Arkansas Book Publishing Services for Stories From the Ozarks to the Delta

Before and after publication, these are the Arkansas organizations we would point an author to first.

• Arkansas Center for the Book. Based at the Arkansas State Library and an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book since 2000. Its yearly Arkansas Gems list features about twenty new works about Arkansas or by writers connected to it, so it is worth knowing once your book is out.
• Ozark Creative Writers. A volunteer-run conference held each fall at the Inn of the Ozarks in Eureka Springs since 1968, with writing contests alongside the sessions. Check the conference site for this year's dates.
• Writing All Year Workshop Group (CALS). The Central Arkansas Library System's writing circle meets online on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month to trade feedback on works in progress.
• Six Bridges Book Festival , Little Rock. Started in 2002 as the Arkansas Literary Festival and run by the Central Arkansas Library System since 2008, it now takes place each fall.
• WordsWorth Books & Co. , Little Rock. The oldest independent bookstore in Little Rock, at 5920 R Street, and a regular host of literary events and author signings.
• Arkansas Arts Council. Individual writers can apply to its Individual Artist Fellowship, not just organizations. Categories change each year, so check whether a literary category is open. The program was closed for the current cycle when we checked on October 5, 2026.

Where we fit in: a writing group sharpens the manuscript and a festival finds its readers. Our job is everything in between, from the edit to the files the stores accept.

Book publishers in Arkansas fall into two groups. Traditional presses buy the rights and pay you royalties; self-publishing services, like us, are paid for the work and leave the rights with you. Hybrid publishers sit in between; read those contracts closely.

The University of Arkansas Press in Fayetteville, founded in 1980, accepts unsolicited proposals for scholarly and trade books in areas such as Arkansas and the region, Ozark studies, food studies and African American studies, and runs the Miller Williams Poetry Prize. It does not sell editing or design services. Butler Center Books, the nonprofit imprint of the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock, posts no submission guidelines, so contact it first.

Three questions protect you with any press or service: whose name is on the ISBN and the sales accounts, do royalties land in your own bank account, and is every service written into the quote before you pay? If your book fits neither press, self-publishing with us keeps the ISBN, the sales accounts and the royalties in your name.

In the northeast corner of the state, in Piggott, Ernest Hemingway wrote portions of A Farewell to Arms and several short stories in a barn his in-laws, Paul and Mary Pfeiffer, turned into a private studio. Arkansas State University now runs the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum, where visitors can tour both the barn and the family home.