The article focuses on the main secular Hebrew publishers and their role in the development of modern Hebrew literature. On the presumption that a publishing house is an institution which forms readership and drives literary production, the author shows that Hebrew publishers were not only modelling the book market but also served as essential promoters of Hebrew writings and as both financial and spiritual supporters of writers. The aim of the paper is to present the most distinguished Hebrew publishers (e.g. Ben-Avigdor or Avraham Stybel) along with their publishing initiatives which were carried out on the Polish lands from the last decade of the nineteenth century until the outbreak of the Second World War. The key issues discussed in the article are the goals publishers set for themselves, their publishing policy and, above all, their contribution to the development of different genres of Hebrew literature.