Indie Publishers

Bluemoose Books is an independent publisher based in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Kevin and Hetha Duffy started Bluemoose in 2006 and as a ‘family’ of readers and writers they’re passionate about the written word and stories. Stories are transformative and as publishers they delight in finding great new talent. If you want brilliant stories that have travelled from Hebden Bridge, across the border into Lancashire, down to London across to Moscow, Sofia and Budapest and into the United States, Australia, India, Colombia and Greenland, Iceland and Bosnia Herzevogina then Bluemoose is the publisher for you.

Check out their catalogue here or pop in and chat to us about our favourite Bluemoose titles.

Charco Press was born from a desire to do something a little out of the ordinary. To bring you, the reader, books from a different part of the world. Outstanding books. Books you want to read. Maybe even books you need to read.

Charco Press is ambitious. They aim to change the current literary scene and make room for a kind of literature that has been overlooked. They want to be that bridge between a world of talented contemporary writers and yourself.

They select authors whose work feeds the imagination, challenges perspective and sparks debate. Authors that are shining lights in the world of contemporary literature. Authors that have won awards and received critical acclaim. Bestselling authors. Yet authors you perhaps have never heard of. Because none of them have been published in English. Until now.

You can find their catalogue here.

And Other Stories publishes some of the best in contemporary writing, including many translations. They aim to push people’s reading limits and help them discover authors of adventurous and inspiring writing. And they want to open up publishing so that from the outside it doesn’t look like some posh freemasonry. For example, as they said in this piece in The Guardian, they think more of the English publishing industry should move out of London, Oxford and their environs. In 2017 they moved their main office to Sheffield and found such a warm welcome. Their Northern Book Prize is a sign of their commitment to new writing from the North of England.

You can find out about their books here.

The Indigo Press is an independent publisher of fiction and creative non-fiction, headquartered at the legendary John Murray building in London. The press is named after the ancient dye, used all over the world. Having once been a luxury product subject to tariffs and harvested by slaves, Indigo is now one of the most democratic colours in the world as the main ingredient of denim, or ‘serge de nîmes’.

Parthian Books are based in Wales. They are a champions of first time voices and won the Not the Booker Award in 2020 . They are also engaged with the culture of Wales through their Library of Wales series which has reached fifty titles of classic writing.

Dead Ink Books are focussed on developing the careers of new and emerging authors.

They believe that there are brilliant authors out there who may not yet be known or commercially viable. They see it as Dead Ink’s job to bring the most challenging and experimental new writing out from the underground and present it to their audience in the most beautiful way possible.

Their readers form an integral part of our team. You don’t simply buy a Dead Ink book, you invest in the authors and the books you love.

Their books have three times made the shortlist for The Saboteur Awards, the longlists for both The Guardian’s First Book Award and Not the Booker Prize, and the longlist for the Edge Hill Short Story Award.

Take a look at their titles here.

Comma Press is a not-for-profit publisher specialising in the short story and fiction in translation. It is committed to a spirit of risk-taking, and aims to put the short story at the heart of contemporary narrative culture.

They publish collections by new and established authors, interdisciplinary collaborations between authors and experts, and translation commissions devised to identify cutting-edge (often marginalised) voices from across the world.

In 2017 they won Northern Soul’s ‘Northern Publisher of the Year’ award, and in 2019 and 2020 they were shortlisted by The British Book Awards for ‘Small Press of the Year’ (North of England).

Take a look at their catalogue here.

Valley Press is an independent publishing house based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK. They publish poetry, including collections, pamphlets and the occasional anthology; fiction, including novels and collections of short stories; and non-fiction, including memoirs and travel writing.

Valley Press is built on one very important belief: great literature, and great publishing, is for everyone and anyone. They don’t want any reader to feel like an outsider, with their nose pressed against the glass of the ‘literary world’; they promise to never be elitist, smug or exclusive. They believe that poetry can sell just as well as fiction and non-fiction (in fact, they can prove it), and as such deserves to be taken as seriously. That’s why all their books are in one big list; whether they are works of intense, thought-provoking literary fiction, performance poetry played for maximum laughs, brick-sized travel epics or sixteen-page children’s stories about baby seagulls – because a life spent reading needs all of those, at one time or another.

Peirene Press is an award-winning boutique publishing house, specialising in high-quality first-translations of contemporary European novellas.

They only publish books of less than 200 pages that can be read in the same time it takes to watch a film. They pride themselves on publishing truly big stories in small packages.

Their books are beautifully designed paperback editions, using only the best paper from sustainable British sources. They are affordable, timeless collector items.

Take a look at their catalogue here.

Unbound believe great ideas shouldn’t fall between the cracks because they don’t fit the mould.

That’s why they’ve built a platform and publishing model that shifts the balance of power, allowing people and communities to champion the voices which deserve to be heard.

They’re changing publishing – and putting the crowd in control.

Take a look at what they’re up to here.

Candlestick Press is a small, independent publisher based in Nottingham, UK. Since 2008 they have been publishing poetry pamphlets aimed equally at people familiar with poetry and those who are not. Their pamphlets make an ideal alternative to a mainstream greetings card and offer an excellent introduction to the work of contemporary and historical poets. Many of the poems are by British poets but they have also included work by Irish, Australian and American poets.

Find a full list of their pamphlets here.

Influx Press is an independent publisher based in north London, founded by Gary Budden and Kit Caless. They are committed to publishing innovative and challenging fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction from across the UK and beyond. Formed in 2012, they have published titles ranging from award-nominated fiction debuts and site-specific anthologies to squatting memoirs and radical poetry. They won the 2018 Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses. Attrib. and Other Stories by Eley Williams won the prestigious James Tait Black Award in 2018, and their titles have been shortlisted and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Edge Hill Prize, the Jhalak Prize, and the Gordon Burn Prize.

Take a look at their catalogue here.

Bloodaxe Books has revolutionised poetry publishing in Britain over four decades. Internationally renowned for quality in literature and excellence in book design, their authors and books have won virtually every major literary award given to poetry, from the T.S. Eliot Prize and Pulitzer to the Nobel Prize. And books like the Staying Alive trilogy have broken new ground by opening up contemporary poetry to many thousands of new readers.

Find their titles listed here.

Since 1997 Wrecking Ball Press has published high quality, cutting edge literature, building a national reputation that far exceeds its size. This is based on a commitment to connecting the most innovative and accessible novels and poetry with a readership not traditionally associated with literature. Wrecking Ball Press has a strong record of discovering exciting first time writers, many of whom have gone on to have further commercial and critical success with larger publishers.

Take a look at their catalogue here.

MayFly Books draws on the most exciting contemporary theorising concerned with organization, its theoretical and political consequences and presumptions. It specifically seeks to publish works that are currently excluded by the publishing industries, either because of their progressive politics or their apparent lack of a mass market. MayFly Books draws on the now available new technologies for distribution, specifically, distribution of downloadable PDFs via the internet and cheap paperbacks published in very short production runs. This press is a truly not-for-profit operation. It publishes books that matter, and at present this involves bypassing the ‘publishing’ industry, which is no longer in public hands and hence fails to represent any public.

Their catalogue can be found here.