By definition an Independent Publisher is one that is not one of the large multinational publishing houses commonly referred to as the ‘Big Five’ (namely Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Harper Collins – along with their imprints). I’ve also excluded Bloomsbury and its imprints because its size, reach and income put it beyond what most people think of as an ‘indie’ publisher.
This list was started in 2021 and is gradually being updated from Aug 2023. It will remove those those publishers we’ve sadly lost, add those we’ve gained (or I missed the first time around) and will also now include publishers in the Republic of Ireland. This latter is made possible by the publication (in June 2023) of the Directory of Irish Publishers a project co-led by the Royal Irish Academy and Trinity College Dublin. The Directory is openly accessible and licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Sharealike (CC-BY-NC-SA) licence. I’m grateful for this access to make my existing list more inclusive.
I’ll be publishing the updated sections alphabetically, so if the inclusive A-Z listing at the top of each section still refers to UK only then that section has still to be updated.
The list is restricted to publishers of adult fiction, short stories and poetry.
Any indie publishers based in the UK or Ireland who are not included on this list, and whose output matches the inclusion criteria, please feel free to contact me.
Ignite Books
Ignite Books has one simple aim: to find great stories and bring them to you, our readers.
We look for tales that entertain and draw us in, that have something to say about our world, our society, and our common humanity. We make room for voices which would otherwise remain unheard, and we’ve a penchant for narratives that make us laugh out loud, then whip the ground out from under us when we least expect it.
We believe that in this digital age of smart phones and individuation, the art of storytelling and the ties that bind us are as important as ever. Maybe more so. We’re confident that changes in technology bring new opportunities to engage with our audience, and we’re sure that for every reader who adores the convenience of the e-book format, there’s another who loves losing themselves in the printed page. We have books for both.
Ignition Press
The Poetry Centre, which is based within the School of Education, Humanities and Languages at Oxford Brookes University, was launched in 1998 and hosts an exciting annual programme of events.
These have included conferences and research seminars, workshops (including a special workshop for military veterans), exhibitions, poetry readings, and community projects. The Centre has a podcast, in which poets are interviewed about their work, and also acts as a base for the research being done into poetry in the School, as well as supporting teaching and learning.
The Poetry Centre is home to ignitionpress, an award-winning poetry pamphlet press with an international outlook which publishes original, arresting poetry from emerging poets.
Immanion Press
Immanion Press was founded in 2003, led by author Storm Constantine. The idea initially was to publish her back catalogue novels, in particular her first Wraeththu trilogy, which had been long out of print in the UK, but it quickly became obvious that there were many other avenues to explore! We publish unusual and intriguing fiction by other authors, as well as story anthologies, generally in horror and weird fiction genres, such as the titles ‘Dark in the Day’ and ‘The Darkest Midnight in December’.
Storm Constantine’s work is published by Immanion Press exclusively in the UK, and nearly all of her back catalogue is now available through us. In addition, we publish Wraeththu Mythos novels, which are stories set in the world created by Storm but penned by different authors, including the regular ‘Para’ anthologies of Wraeththu short stories. We also publish a number of titles by the late Tanith Lee, and are committed to keeping her legacy alive, through republication of out-of-print novels and anthologies of uncollected stories.
Incline Press
For the reader who collects and the collector who reads
In 1993 Incline Press found its first publishing project when a chance meeting with the artist Pete Carter coincided with the purchase of a first edition of Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village. Carter’s modern-day interpretation of Goldsmith’s poem provided the title-page illustration, and a generous gift provided the funds for large fount of Baskerville type with the “long s” from John Eickhoff’s Acorntype Foundry–enough to set by hand a type facsimile of the poem including all the errors and differences that Goldsmith later changed for the fourth printing.
Since those days, the Press has grown. Over one hundred books have been published and the fount of Baskerville has been transformed into probably too many cabinets of type–several of which were featured in the first two Incline Press type specimens, Forty Sheets to the Wind and Hung Out to Dry. The table-top Adana, Vandercook proofing press and the Arab treadle press have been joined by an Auto-Vic, and the Victoria Art Platen, both of which run on electricity and serve as our ‘tip of the hat’ to the twenty-first century, while a Ludlow type caster has just been fettled and will be pressed into action as soon as we can get the time.
All this expansion has long outrun the confines of the backyard shed, requiring a move to larger quarters. Our most recent home — a three-storey building built in the 1820s — now houses the entire workings of the Press: machinery, paper, ink, bookcloth, and type. Located on one of the oldest streets in the Oldham town centre, 36 Bow Street was originally built as a small cotton mill, but continues life in the twenty-first century at the heart of Oldham’s ‘Cultural Quarter’ as a letterpress print shop and our home.
Indie Books
IndieBooks is an independent publisher committed to producing books that are a pleasure to own and to give. As an artisan publisher, we try and find the best ingredients, from the finest writers and illustrators right through to the care taken with editing and design and printing. We want our readers and authors to have the reassurance that every book we publish is produced to the highest standards. If you want to follow our progress, then check out our blog. If you want to get involved, drop us a line.
Indigo Dreams Publishing
Indigo Dreams is based in Devon in the beautiful southwest of England, surrounded by Cookworthy Forest and about half an hour from the North Cornwall coast and Dartmoor. We publish around 50 poetry books a year, pamphlets and full collections, as well as three poetry magazines: Reach Poetry, The Dawntreader and Sarasvati. We have given first publication to many poets we feel deserve a wider audience and combined that with publications by experienced poets.
We also run the annual Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize to keep the name of that great poet and publisher fresh and to publish two poets each year in his honour. You will see this and other competitions in the menu.
Indigo Dreams is active on Facebook and Twitter and also issue a monthly newsletter, Indigo News. You can follow us on social media and join our mailing list from the links at the Footer of most pages.
Our main purpose is to promote poetry and publish books that we hope will prove to be popular with you, the readers. We take great pride in our production values and have an excellent working relationship with our authors. While being professional, we believe that ‘pleasure not pressure’ should be our work ethic.
The Indigo Press
The Indigo Press is an independent publisher of international literature and creative non-fiction, based in London. Guided by a spirit of internationalism, feminism and socialism, we publish books to make readers see the world afresh, question their behaviour and beliefs, and imagine a better future.
Influx Press
Influx Press is an independent publisher based in north London, founded by Gary Budden and Kit Caless. We are committed to publishing innovative and challenging fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction from across the UK and beyond. Formed in 2012, we have published titles ranging from award-nominated fiction debuts and site-specific anthologies to squatting memoirs and radical poetry. We 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 our titles have been shortlisted and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Edge Hill Prize, the Jhalak Prize, and the Gordon Burn Prize. Sanya Semakula joined the team as assistant editor in 2016, and Jordan Taylor-Jones filled out the lineup in 2019 as events and publicity officer.
Ink Sweat and Tears
Ink Sweat & Tears is a UK based webzine which publishes and reviews poetry, prose, prose-poetry, word & image pieces and everything in between. Our tastes are eclectic and magpie-like and we aim to publish something new every day.
IS&T was founded by Salt author Charles Christian in 2007 as a platform for new poetry and short prose, and experimental work in digital media. Charles ran the site single-handedly, publishing new work every day till 2010, when now sole editor, poet and artist Helen Ivory came on board as Deputy Editor.
The current site carries all work from 2020 onwards.
Inkandescent
INKANDESCENT is a publishing venture by Justin David and Nathan Evans with a commitment to ideas, subjects and voices underrepresented by mainstream publishing, we hope to discover and celebrate original, diverse and transgressive literature and art, to challenge the status quo.
Inspired Quill
Creating a New Generation of Diverse Books: Find Yourself in Our Pages
Inspired Quill is a traditional, indie press setting new standards for how publishers should work — eco-friendly, people-orientated and focused on quality, inclusive publishing.
We’ve been a social enterprise since our inception in 2011, which means that we’re always thinking of ways to give back to our communities. This includes pledging profit percentages to charity, running subsidised workshops and mentoring schemes, and donating books to those who may not otherwise have access to them.
Although we’re a small publisher based in the UK, our amazing authors and team live across the entire globe, and we attend plenty of international events, too.
IRON Press
As publishers become more corporate, global and boring, IRON Press champions new quality writing as it has done since 1973. IRON runs events and launches; it also thinks literature is both serious and fun.
If we had anything as overblown as a mission statement, it would say we publish what we do because we like it, and what other reason should there ever be?
Istros Books
Istros Books – where quality has no borders
Istros Books was set up in 2011 in order to publish and promote literature in translation from SE Europe and the Balkans. In its short history, it has managed to prove itself at the forefront of discovering and promoting exciting new works, ranging from essays on the state of the EU by Slavoj Žižek, to six winners of the EU Prize for Literature.
We are proud to continue our committment to bringing you fresh and exciting works in English translation, including the joint titles published with Peter Owen as part of the World Series collection from Slovenia and Serbia.
At Istros, we believe that good literature can transcend national interests and speak to us with the common voice of human experience. Discovering contemporary voices and rediscovering forgotten ones, Istros Books works hard to bring you the best that SE European literature can offer – and that’s an area with some bloody good stories to tell!
Jacaranda Books
Jacaranda Books is an award-winning, diverse-owned independent publisher and bookseller.
We are dedicated to promoting and celebrating brilliant diverse literature. Since launching our first title in 2014, we have published 70+ titles by a raft of talented authors, including multiple award-winners Irenosen Okojie, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Bernice L. McFadden, and Shola von Reinhold.
In 2020, Jacaranda were named Small Press of the Year at the British Book Awards. In that landmark year, we launched #TwentyIn2020: an unprecedented initiative to publish 20 titles by 20 Black British writers in a single year. That same year, we also co-launched the #InclusiveIndies campaign as a response to the impact of Covid-19 on publishers like ourselves — raising over £100,000 that we were able to share with 12 other independent small presses.
In 2021, Jacaranda formed a historic partnership with Hachette UK, expanding our sales and distribution to support the flourishing global market for readers of books by diverse voices.
Our ethos is simple — we are committed to publishing ground-breaking writing with a dedication to creating space on the bookshelf for diverse ideas and writers.
Joffe Books
Founded in 2014 by Jasper Joffe, we at Joffe Books pride ourselves on our history of innovative publishing. Thanks to the unflagging passion and dedication brought by everyone in Team Joffe, we have built a reputation for crafting great books for readers, long-term relationships with authors and agents, and fleet-footed marketing of the books we love. We were very proud to be shortlisted for Independent Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. We won the IPG Trade Publisher of the Year in 2023 and Best Publisher at The People’s Book Prize 2024.
We created the Joffe Books Prize in 2021 to help increase the diversity of the writers we publish.
In 2023 Joffe Books acquired Lume Books and Choc Lit. In 2025 The Book Folks joined us.
Founded in 2018, Lume Books boasts a wide-ranging and eclectic list featuring many award-winning authors of both fiction and non-fiction including A.J.P. Taylor, H.R.F. Keating, Keith Waterhouse and many more.
Founded in 2009, Choc Lit is an award-winning publisher of romance and women’s fiction.
Knight Errant Press
We saw a definite lack of distinctly queer publishing and decided to step up. We want to empower writers to write more openly and more queerly and to not shy away from drawing on and portraying experiences that are important to them simply because the majority of the publishing is failing to represent them in their full glory.
We may be micro but we are mighty! Knight Errant runs on the efforts and support of part-time staff and freelancers. We aim to publish at least two books per calendar year. More is not always better and we prefer to put everything we’ve got into the few books we make to make them the best they can be.
We regularly use crowdfunders to fund our various projects. All profits, however scant they may be, go back into the press and towards paying our authors, artists and staff.
We publish a variety of work – fiction, poetry, flash fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels and comics – and are particularly keen on short form and on work that is intersectional and challenges literary genres and societal norms.
Our ultimate aim is to bring to the world more stories written by, from and about LGBTQIA+ , BAME/POC, working class folk, people with disabilities as well as migrants and the displaced. As well as being the bridge for these narratives from cultures and languages outwith the Anglophone sphere of influence by supporting translators and publishing works and authors in translation.
Jacaranda Books
Jacaranda Books is an award-winning, diverse-owned independent publisher and bookseller.
We are dedicated to promoting and celebrating brilliant diverse literature. Since launching our first title in 2014, we have published 70+ titles by a raft of talented authors, including multiple award-winners Irenosen Okojie, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Bernice L. McFadden, and Shola von Reinhold.
In 2020, Jacaranda were named Small Press of the Year at the British Book Awards. In that landmark year, we launched #TwentyIn2020: an unprecedented initiative to publish 20 titles by 20 Black British writers in a single year. That same year, we also co-launched the #InclusiveIndies campaign as a response to the impact of Covid-19 on publishers like ourselves — raising over £100,000 that we were able to share with 12 other independent small presses.
In 2021, Jacaranda formed a historic partnership with Hachette UK, expanding our sales and distribution to support the flourishing global market for readers of books by diverse voices.
Our ethos is simple — we are committed to publishing ground-breaking writing with a dedication to creating space on the bookshelf for diverse ideas and writers.
Joffe Books
Founded in 2014 by Jasper Joffe, we at Joffe Books pride ourselves on our history of innovative publishing. Thanks to the unflagging passion and dedication brought by everyone in Team Joffe, we have built a reputation for crafting great books for readers, long-term relationships with authors and agents, and fleet-footed marketing of the books we love. We were very proud to be shortlisted for Independent Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. We won the IPG Trade Publisher of the Year in 2023 and Best Publisher at The People’s Book Prize 2024.
We created the Joffe Books Prize in 2021 to help increase the diversity of the writers we publish.
In 2023 Joffe Books acquired Lume Books and Choc Lit. In 2025 The Book Folks joined us.
Founded in 2018, Lume Books boasts a wide-ranging and eclectic list featuring many award-winning authors of both fiction and non-fiction including A.J.P. Taylor, H.R.F. Keating, Keith Waterhouse and many more.
Founded in 2009, Choc Lit is an award-winning publisher of romance and women’s fiction.
Knight Errant Press
We saw a definite lack of distinctly queer publishing and decided to step up. We want to empower writers to write more openly and more queerly and to not shy away from drawing on and portraying experiences that are important to them simply because the majority of the publishing is failing to represent them in their full glory.
We may be micro but we are mighty! Knight Errant runs on the efforts and support of part-time staff and freelancers. We aim to publish at least two books per calendar year. More is not always better and we prefer to put everything we’ve got into the few books we make to make them the best they can be.
We regularly use crowdfunders to fund our various projects. All profits, however scant they may be, go back into the press and towards paying our authors, artists and staff.
We publish a variety of work – fiction, poetry, flash fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels and comics – and are particularly keen on short form and on work that is intersectional and challenges literary genres and societal norms.
Our ultimate aim is to bring to the world more stories written by, from and about LGBTQIA+ , BAME/POC, working class folk, people with disabilities as well as migrants and the displaced. As well as being the bridge for these narratives from cultures and languages outwith the Anglophone sphere of influence by supporting translators and publishing works and authors in translation.
