Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft

The Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (WBG) was a German publishing house in Darmstadt. With about 60,000 subscribers (as of 2023) it was one of the largest book clubs in Germany. German scientists founded the WBG in 1949 as a voluntary association to help with the shortage of scientific literature after World War II. Its aim was to publish new books and to reprint standard works, scarce in that era. The company's principal founder and first managing director was Ernst Anrich. One of its founding members was the philosopher Wilhelm Weischedel. Nowadays the WBG publishes works from about 20 fields of study, sent by mail order to its members. About a third of its programme is reprints of other publishers' scientific works.

From the Wikipedia article “Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Large trade publishers generally accept manuscripts only through literary agents, while many independent and small presses accept direct submissions during reading periods. Before submitting anywhere, read the publisher's current guidelines, study recent books on its list, and never pay a reading or publishing fee to a traditional publisher.