Publishers Marketplace

What Publishers Marketplace does

Publishers Marketplace, operated by Cader Books, Inc. and headquartered in Bronxville, New York, is a subscription-based professional web platform serving the book publishing industry. Its core product is a searchable database of approximately 30,000 agents, editors, and imprints worldwide, paired with proprietary deal-reporting archives and integrated retail sales data from Circana BookScan (print, ebook, and digital audio). The platform also operates Publishers Lunch, a free daily email newsletter reaching 40,000+ industry recipients, and offers higher-margin modules such as Lunch Deluxe, Buzz Books, Job Board, Rights Offerings, Member Profiles, and Featured Page Ads.

The underlying stack combines curated user-submitted deal reports, a database of agent/editor profiles, and partner-provided retail sales feeds, with newer natural-language search features (Agent Matcher and Deal Matcher) added on top. Subscription tiers range from a $30 monthly plan to $90-$120 annual plans, supplemented by a $15 Quick Pass for one-time researchers and usage-based advertising units. Go-to-market is purely product-led and self-serve through publishersmarketplace.com, with no enterprise sales motion or channel partners. The site attracts more than 10,000 daily page views, suggesting a recurring-engagement user base concentrated in literary agencies, publishing imprints, and supporting industry professionals.

Customer segments span literary agents and agencies, editors and imprints, publishing-house executives, authors and aspiring writers, and adjacent professionals such as publicists, film/TV scouts, and international publishers. Pricing is intentionally low ($90-$120 per year for full membership) to support broad adoption across individuals and small agencies rather than enterprise licensing, and the company is privately held with 1-10 employees, no external funding disclosed, and no parent organization identified.

Name

Publishers Marketplace

Legal name

Cader Books, Inc.

Website

https://publishersmarketplace.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Publishers Marketplace is a subscription web platform and daily newsletter providing deal-tracking databases, agent and editor directories, and integrated retail sales data to book publishing professionals and authors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Publishing Industry Intelligence Software

NAICS

Other Publishers (51319)

SIC

Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Author Service Marketplaces & Aggregators (Vetting, Bundled Services) (MPAJAJAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Author Business Tools & Analytics (Royalty Tracking, Pricing, Keyword/Market Research) (MPAJAJAO)

Keywords

• Publishing industry intelligence
• Literary agent directory
• Book deal tracking
• Publishing news database
• Book sales analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Subscription Memberships: Primary revenue stream from monthly, 6-month, and annual subscription plans providing access to the full platform including deals database, directories, and BookScan data
2. Job Board Postings: Publishing industry job listings at $25 per posting, active for 48 hours, generating incremental recurring revenue
3. Classifieds: Paid classified advertising sections for industry professionals seeking representation, subrights, or services
4. Featured Page Ads: Premium advertising placements on the platform at $100 per day

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Publishers Marketplace operates a subscription web platform that provides publishing industry professionals with proprietary databases of 30,000+ literary agents, editors, and imprints, along with deal transaction histories, rights offerings listings, AI-powered agent/deal matching, integrated Circana BookScan retail sales data, job board postings, and a daily industry newsletter (Publishers Lunch). The product is sold primarily through monthly, six-month, and annual memberships.

Product overview

Publishers Marketplace is a subscription-based web platform providing professional databases, tools, news, and analysis for the book publishing industry. The core offering is Publishers Marketplace itself—a searchable database of 30,000+ agents, editors, and imprints with deal transaction data—augmented by Publishers Lunch, a free daily newsletter, and Lunch Deluxe, the premium expanded edition. Key features include Agent Matcher and Deal Matcher (AI-powered search tools), Circana BookScan (print and ebook sales data), Job Board, Rights Offerings board, Member Profiles directory, Book Tracker, Deal Tracker, Buzz Books, and Classifieds. The platform operates on tiered membership ($30/month for individual members) with optional add-ons including Quick Pass temporary access, Featured Page Ads, and Circana BookScan data subscriptions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Publishers Lunch: A free daily e-mail newsletter and companion to Publishers Marketplace, providing daily news and industry updates. Note: Publishers Lunch is a separate service from Publishers Marketplace membership.

Products and services

• Publishers Marketplace Membership Subscription-based web platform granting access to the publishing industry database of 30,000+ agents, editors, and imprints with deal transaction histories, rights listings, AI search tools, and member profiles. Sold to publishing professionals as monthly, six-month, or annual memberships.
• Publishers Lunch Free daily email newsletter delivering publishing industry news, deal announcements, personnel moves, and analysis to subscribers. Acts as both a standalone free product and a top-of-funnel awareness channel for paid Marketplace memberships.
• Circana Publishers Marketplace BookScan Print book sales data subscription providing weekly access to retail sales data used by book publishers, with optional ebook sales upgrade and digital audio sales upgrade. Available as an add-on to Marketplace membership or as a standalone annual subscription.
• Job Board Publishing industry job listing service offering paid posting for employers at $25 per posting (active 48 hours) and free search for job seekers. Provides employers access to publishing professionals seeking new roles.
• Rights Offerings Board Board for posting and browsing rights availability, including film rights, television rights, translation rights, and international rights. Allows rights holders and acquirers to connect over specific rights opportunities.
• Member Profiles Directory Searchable directory of industry professionals including agents, editors, publishers, writers, scouts, and service providers. Available to members for discovering and researching publishing professionals.
• Featured Page Ads Self-service promotional advertising placing short promotional messages on high-traffic pages at $100 per day, available to authors, publishers, and agents seeking visibility.
• Quick Pass Temporary 24-hour access pass at $15 providing up to 50 page requests of limited premium site access. Designed for one-time researchers, gift recipients, or those evaluating the platform before subscribing.
• Buzz Books Publishing industry resource for discovering and tracking book buzz and upcoming releases, provided as a separate sub-brand site under the Publishers Marketplace umbrella.
• Classifieds Community bulletin board for paid classified advertising including representation requests, subrights offerings, awards announcements, job listings, and press releases. Used by industry professionals to communicate news and opportunities.

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Circana (formerly NPD)coreOthersCircana (formerly NPD Group) provides BookScan retail book sales data integrated into the Publishers Marketplace platform. This partnership gives subscribers access to actual sales figures for books in the market, enabling market intelligence and competitive analysis. The data is a key differentiator for the platform's premium subscription tiers.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• PublishersGlobal: International publishing rights and book-services marketplace connecting publishers, agents, and authors across borders. Overlap with Publishers Marketplace's Rights Offerings board and international directory coverage.
• Publishers Weekly: The flagship U.S. trade publication covering book publishing deals, news, and reviews. Comparable audience of agents, editors, and publishers, with overlapping deal-coverage and industry-news functionality.
• NetGalley: Digital review-copy and book-discovery platform connecting publishers with reviewers, booksellers, librarians, and educators. Overlapping audience of authors, agents, and trade professionals using discovery and review workflows.
• Shelf Awareness: Daily trade newsletter reaching booksellers, librarians, publishers, and agents with industry news and bestseller coverage. Comparable daily-newsletter cadence and tight-knit trade audience.
• Kirkus Reviews: Pre-publication review service and industry resource serving authors, agents, editors, and librarians. Comparable professional audience and overlap in pre-publication intelligence and book discovery workflows.
• QueryTracker: Author-focused agent database and querying platform that tracks agent responsiveness and success rates. Direct overlap with Publishers Marketplace's agent-research and vetting use cases for the author segment.
• Edelweiss (Above the Treeline): Industry catalog and marketing platform used by publishers, reps, booksellers, and librarians for title metadata, review copy distribution, and analytics. Comparable B2B SaaS model serving the same publishing-industry buyer personas.

Emerging players

• BookBub: Author-reader marketing platform with Featured Deals and advertising tools reaching millions of readers. Partial overlap through the author persona and discovery/intelligence tooling, though the primary audience is consumers rather than trade professionals.

Regional players

• The Bookseller: The leading UK trade publication covering book publishing deals, news, and reviews. Functionally analogous to Publishers Weekly and Publishers Marketplace for the UK and Commonwealth markets.
• BookBrunch: UK daily trade newsletter for the book industry covering deals, personnel moves, and market intelligence. Comparable daily-newsletter format and trade audience outside the U.S.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/publisherslunch
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/parasitology

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Publishers Marketplace