Research · publishers · team/conductor/research/publishers/01-the-right-publishers.md

The right publishers for The Ultimate Insider

Research note for the conductor. Public information only. Every page below was read on 30 October 2026 unless marked otherwise. No personal contact details are given: where a publisher publishes a proposals mailbox, this note says "the proposals mailbox on the page" and gives the page URL.

How far this research got (read this first)

• Reached and read directly: Manning, No Starch Press, The Pragmatic Bookshelf, IT Revolution, InformIT (Pearson), Wiley author services, Packt (authors page only), Leanpub, the O'Reilly platform submission guide, and several author accounts.
• Blocked from this machine, so described only from search summaries and third-party accounts, and marked "unverified": the O'Reilly "Work with us" page (access denied), the MIT Press submission page (access denied), Apress's proposal page (a JavaScript challenge), and Packt's "write for us" page (JavaScript challenge). Re-check these four by hand before anyone acts on them.
• No page tried to instruct this research. Nothing here comes from a private source.
• The strongest single source is a first-hand account of pitching three major tech publishers, by the author of The Software Engineer's Guidebook: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/four-years-on-writing-a-tech-book-pitching-to-a-publisher/ (read 30 October 2026). It is one author's account from 2025, not a publisher statement. Where it is used, it is flagged.

1. Ranked shortlist

Ranking is by fit with this book (a security and AI story, told with a git record, from a practitioner with a finished, tested product), by how likely a first reply is, and by how well the publisher's model suits a book that already exists and is already selling.

1. The Pragmatic Bookshelf (Pragmatic Programmers)

• Why first: it is the only one of the big three that publishes a written offer to authors who have already self-published, and it invented the beta-book model that matches a Leanpub-first book.
• Relevant list: AI engineering and process titles in 2026, for example "Process Over Magic: Beyond Vibe Coding", "A Common-Sense Guide to AI Engineering" and "Risk-First Software Development, Second Edition: Deliver Better Systems in a Post-Agile, AI World". Title list: https://pragprog.com/titles/ (read 30 October 2026).
• Audience and distribution: working developers; DRM-free ebooks; print through retail and online stores (their own claim: "from local retailers to Amazon and beyond"). https://pragprog.com/publish-with-us/
• Proposals: the page asks for an email to the proposals mailbox, with "a completed copy of our Proposal Template" to fast-track. It welcomes early-stage ideas. https://pragprog.com/publish-with-us/
• Self-published books: a section titled "Self-Published Authors, Look Here" describes a distribution programme for books already on Gumroad, Amazon or your own site: "send an email ... introducing yourself and your book. Please include as much of your book as possible (or a link to a complimentary copy)". Same page. This is the closest public offer to what the editor wants.
• Formats: beta books ("Pioneered Beta books" on the site footer), free updates within an edition. An ACCU review of the second edition of Risk-First Software Development was written against the beta: https://accu.org/bookreviews/2026/shatti_2058 (surfaced by search, 30 October 2026; not opened in full).
• Terms: the page says royalties "start at 42% for first-time authors and increasing on subsequent titles". The series editor of their open source line wrote in 2022 that "Publisher and author each get 42% of the royalties from your book" after costs: https://blog.vmbrasseur.com/2022/08/26/pragmatic-open-source-series. The 2025 author account describes it as a 50% split of profit, not of revenue, and says it ends up "pretty similar" to the revenue model (Pragmatic Engineer link above). Treat the exact figure as to be confirmed.
• Open licence: not stated on the pages read. Unknown.
• Timeline: not published.
• Risk: its list is developer-first. A book about governing agents and a git record is a stretch for a code-first list, but the AI and "post-agile" titles show the door is open.

2. No Starch Press

• Relevant list: the largest security list of any publisher read here, plus a growing AI list. Security: "Practical AI Security" (June 2026), "Red Teaming AI" (spring 2027), "The Effective Red Team" (January 2027), "Cybersecurity Tabletop Exercises" (September 2024). https://nostarch.com/catalog/security . AI: "The Developer's Guide to AI" (June 2026), "The Craft of Post-Training" (September 2026). https://nostarch.com/catalog/ai-machine-learning (both read 30 October 2026).
• Audience: practitioners and enthusiasts, strong with security professionals. Distribution: retail, direct, an Early Access programme ("EARLY ACCESS lets you read full chapters months before a title's release date", site banner).
• Proposals: https://nostarch.com/writeforus asks for a summary, a detailed outline (chapter titles and first-level headings at least), audience, competition, market, a short "you", and any writing samples. It says that if a full proposal feels like too much, an email to the editors will do: "the primary thing that we're looking for is a clear description of what it is that you want to write and your table of contents."
• Terms (published): a choice of 15% royalty with no advance, 12% with a $5,000 advance, or 10% with an $8,000 advance; 25% on ebooks; translation rights revenue split 50-50. The page says the editors edit everything and that its seven acquisitions editors handle about 50 books a year. Same page.
• Precedent for exactly this route: a Leanpub-first book was taken on, and the Leanpub edition was allowed to stay on sale (see section 2).
• Open licence: they publish books that are free online under open licences (see section 3).
• Risk: a security list that leans toward offence ("Evasion Engineering", "Red Team Engineering"). The book's rule is benign and defensive, so the pitch must say plainly that it is about governance and control, and show the "Practical Purple Teaming" and "Cybersecurity Tabletop Exercises" kind of fit instead.

3. Manning Publications

• Relevant list: 2026 catalogue is heavy on AI engineering, for example "Trustworthy Generative AI", "Agent Engineering", "Spec-Driven AI Development", "Context Engineering". https://www.manning.com/catalog (read 30 October 2026). Many are multi-author collections.
• Programme: MEAP, "you read a book chapter-by-chapter while it's being written". "We often start a MEAP after three months of work on a book." https://www.manning.com/about/meap . Manning says it will sometimes decide not to publish a book already in MEAP, and offers an exchange or refund.
• Proposals: https://www.manning.com/write-for-us . Download a proposal form, send it to the proposals mailbox on the page; "If you'd like to discuss your ideas before submitting a proposal, just let us know". The proposal "will tell us: Why this topic is important now; How the book ... is different from the competition; What the reader will get out of the book; Why you are the right person". "Be prepared to revise it several times". Then terms of a publishing agreement are discussed.
• Also: liveVideos and liveProjects, which suit a team-with-agents course. "We do full print runs for all of our books, no print on demand."
• Terms: not on the page. A 2015 author account puts print royalties at 12.5% and ebooks at 50%: https://ryanbigg.com/2015/08/my-self-publishing-success-story . Old and one author's; do not rely on it.
• Self-published or open licence: not stated. That account also records that Manning's tooling and control did not suit a Leanpub-style author.
• Timeline: not published; the MEAP page implies nine months or more before publication.
• Note for the editor: one 2026 title on the current list carries an AI model's name in its title. Not a reason to avoid them, but expect competing titles in the same space.

4. O'Reilly Media

• Relevant list: the best-known tech brand; security, AI and engineering management. The 2025 author account calls it "if I had to pick a #1 tech book publisher, it would be O'Reilly".
• Proposals: the "Work With Us" page (https://www.oreilly.com/work-with-us) was access-denied here. A search summary says it directs prospective authors to a Work With Us mailbox, and that a formal proposal can be submitted. Unverified.
• Pitch template (from the 2025 author account, which lists it): Description, About the topic, Audience, Keywords, Competing titles, Related O'Reilly titles, Book outline, Writing schedule.
• Early Release: O'Reilly's Early Release lets readers see chapters during writing. Unverified here; confirm on their site.
• Terms: the same account says a typical advance at the big three is about $5,000 and royalties of 10% print and 25% ebook, citing an O'Reilly author who was offered those; first-time authors with no list are often refused.
• Open licence: O'Reilly has a long record of CC releases (section 3).
• Why fourth: the biggest platform (the platform itself, O'Reilly Learning, takes titles through distributors: https://submission-guides.oreilly.com/book-submissions/), but the hardest to enter as a first-time author, and its page was not readable.

5. IT Revolution

• Relevant list: technology leaders. Categories on its books page include "AI" and "Audit & Security"; publisher of The Phoenix Project, Team Topologies and Accelerate (named in the 2025 author account). https://itrevolution.com/books/ (read 30 October 2026).
• Why this belongs high: the best audience match of all. The book is about controls over agents in a delivery process, which is their territory. Its conference and video library (1,000+ talks, home page) is a ready route to the reader.
• Proposals: https://itrevolution.com/submission-guidelines/ lists exactly what they want: title, subtitle, a hook, a one-paragraph description, proposed pages, a schedule; what problem, what solution, what urgency, who the audience is, why you; a table of contents with two- to three-sentence chapter summaries; two sample chapters plus an introduction or preface; a marketing section (email subscribers, social media, media appearances, promoters); five competing titles from the last three years; a three-to-five paragraph bio; and previously published books "their sales history, and your landing pages and marketing plans".
• But: the same page ends "We are not accepting unsolicited book proposals at this time." So the route is a relationship, not a submission. A public finished book that their audience discusses is the honest way in.
• Terms: not published.

6. Apress (Springer Nature)

• Unverified: the proposal page (https://www.apress.com/gp/write-for-us/submit-a-proposal) returned a JavaScript challenge. A search summary says the page asks you to download the proposal form and email it with supporting material to an acquisitions editor. The 2025 author account says Apress "publish many books on many topics, they are usually open to pitches".
• Open-licence precedent: the Pro Git book (section 3).
• Why sixth: easier to get a reply, lower profile.

7. Wiley (professional and trade)

• Proposal page: https://authorservices-ppd.wiley.com/author-resources/book-authors/prepare-your-proposal.html (read 30 October 2026). Submit to a Commissioning Editor, "a subject specialist, and you can contact them directly". Checklist: who, what, why, how; table of contents; sample materials; word count; timetable; primary and secondary market; similar publications.
• Coverage: a broad list including Wrox and business titles (search summary of Wiley pages, 30 October 2026); the 2025 author account says it could not find recently published well-known tech books for engineers. Weak fit for a practitioner book, better for business and security management lists.
• Open licence: Wiley publishes open access books, mostly scholarly. Unverified for trade.

8. Pearson: Addison-Wesley, InformIT, Cisco Press, Pearson IT Certification

• Page: https://www.informit.com/about/write_for_us.aspx (read 30 October 2026). They welcome proposals on "programming, data science, cloud computing, software architecture & development ... security". Process: use the proposal template, "before submitting a full proposal, please send us an email message briefly describing your idea and your writing experience".
• The 2025 author account says the Addison-Wesley brand is hard to pitch and "new books they publish seem to be by established authors".
• Fit: strong for a security-and-architecture management title; modest odds.

9. Packt

• Page: https://authors.packtpub.com/ (read 30 October 2026) says it offers "competitive advances and royalties" and quotes "over a million direct customers". No figures on the page. A search summary of older posts puts royalties at 15 to 20% (old; unverified). The 2025 author account says Packt is "likely to say 'yes' to a serious proposal" but with "limited support and feedback for authors".
• Why ninth: the most likely quick yes, and the least brand value. Consider only if the editor wants volume, not standing.

10. MIT Press

• Unverified: submission page access-denied. Search summaries say the Press supports open access trade books ("Ideas" series, launched 2019 with MIT Libraries funding) and that CC BY on a trade book "usually needs to be negotiated, often with a library or grant funder". An author reported that a standard contract clause lets the author post an electronic edition under a CC licence. MIT Press is the clearest academic-press route for an openly licensed book.
• Fit: the book's argument about institutions and trust. Weaker for practitioners. Reach in libraries and universities.

11. Stripe Press

• Curated list of "ideas for progress": https://press.stripe.com/ lists, among others, "Working in Public" (Nadia Eghbal), "An Elegant Puzzle" (Will Larson) and "Scaling People". Read 30 October 2026.
• No public submission route was found. A good brand fit for the story of how a team works, but this is an outreach by public discussion, not a form.

12. Kogan Page (business, UK)

• A public proposal-guidelines PDF exists at https://cdn.koganpage.com/media/public/document/kogan-page-book-proposal-guidelines.pdf (the file was found; its content was not read). Business-of-technology list. Included for UK reach; verify before use.

Not a publisher, but a tool: Leanpub's own "Publisher Memberships" (https://leanpub.com/publishers, read 30 October 2026) let imprints use the same platform at 80% royalties on its store; this is relevant because a publisher could pick up the Leanpub manuscript source. Leanpub also pays "80% royalties on every sale of $7.99 and up" to self-published authors (https://leanpub.com/about).

2. Precedents: self-published or Leanpub first, then a publisher

Honest result: documented, dated cases of a Leanpub book later signed by a major publisher are rare in what could be found. A Leanpub staff comment on Hacker News says "we've had traditional publishers pick up a few Leanpub books" without names (surfaced by search, 30 October 2026; not read in full).

• Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript (No Starch Press, 2014). Nicholas Zakas self-published it on Leanpub at the beginning of 2013, a book of "just under 100 pages". He did not expect a print publisher to want it ("Most publishers want around 200 pages"). A conversation with No Starch's founder at a conference, then a read of the finished ebook, led to a print book. "No Starch wasn't the first publisher to approach me." He also says: "Where other publishers said I would have to take down the Leanpub offering, No Starch allowed me to keep it up." Source: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/5810186-now-shipping-principles-of-object-oriented-javascript (blog post dated 25 February 2014; the Leanpub launch post is https://humanwhocodes.com/blog/2012/12/18/now-available-principles-of-object-oriented-programming-in-javascript-beta). What made the deal: a complete, short, focused book; an author with a following; and the publisher reading a finished product.
• Risk-First Software Development. The first edition was self-published (CreateSpace, 2018 print listing), alongside a free website, riskfirst.org. The second edition is now a Pragmatic beta, in 2026 (title list above; the ACCU review). That is a self-published, web-first, openly readable book reaching a major tech publisher. Dates and the reason for the move are not stated on the pages read. Source on the first edition: the search listing at https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Risk-First-Software-Development/Rob-Moffat/9781717491855 . Treat as indicative, not verified.
• The Software Engineer's Guidebook, 2023. Pitched to three major tech publishers in 2019; two said no, one offered a contract; the author then left that publisher and self-published, selling about 40,000 copies in 24 months. Read as the reverse precedent: a finished, selling book had more leverage than a first-time pitch. https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/four-years-on-writing-a-tech-book-pitching-to-a-publisher/ . This author also says he "would reject any book that didn't look like it could hit 1,000 copies sold in the first year" (his guess, as a publisher), and that parallel pitching "is totally fine and you should do it".
• Rails books and Manning. An author who wrote for Manning and then self-published on Leanpub reported the Leanpub route paid more per sale and was easier to run; his post is a warning that the cultures differ. https://ryanbigg.com/2015/08/my-self-publishing-success-story (6 August 2015).
• Wardley Maps (Simon Wardley). Originally on Medium under CC BY-SA 4.0, then a Leanpub edition "retains that same license" and a Lulu print edition (Leanpub listing https://leanpub.com/wardley-maps, read via search summary 30 October 2026). No traditional publisher was found. It is a useful precedent for the editor's own framing: an openly licensed book that spread without one.

What made deals, across these: a complete book, evidence readers want it, an author with an existing audience, and a publisher who could add something the author could not (print, editing, distribution, translation).

3. The CC BY 4.0 question

The facts found:

• O'Reilly: published several openly licensed titles in the 2000s. Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing was made a free download under a Creative Commons licence in January 2005 (https://creativecommons.org/2005/01/31/oreillylicensingbooklicensed/ , surfaced by search; exact variant not confirmed). Open Sources 2.0 was CC BY-NC-ND 2.5; We the Media was CC BY-NC-SA; A Whirlwind Tour of Python was CC0 (search summary, 30 October 2026). Not CC BY in these cases. Its Asterisk book sold about 19,000 copies in two years, "about what comparable books from O'Reilly were selling", while being downloaded 180,000 times from one mirror: https://creativecommons.org/2009/03/30/advice-for-authors-on-negotiating-with-a-publisher-about-cc-licenses/ (30 March 2009 post). This is the most useful public argument that open text and print sales coexist.
• No Starch Press: Eloquent JavaScript is free online under a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial licence while No Starch sells print and ebook editions (https://eloquentjavascript.net/ , read via search summary; the earlier edition was CC BY 3.0 per a free-books aggregator). The Rust Programming Language is free online and "available in paperback and ebook format from No Starch Press": https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/title-page.html (read 30 October 2026; its software licence was not checked).
• Apress: the Pro Git book is free online under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 and sold in print (https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2 , search summary).
• MIT Press: open access options, usually non-commercial or no-derivatives by default; a CC BY-SA request by an author was reported as granted; CC BY on trade books needs negotiation (search summaries, 30 October 2026).
• The Pragmatic Bookshelf, Manning, IT Revolution, Wiley, Packt, Pearson: nothing about open licences was stated on the pages read.

What this means for a deal (judgement, with the general CC facts below taken from background knowledge, not fetched here):

• Almost every example above is a non-commercial (NC) licence. CC BY, with no NC term, lets anyone, including a rival publisher, sell the text. That is the point publishers will challenge. Expect the first answer to be "can the free text be non-commercial for the print edition?"
• A CC licence already granted cannot be taken back for those who have it. So the free RC1 text stays free whatever happens. That is a fact to state on the "For publishers" page rather than hide.
• Options that keep CC BY and still give a publisher something to own: the publisher's edition carries its own editing, new material, cover, layout, index, translations and brand; the publisher gets an exclusive, time-limited, first-print or first-translation position; the publisher's edition is the one the editor points readers to. The author is the copyright holder, so he can grant these rights. A lawyer should check the wording before anything is signed.
• Fallback: re-licensing the next edition to CC BY-NC-SA, as No Starch's and Apress's cases did. The editor decides; this note proposes no change to the signed licence.

4. What a proposal should contain, and the "For publishers" page

What the publishers ask for, put side by side:

The proposal for this book should hold:

1. A one-page pitch: what the book is, who it is for, what a reader can do after reading it.
2. The finished manuscript, as a PDF at 6x9 (294 pages, about 72,000 words) and the source, plus the map and infographic files. This is the part no other pitch has.
3. The record: the public git history of the day, the claims register (every number traced), and the controls the agents ran under. This is the "completeness and honesty" argument.
4. Market evidence, only real numbers from the claims register: Leanpub readers and downloads from 2 November 2026, Amazon KDP sales when they exist, reviews, newsletter subscribers, mentions. Do not invent figures. Say plainly where there are none yet.
5. Competing titles from the last three years, each with publisher and how this one differs (the AI-and-security lists above are the place to look for them).
6. Author bio and platform: the editor's public record, talks, and the audience that came to the talk.
7. The open licence, stated plainly, with the options in section 3.
8. A schedule: what the editor will do in the first 90 days after an agreement; what he will do himself (free text stays up, Leanpub continues).
9. What the editor is not asking: not to be rescued; he has de-risked the book.

For the public "For publishers" page, in this order:

• A first line in the editor's own words: "I am not trying to get rid of publishers; I have finished the risky part so you can do the part you are best at."
• The facts: a finished book, the page count and word count, the date it went on Leanpub, the licence, and the links to read it free.
• The evidence: sales and readership numbers once real, linked to the claims register.
• What he would like a publisher to add: review, editing, print, distribution, translation, audio, early-access programmes.
• The licence in one paragraph, with the options.
• A single public submissions route, using a published role such as "acquisitions" and a form or address chosen by the editor, not a personal address.
• A one-page downloadable proposal and the review PDF.

What this means for the book

The first three to approach, and why:

1. The Pragmatic Bookshelf. It publishes an explicit invitation to self-published authors, runs beta books, and pays the highest published royalty. It is the only one of the three that has already said in writing that it wants books like this one.
2. No Starch Press. It has the strongest security and AI lists, a simple proposal ("a clear description ... and your table of contents"), published terms, and the one clear Leanpub-to-print precedent, where it let the Leanpub edition stay on sale. It also has open-licence history. Pitch the book as defensive security governance, not offence.
3. IT Revolution. The best audience match and the strongest reason to talk, but closed to unsolicited proposals. Approach through public work (the book, talk and record) and through any existing professional relationship, not through the form. Manning is a close fourth if IT Revolution does not open; its MEAP suits an RC1 that is already complete, and its AI list is the largest.

Approach all three at the same time, as the 2025 author account recommends. Send O'Reilly, Manning and Apress a pitch in the second wave once the Leanpub numbers exist.

What to do with the proposal: build it once, from the table in section 4, and trim for each publisher. Start the "For publishers" page on day one with the facts, and fill in the numbers as they appear.

Open points for the editor:

• The four blocked pages (O'Reilly, MIT Press, Apress, Packt) need a human read.
• Whether to offer CC BY unchanged to a publisher, or to offer the NC fallback. Only the editor decides; this note does not.
• Royalty and timeline figures in this note are mostly publisher-published or one author's account. None is a quote to the editor.

Where this came from

All read 30 October 2026, from the machine's network, by direct fetch unless noted.

Publisher pages: https://www.manning.com/write-for-us ; https://www.manning.com/about/meap ; https://www.manning.com/catalog ; https://nostarch.com/writeforus ; https://nostarch.com/catalog/security ; https://nostarch.com/catalog/ai-machine-learning ; https://pragprog.com/publish-with-us/ ; https://pragprog.com/titles/ ; https://itrevolution.com/submission-guidelines/ ; https://itrevolution.com/books/ ; https://itrevolution.com/ ; https://www.informit.com/about/write_for_us.aspx ; https://authorservices-ppd.wiley.com/author-resources/book-authors/prepare-your-proposal.html ; https://authors.packtpub.com/ ; https://submission-guides.oreilly.com/book-submissions/ ; https://press.stripe.com/ ; https://leanpub.com/publishers ; https://leanpub.com/about ; https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/title-page.html .

Author and public accounts: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/four-years-on-writing-a-tech-book-pitching-to-a-publisher/ ; https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/5810186-now-shipping-principles-of-object-oriented-javascript ; https://humanwhocodes.com/blog/2012/12/18/now-available-principles-of-object-oriented-programming-in-javascript-beta ; https://ryanbigg.com/2015/08/my-self-publishing-success-story ; https://blog.vmbrasseur.com/2022/08/26/pragmatic-open-source-series ; https://creativecommons.org/2009/03/30/advice-for-authors-on-negotiating-with-a-publisher-about-cc-licenses/ .

Search summaries only (not opened in full): O'Reilly Work With Us and authors pages; MIT Press open-access summaries; Eloquent JavaScript licence; Pro Git licence at https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2 ; the Risk-First listing and ACCU review; the Wardley Maps Leanpub listing; the Kogan Page proposal guidelines file (found, not read); Apress's proposal page (blocked).

General CC knowledge in section 3 (irrevocability of a granted licence) is from background knowledge and was not checked against a source in this session.