Weekly Writers: Independent Publishers

Small is beautiful

Here’s the Weekly Writers Monday post. This post is for paid subscribers only.

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Independent Publishers

Last time I promised to move on to small and independent publishers. Here you go. :-)

Okay, we’ve seen that it can be difficult to get published by an imprint of one of the Big Five publishers. Don’t be too disheartened, since they obviously do take on new writers via agents. It’s just worth being realistic about the chances of signing a contract with them. Also note that for the subset of authors who want to be published by the Big Five or nothing … well, if that is their only acceptable option, then most of their books will never be published.

Anyway, there is another and (usually) more achievable option than the Big Five: independent publishers, also known as small presses.

By “independent publishers” I just mean traditional publishers who aren’t part of the Big Five. These are smaller, and often regional (as in, not based only in London, or whatever your country’s capital is). Publishers like Salt (Norfolk), Honno and Seren (Wales), or Luna Press (Edinburgh). Like the Big Five, they publish works they didn’t write.

They range in size from tiny, boutique publishers aimed at a niche, to mid-size trade publishers (perhaps equivalent to one of the Big Five’s imprints).