Maine Book Publishing Services for Books About Real Places

Good places to start:

• Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Founded in 1975, the Portland-based alliance counts more than 1,700 writers, readers and literary professionals from all sixteen counties. It runs statewide workshops and the annual Maine Literary Awards.
• Maine Crime Wave. The alliance's conference for crime, mystery and thriller writers, held May 30 in 2026 at Mechanics' Hall in Portland.
• Maine Lit Fest. Free author conversations across the state, held every other fall in places such as Brunswick, Lewiston, Portland, Presque Isle and Waterville.
• Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book. Maine's Library of Congress Center for the Book affiliate, set up by the Maine Humanities Council in 1997. Its 2026 National Book Festival picks were The Islanders by Lewis Robinson and Monster Locker by Andrés Vera Martínez.
• Portland Public Library. The Riverton Branch hosts an Early Morning Writing Group, open to every experience level with no registration.
• South Portland Public Library Writers' Group. A support group rather than a class, meeting the first Saturday of the month online and the third in person.
• Print: A Bookstore. An independent Portland bookstore whose calendar is full of author readings, offsite talks and book clubs.
• Maine Arts Commission. Individual writers can apply here: the Maine Artist Fellowship has a Literary Arts category with a $5,000 award.

Where we fit in: these groups bring feedback, deadlines and first readers. When the draft is done, we handle the edit, cover, layout and publishing setup, so the book is ready before the next reading or festival date.

A search for book publishers in Maine turns up three kinds of business. Traditional presses pay you and carry the risk but accept few books; hybrid publishers split costs on terms that vary widely; self-publishing services like ours are paid for the work while you remain the publisher.

Two Maine presses read submissions directly. Islandport Press in Camden emphasizes Maine writers, publishes 10-20 titles a year and reads adult fiction and nonfiction year-round, though children's manuscripts are closed through at least 2026. The University of Maine Press in Orono takes emailed proposals for scholarly and original work about Maine, northern New England, Quebec and the Maritimes.

Before paying any publishing company, confirm who owns the ISBN and store accounts, whether royalties reach you directly, and that the quote is in writing. The alliance's guide to avoiding publishing scams is worth ten minutes. With us, the ISBN, accounts and royalties stay yours.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland in 1807, was a national literary figure by the 1850s and was world-famous by his death in 1882; the Maine Historical Society traces his life from a Portland boyhood. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin while renting 63 Federal Street in Brunswick between 1850 and 1852, a house now owned by Bowdoin College.