The main subjects it publishes are translated and original fiction, history, politics, biographies and children literature.

The most prominent series is called "The Red Book", which features authors like Oscar Wilde, Kurt Vonnegut, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, Italo Calvino, Günter Grass, Ian McEwan, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, John Irving, Mikhail Bulgakov and many others, there are currently over 80 books in the series.

Tänapäev also publishes several popular crime authors such as Boris Akunin, Robert van Gulik, Dashiell Hammett and Lindsey Davis.

Authors include Norman Davies, Antony Beevor, Francis Fukuyama, Robert Graves, Bill Bryson and many others.

Prominent series also include albums of old postcards and photos of landmarks in Estonia, "Golden Biographies" focuses on lives of culturally or historically significant persons.