New York, NY · Est. 2019 · By invitation only

We publish the books people didn’t know they had in them.

New Fundamentals finds founders, physicians, chefs, scientists, and other people who are already shaping the world, and helps them write their first book — at no cost to them, ever.

See the list How it works
Founders·Physicians·Chefs·Scientists·Operators·Athletes·Architects·Composers·Diplomats·Farmers·Founders·Physicians·Chefs·Scientists·Operators·Athletes·Architects·Composers·Diplomats·Farmers·

About the imprint

A publishing house built for people who never planned to write a book.

Most publishers wait for a manuscript. We go looking for the person first — a founder mid-way through building something real, a physician with two decades of case notes worth keeping, a rising voice the culture hasn’t caught up to yet — and we make the case that their story belongs on paper.

Every author at New Fundamentals is invited. We don’t take unsolicited manuscripts, and we don’t run an open call. It keeps the list small, the editing close, and the standard high.

  1. 01

    Invitation only

    Every author is sought out by an editor. We read the world, not a slush pile.

  2. 02

    No cost to the author

    We advance production, editing, and printing entirely. Our authors are never billed for their own book.

  3. 03

    Full creative freedom

    The editor's job is to sharpen the writer's voice, never to replace it. We publish first books, not committee books.

  4. 04

    Small, deliberate runs

    We print in New York and Verona, in numbers that match the book, not a sales target.

The New Fundamentals office: an editor at a desk by the window, two colleagues talking near a bookshelf, and someone working alone at a small table.
Our accidental renaissance, captured mid-crisis: two editors debating something that is probably lunch, a manuscript being “proofread” by someone who is mostly just staring at it, and Janet, far right, doing an Oscar-worthy impression of a woman with her inbox under control. Nobody in this photo knows where the stapler is. (Also, none of these people work here — Marcus generated this in about four minutes because the website needed a photo and the real office was, at the time, on fire. To his credit, it does actually kind of look like the office, and the fake us are convincing enough as long as you don’t look too closely.)

The list

Recent & forthcoming

Six titles, one season. Each from a first-time author we sought out ourselves.

Cover of The Long Game by Renata Okafor

Memoir

The Long Game

A Memoir of Building Slowly

Renata Okafor

Founder, three companies over twenty years

A founder who built and sold three companies over two decades makes the case for patience over speed — a memoir written against the mythology of overnight success.

Find it on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books.

Cover of Notes from the Margins by Priya Suresh

Essays

Notes from the Margins

Priya Suresh

Cardiologist and first-time essayist

A working cardiologist's essays on mortality, attention, and the small kindnesses that never make it into the chart.

Find it on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books.

Cover of Before the Headlines by Tomas Reyes

Narrative Nonfiction

Before the Headlines

On Being Watched Too Early

Tomas Reyes

Founder, Meridian Freight

Long before he founded Meridian Freight, Tomas Reyes was profiled, praised, and misunderstood by the business press. Here he tells the story they missed.

Find it on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books.

Cover of What We Built by Hannah Lindqvist

Business & Ideas

What We Built

Hannah Lindqvist

Co-founder, Arden Robotics

An unsentimental account of building a robotics company from a garage to a factory floor, and everything that broke along the way.

Find it on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books.

Cover of The Unlikely Room by Desmond Achterberg

Fiction

The Unlikely Room

A Novel

Desmond Achterberg

Chef and restaurateur, first novel

A chef's first novel: one dining room, one impossible night, and the strangers who end up seated together.

Find it on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books.

Cover of Ordinary Hours by Wren Castellano

Essays

Ordinary Hours

Wren Castellano

Climate scientist, essays and field notes

A climate scientist's essays on fieldwork and the long, undramatic work of paying attention to a warming world.

Find it on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books.

Cover of The Mayfly & Cathedral by BJ Yurkovich

Featured Title · Essays & Ideas

The Mayfly & Cathedral

On the Micro and Macro Horizons of Time

A mayfly lives its entire life in a single day. A cathedral outlives every hand that built it. BJ Yurkovich holds both horizons at once, and asks what faith, dogma, and artificial intelligence look like from inside each.

Every mayfly lives its entire adult life in a single day. Every cathedral takes longer to build than its builders live to see finished. In his first book, BJ Yurkovich holds these two timescales side by side — the immediate and the generational — and asks what it means to act with conviction inside either one.

Across essays on artificial intelligence, religious faith, and the dogmas we inherit without ever choosing them, Yurkovich keeps returning to a single question: how should something built for a day reason about something built for centuries? The answer he arrives at is neither cynical nor sentimental — it's an argument for building carefully, on both clocks at once.

“We are mayflies arguing about cathedrals — and cathedrals were built by mayflies who never saw the roof go on.”

BJ Yurkovich · Engineer and founder, first book

Find it on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books.

How an invitation happens

From a name on a list to a book on a shelf.

  1. 1

    Scouting

    Our editors read profiles, trade press, and each other's notes, looking for people with a story that hasn't been told yet.

  2. 2

    The invitation

    We reach out directly. No forms, no query letters — a phone call, and a real conversation about the book.

  3. 3

    Editorial partnership

    A single editor works with the author for the life of the book, protecting their voice through every draft.

  4. 4

    Production & print

    Design, typesetting, and printing, funded entirely by the house. The author never sees an invoice.

The Journal

Notes from the editors, August 2026

A running record of how the list gets made — published by the people making it.

Portrait illustration of Janet Maroni

Editor's Letter · August 3, 2026

Letter from the Editor

On why we still believe the best books come from people who never meant to write one.

— Janet Maroni, Editor-in-Chief

Read the letter →

Craft

The Founder Memoir, Done Honestly

Most business books are written to flatter. Marcus on the edits that make them true instead.

Marcus Whitfield · July 12, 2026
Read the piece →

Author Spotlight

Rising, Watched, Unready

Tomas Reyes spent two years as a business-press fixture before he wrote a word for us. Here's what changed.

Ilana Cho · June 9, 2026
Read the piece →

Production Notes

Inside the Verona Print Run

Devon on paper stock, deckled edges, and why we still print in small runs on real presses.

Devon Ashworth · May 18, 2026
Read the piece →

Behind the Imprint

What an Invitation Actually Means

We don't run a slush pile. Here is what we look for before we ever send a letter.

Janet Maroni · April 6, 2026
Read the piece →

Craft

On Editing People Who've Never Been Edited

Ilana on the first-draft habits of brilliant, unpracticed writers, and how to keep their voice intact.

Ilana Cho · March 21, 2026
Read the piece →

Craft

The Ethics of the Ghost Chapter

Marcus on how much editorial hand is too much when a founder's voice is the entire point.

Marcus Whitfield · February 14, 2026
Read the piece →

Editor's Letter

Letter from the Editor

On reading everything twice, and what the second read is actually for.

Janet Maroni · January 4, 2026
Read the piece →

Behind the Imprint

A Season of Nominations

Who wrote in, who we sought out ourselves, and what a season of scouting actually looks like.

Devon Ashworth · December 25, 2025
Read the piece →

Craft

Why We Don't Do Ghostwriters

Ilana on the difference between a collaborator and a replacement, and why only one belongs at this imprint.

Ilana Cho · November 16, 2025
Read the piece →

Production Notes

The Paper We Print On

Devon on why the imprint still chooses uncoated stock and a printer three time zones away.

Devon Ashworth · October 8, 2025
Read the piece →

Editor's Letter

Letter from the Editor

On first books, and the particular courage it takes to write one in public.

Janet Maroni · September 1, 2025
Read the piece →

Who does the editing

A small editorial room in New York.

Portrait illustration of Janet Maroni

Janet Maroni

Editor-in-Chief

Janet founded New Fundamentals after a decade acquiring narrative nonfiction at two of New York's oldest houses. She reads everything twice.

Portrait illustration of Marcus Whitfield

Marcus Whitfield

Senior Editor, Business & Ideas

Marcus works with founders and operators translating hard-won judgment into books. Previously a longtime editor of essays and memoir.

Portrait illustration of Ilana Cho

Ilana Cho

Editor, Culture

Ilana edits the imprint's cultural criticism and profile-driven titles, and writes the occasional Journal dispatch from the road.

Portrait illustration of Devon Ashworth

Devon Ashworth

Managing Editor

Devon runs production and keeps every book on its (real, honest) schedule, from first draft to the printer in Verona.

Know someone who should be writing a book?

Nominate a writer.

We accept nominations from editors, agents, and readers — not from prospective authors themselves. If someone belongs on this list, tell us why.

editors@newfundamentalspublishing.com