Oregon Book Publishing Services for Authors Who Care How It Is Made

Oregon offers writers real support, from monthly meetups to a library that buys local e-books.

• Oregon Center for the Book. The state's Library of Congress affiliate is a program of the Oregon Talking Book and Braille Library at the State Library of Oregon in Salem. It promotes books, reading, literacy, authors and Oregon's literary heritage.
• Willamette Writers. The largest writers' organization in the Pacific Northwest reaches more than 6,000 writers. Its Portland members still meet on the first Tuesday of every month, and it runs an annual conference and workshops.
• Library Writers Project, Multnomah County Library. Every May, local authors can submit a self-published e-book released through Kobo Writing Life or Draft2Digital. Two staff members review each one, and the best are added to the library's Libby and OverDrive collection.
• Portland Book Festival. Literary Arts' festival, which began as Wordstock in 2005, runs each fall, with its biggest day around the South Park Blocks.
• Oregon Literary Fellowships. Literary Arts' fellowships ($3,500 each in the 2025 cycle) go to writers who are full-time Oregon residents when they apply and when the award is made.
• Annie Bloom's Books. This Multnomah Village shop at 7834 SW Capitol Hwy lists author readings and a monthly book club on its events calendar.

A note on grants: individual writers can apply to the Oregon Arts Commission. Its Career Opportunity Grants of $500 to $2,000 are open to arts practitioners in every discipline who have lived in Oregon for at least 12 months.

Where we fit in: these groups bring feedback, readers and a launch audience. We do the editing, cover, interior and publishing setup, including e-book files on Kobo or Draft2Digital if you want to enter the Library Writers Project.

Book publishers in Oregon fall into three groups. Traditional presses pay to publish and choose very few books. Hybrid publishers charge the author and share the risk. Self-publishing services, like us, charge for the work while you stay the publisher.

Two Oregon presses take direct submissions. Oregon State University Press in Corvallis takes emailed proposals on Pacific Northwest history, the environment, Indigenous studies, memoir and food and wine, but no fiction or poetry. Ooligan Press, the student-run press at Portland State University, takes queries through Submittable, reading nonfiction in fall and fiction in spring.

Whoever you hire, get three answers in writing first. Whose name is on the ISBN and the store accounts? Do royalties land in your bank account or theirs? Is there a quote that lists every service? With us, the ISBN and accounts are yours and royalties go straight to you.

Beverly Cleary set many scenes of her children's books around Grant Park in Portland. In 1991, teachers, librarians and business people formed the Friends of Henry & Ramona to fund the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden for Children there. Portland artist Lee Hunt cast life-size bronzes of Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins and Ribsy, and granite plaques carry the titles of the Cleary books set in Portland, with a map of the neighborhood.