreach and regional bookshop campaigns.
Learn more →Ghostwriting
Full manuscript writing from interviews, notes or a partial draft, published under your name.
Learn more →Why Colorado Springs Authors Choose Western Reflections Publishing
An honest referral when a Colorado Springs house is the right one
If your manuscript is Christian non-fiction or inspirational fiction, we will say plainly that NavPress, WaterBrook or David C Cook is the better target and tell you how their submission routes work. We publish the regional history, memoir and general non-fiction they do not.
Pikes Peak region history is squarely in our list
Cripple Creek, Victor, the Colorado Midland, Manitou and the mining and railroad history of the region are subjects we have published for decades. A manuscript on them arrives at an editor who knows the sources.
Direct reading, fixed fees, rights retained
A person reads your submission and answers in writing. Services are quoted individually and you keep copyright and every file.
Our Book Publishing Process for Colorado Springs Authors
Step 1
Read and direction
An honest read of the manuscript, and where the book belongs with a religious publisher, a straightforward steer toward the right one.
Step 2
Scope and quote
A written plan covering only what the book needs, priced by stage.
Step 3
Edit, design, produce
Structural editing, then line and copy work, cover and interior, with a source check on regional history.
Step 4
Print, distribute, launch
Print on demand or a run, wholesale listings, and launch support with the region’s bookshops, museums and libraries.
Questions authors ask
Frequently Asked Questions: Book Publishing in Colorado Springs
Why is Colorado Springs full of Christian publishers?
Because several national ministries chose the city as a headquarters over four decades and brought their publishing with them. The Navigators settled at Glen Eyrie in 1953. Focus on the Family moved from California in 1991. David C Cook relocated from Illinois. WaterBrook was founded here in 1996 as a Christian imprint of what is now Penguin Random House. Each arrival made the city a more sensible location for the next, and the concentration of editorial and design talent now sustains itself.
Do the Colorado Springs publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts?
Generally no. NavPress, WaterBrook and David C Cook work through literary agents, and Focus on the Family publishes through partner arrangements rather than an open submissions process. Christian writers conferences are the traditional route to those editors, and several are held in Colorado each year. If you do not have an agent, that is the realistic first step rather than sending a manuscript to a corporate address.
What does it cost to publish a book in Colorado Springs?
A traditional contract costs the author nothing. Bought independently, the city’s freelance market is somewhat cheaper than Denver or Boulder, and a full length non-fiction book commonly runs three to six thousand dollars for editing, cover and interior. Be cautious of companies offering Christian publishing packages that combine a fee with a claim to be a publisher; the two are different transactions and the price should be compared against buying the work separately.
What rights will a Colorado Springs publisher ask for?
Copyright stays with the author in any legitimate publishing arrangement. The religious houses will typically want world rights across formats, and they have the international distribution to justify it. Check the reversion clause, which governs when rights return to you, and the option clause, which can commit your next book. On a services contract, confirm that you own the finished files.
Which formats suit a book from Colorado Springs?
For religious non-fiction, paperback and audio, since devotional and inspirational readers buy audio heavily. For regional history and the Pikes Peak region, paperback through museum shops, the Manitou and Cripple Creek visitor trade and the region’s bookshops. An ebook is worth adding for the Pikes Peak Library District, which lends digitally at scale. Hardcover is for photographic work.
I am not writing a religious book. Is there anything for me in Colorado Springs?
As a place to write and launch, yes; as a place to be published, honestly, not much. Colorado College, the library district and the region’s bookshops give a general author a good environment. The publishers are religious specialists and will not acquire outside that market. For regional history, Western Reflections and University Press of Colorado are the realistic targets. For fiction, an agent and a house elsewhere. It is better to know that before spending a year writing proposals to the wrong publishers.
Find Publishers All Across Colorado
City directories go deeper on the local scene; the state page carries every publisher in Colorado.