1Deep Vellum Publishing
A Dallas non-profit that has become one of the most significant publishers of literature in translation in the United States, and which also runs a bookshop in Deep Ellum.
The 4 Best Book Publishing Companies in Dallas
Dallas became a serious publishing city in 2013, when Will Evans founded Deep Vellum to publish literature in translation from a city that had never had a literary press of consequence. Within a decade it had become one of the two or three most important houses in the country doing that work, had taken over the backlist of Dalkey Archive Press, had absorbed A Strange Object from Austin, and had opened a bookshop in Deep Ellum. Very few cities can point to one organisation and say it changed what the city is.
Around it the metro area holds two scholarly presses, TCU Press in Fort Worth and the University of North Texas Press in Denton, and a long established services house in Brown Books. Four is an honest count for the Dallas and Fort Worth area. The listings show location so that a Denton or Fort Worth address is not mistaken for a downtown one.
4
Publishers listed
1996
Publishing since
Featured publisher
Western Reflections Publishing Company
For authors in Dallas 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 Texas 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 Dallas
Contact details are the ones each publisher lists itself. Anything we could not confirm is left out rather than guessed.
2Brown Books Publishing Group
A Dallas company offering paid publishing services under what it calls a relationship publishing model, where the author funds the project and keeps ownership of the finished book.
3TCU Press
The scholarly press of Texas Christian University, focused on Texas and the Southwest, with lists in regional history, literature and womens history.
4University of North Texas Press
A Denton scholarly press with strong Texas folklore, true crime and military history lists, and annual prizes in poetry and short fiction that are open to anyone.
Local context
Professional Book Publishers in Dallas, Texas
The Texas Institute of Letters was founded in Dallas during the Texas Centennial in 1936, which makes the city the birthplace of the state’s literary establishment, even if the establishment then spent most of the next eighty years in Austin. A. C. Greene wrote the city’s history for decades from the Dallas Morning News. Ben Fountain wrote Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, set at a Cowboys game on Thanksgiving, from the city and it became one of the defining novels of the Iraq war years. Merritt Tierce’s Love Me Back is set in a high end Dallas steakhouse and is among the sharpest recent fiction about service work anywhere.
What Dallas lacked until recently was infrastructure, and it built it fast. Deep Vellum arrived in 2013. The Wild Detectives opened in the Bishop Arts District the following year as a bookshop, bar and venue that hosts readings most weeks. Interabang Books opened in 2017 and quickly became the city’s central launch venue. The Dallas Museum of Art has run its Arts and Letters Live series since 1991 and brings major authors to the city at a rate that would be respectable for a much larger literary scene. The Dallas Literary Festival and the Dallas Book Festival both now run annually.
Fort Worth and Denton carry the scholarly side. TCU Press has published Texas and the Southwest from Fort Worth for decades. The University of North Texas Press in Denton has a strong list in Texas folklore, true crime and military history, and runs annual prizes in poetry and short fiction that are open to anyone, which makes it one of the more realistic first book routes in the state. Between them, Deep Vellum and the two presses give the metro area a range that runs from experimental European fiction in translation to the folklore of the Texas plains.
Routes in
Getting Published in Dallas: Who Reads Directly, Prizes, and Where Books Launch
Dallas built its literary infrastructure quickly and most of it is a decade old. Interabang Books in Preston Royal is the city’s central launch venue and hosts events most weeks. The Wild Detectives in Bishop Arts is a bookshop, bar and reading venue that has anchored Oak Cliff since 2014. Deep Vellum Books in Deep Ellum sells the press’s own list and a curated selection of translated work. Half Price Books is headquartered on Northwest Highway and its flagship is the largest used bookshop in the state. The Dallas Museum of Art’s Arts and Letters Live has brought major authors to the city since 1991, and the Dallas Literary Festival at SMU and the Dallas Book Festival at the Central Library both run annually.
The Writer’s Garret has run classes, readings and a community for Dallas writers since 1994 and is the practical first stop for someone developing a manuscript. Deep Vellum reads queries directly and is one of the most approachable serious publishers in the country for translators. TCU Press in Fort Worth and the University of North Texas Press in Denton both take proposals, and UNT’s open poetry and short fiction prizes publish the winning book. Leaves Book and Tea Shop serves Fort Worth and Recycled Books, in the old opera house on the Denton square, is one of the largest used bookshops in the region. A Dallas author has the venues, the classes and the presses, which was not true twenty years ago.
What we do
Book Publishing Services We Offer in Dallas
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 Dallas Authors Choose Western Reflections Publishing
We know when Deep Vellum or a scholarly press is the answer
Literary fiction in translation belongs at Deep Vellum. Texas history and folklore may belong at TCU or UNT Press. We say so directly, and we take the memoir, regional non-fiction and general history that those houses do not.
A traditional publisher with fixed fee services
We acquire books and carry the cost. Where a manuscript is not one we would acquire, editing, cover, interior and marketing are quoted individually, and you keep copyright and every file.
Launch support in a city that now has the venues
Interabang, The Wild Detectives, Arts and Letters Live and the festivals give Dallas a real launch circuit. We list books on wholesale terms those buyers accept and help plan around the calendar.
Our Book Publishing Process for Dallas Authors
Step 1
Read and direction
An honest read, with a referral to Deep Vellum, TCU or UNT Press where that is the better home.
Step 2
Scope and quote
A written plan of only what the book needs, priced by stage.
Step 3
Edit, design, produce
Structure first, then line and copy editing, then cover and interior with proofs.
Step 4
Print, distribute, launch
Print on demand or a run, wholesale listings, and a launch plan around the Dallas and Fort Worth bookshops and festivals.
Questions authors ask
Frequently Asked Questions: Book Publishing in Dallas
How did Dallas become a centre for literature in translation?
Largely through one publisher. Deep Vellum was founded in 2013 with the specific aim of publishing translated literature from a city that had no literary press, and it grew by publishing widely, by taking on the backlist and programme of Dalkey Archive Press, one of the most important experimental and translation houses in American history, and by opening a bookshop in Deep Ellum that gave the press a physical presence. For translators it is now one of the most approachable serious publishers in the country, and it accepts queries directly.
How much does it cost to publish a book in Dallas?
Nothing at Deep Vellum, TCU Press or UNT Press, which acquire books and carry production. Brown Books works on a paid relationship publishing model where the author funds the project and keeps the rights. Bought as separate freelance services, Dallas is a moderately priced market and a full length non-fiction book commonly runs three to seven thousand dollars for a structural edit, copyedit, cover and interior.
Do Dallas publishers require a literary agent?
No. Deep Vellum reads queries directly, and both scholarly presses take proposals from authors and evaluate them through peer review. The University of North Texas Press runs annual prizes in poetry and short fiction with open entry, which is a realistic route to a first book for a Texas writer without an agent. Brown Books is a paid service and has no acquisition gate.
What rights does Brown Books or a similar services house take?
Under the relationship publishing model the author retains copyright and the ISBN, and pays for editing, design and production. Read the agreement for who owns the production files, what percentage the company retains on any sales it makes, and whether there is exclusivity on distribution. Those three clauses distinguish a fair services contract from a poor one, in Dallas as anywhere else.
Which formats suit a Dallas book?
Trade paperback for literary fiction and translation, which is what Deep Vellum publishes and what Interabang and The Wild Detectives sell. Scholarly presses typically issue hardcover for libraries and paperback for the trade. Business books from Brown Books are often hardcover because authors buy them in bulk for clients. Audio suits memoir and narrative history. Ebook is worth adding for the Dallas and Fort Worth library systems.
Are Fort Worth and Denton really part of the Dallas publishing scene?
Yes, and the listings above include them with the location shown. TCU Press is thirty miles west in Fort Worth, UNT Press about forty miles north in Denton, and both publish Texas subjects that a Dallas author would otherwise have to send to Austin or College Station. The metro area functions as one literary market: authors launch at Interabang, read at Arts and Letters Live, and publish at whichever of the four houses fits.
Find Publishers All Across Texas
City directories go deeper on the local scene; the state page carries every publisher in Texas.