Idaho Book Publishing Services for Authors Who Finish What They Start

• Idaho Center for the Book. Housed at Boise State University's Albertsons Library, it has been a Library of Congress Center for the Book affiliate since December 1993. Each year its Idaho Great Reads program picks one adult and one youth title for the National Book Festival.
• Idaho Writers Guild. Literary lunches, critique groups and an annual conference, plus a fall Idaho Author Book Fair with Boise Public Library; check the guild's calendar for the next fair.
• The Cabin, Boise. This 1940 log building hosts readings, workshops and summer camps, and calls itself the only nonprofit in Idaho devoted entirely to reading and writing.
• Boise City Writer-in-Residence. Since 2023, the city, Boise Public Library and The Cabin have named Idaho writers to six-month residencies with a one-time $5,000 stipend (2026–27 cycle) and free monthly public programs.
• Sun Valley Writers' Conference and Storyfort. The Sun Valley conference, founded in 1995, meets each July (2027: July 17–19). Storyfort is the free readings-and-storytelling side of Boise's Treefort festival each spring.
• Rediscovered Books, Boise. Open since 2006, it regularly hosts author events for local and national writers and runs writers' workshops (Idaho Business Review).

A note on grants: unlike many state arts agencies, the Idaho Commission on the Arts funds individual writers through its biennial Writer in Residence award, $5,000 a year, for people who have lived in Idaho at least one year.

Where we fit in: Idaho's guild, fairs and residencies help you finish and share the work. We handle the production side so the finished book holds up next to anything on a Boise bookstore shelf.

When you compare book publishers in Idaho, sort them by model first. Traditional publishers fund the book and hold the publishing rights, so they choose carefully. Hybrid publishers charge part of the cost. Self-publishing services such as Kinetic Digital Publishers bill for the work while you stay the publisher of record.

Caxton Press in Caldwell has published books about the American West since 1925, but its site lists no submission guidelines, so ask before sending anything. Pacific Press in Nampa, a Seventh-day Adventist publisher, says it is open to new manuscripts that fit its faith mission. Limberlost Press in Boise solicits most of its poetry books but welcomes queries.

With any company, find out who owns the ISBN and store accounts, who collects the royalties, and whether the price is quoted in writing. With us, the answer to the first two is you.

Idaho's best-known literary landmark is in Ketchum: the Hemingway House and Preserve, Ernest Hemingway's final home, has been cared for by The Community Library since 2017 and hosts an invitation-only writer residency. Down the valley in Hailey, Ezra Pound was born, which led one Ketchum bookseller to call the area "bookends for modern literature."