This content material incorporates affiliate hyperlinks. When you purchase by way of these hyperlinks, we might earn an affiliate fee.
As Haruki Murakami famously wrote, “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” And let’s face it, more often than not, most of us are studying books revealed by the Big Five publishers (Penguin/Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, and Macmillan), not indie publishing corporations. These are sometimes the books with the massive advertising budgets that everybody, it appears, is speaking about, from our favorite podcast hosts to bookstagrammers to these few newspapers that also have a devoted e-book assessment part.
But what if you wish to be slightly extra unique? Some of my favorite reads have been serendipitous finds in secondhand bookshops or these really helpful to me simply as soon as, randomly, in a bookish discussion board. The buzzy books aren’t essentially the most effective books. And even when they generally are (living proof: Yellowface by R. F. Kuang), it’s good to have a various eating regimen, to be adventurous, to attempt one thing completely different occasionally.
Enter indie publishing corporations. They’re typically decrease profile, and so they don’t have the massive advertising budgets of the Big Five. They depend on social media, phrase of mouth, and the occasional prize longlisting, shortlisting, and even victory. But they’re staffed by people who find themselves pushed by their love for good books, and their authors typically don’t match the mildew of the famously risk-averse Big Publishing, which arguably makes them extra fascinating. Many of them, too, have explicit specialisations, like literary translation or queer fiction. Following what the indies are publishing can assist us each diversify our studying and discover books that may act as each mirrors and home windows for us, serving to us to really feel seen and to empathise with others who’ve completely different lived experiences.
So, which indie publishing corporations must you observe to seek out your subsequent learn?
Catapult
If your factor is literary fiction or artistic nonfiction, Catapult is unquestionably value maintaining a tally of. While their wonderful writing courses are very a lot missed, they nonetheless have some helpful sources for aspiring writers — they’ve revealed, for instance, Courtney Maum’s Before and After the Book Deal, and Matthew Salesses’s Craft within the Real World, which interrogates assumptions and traditions about how MFA programs are run and structured.
Chronicle Books
When I labored at East City Bookshop, I’d typically choose up a e-book, or book-adjacent merchandise, purely as a result of it appeared enjoyable. Then I’d flip it over and by no means be shocked when the writer was Chronicle Books. From their 642 Things to Write journal to a distinct segment e-book on the historical past of sketch comedy or Dolly Parton’s memoir, there’s one thing for everybody — and their web site is an effective place to browse because the gift-giving season looms into view.
Gallic Books
Gallic Books began life in 2007 with a mission to carry the most effective of French fiction to an English-speaking viewers within the UK, the U.S., and elsewhere: you might know them, for instance, because the publishers of The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain. The London-based indie has since broadened its remit — publishing British crime and horror, in addition to literary fiction from Australia and New Zealand — however French fiction stays a core focus. (Full disclosure: I now work there as a Marketing Exec.)
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Jessica Kingsley Publishers are wonderful for variety and illustration of every kind, bringing nonfiction to youngsters and basic grownup readers, in addition to parenting guides and extra academic-skewing titles. Their web site presently options books on autistic pleasure and growing antiracist occupational remedy, and they’re additionally sturdy on LBGTQ+ illustration. Book Rioter CJ Connor significantly recommends A Trans Man Walks Into a Gay Bar by Harry Nicholas.
Levine Querido
Levine Querido’s motto is “giving voice to a world of talent.” Its founder, Adam A. Levine, was Editor-in-Chief at Knopf Books for Young Readers earlier than leaving to begin a publishing home that might carry the most effective of worldwide literature to the youngsters’s e-book world, from image books up. The authors that Levine Querido has delivered to readers within the USA embrace Japan’s Nahoko Uehashi and Chile’s Luis Sepúlveda.
Row House
Founded by Rebekah Borucki, a mixed-race lady dedicated to “activism centering Black liberation and trans rights,” Row House walks the stroll in terms of centering marginalised voices and in search of to disrupt each storytelling and the publishing system — paying all its authors a $40,000 advance and royalties of 40%, which far exceeds the nationwide common. They accomplice with Simon & Schuster and consider that by having a seat on the publishing desk, they will actually have an effect on the trade. This four-minute video is inspiring!
Sarabande Books
Based in Louisville, Kentucky, the nonprofit Sarabande Books publishes wonderful poetry, essays, and literary fiction. Their books have gained or been shortlisted for a powerful array of prizes, together with the Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Circle Award. They even have a selected deal with growing new rising writers on each native and nationwide ranges by way of their free arts programming.
Tin House
Known as the house of one of the crucial prestigious summer season writing workshops and, for a very long time, literary magazines, Tin House additionally publishes books on the literary and craft-driven finish of the writing spectrum. Let’s Go Let’s Go Let’s Go by Cleo Qian, which they revealed this summer season, has been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence.
Torrey House Press
A nonprofit based mostly in Utah, Torrey House Press sits, of their phrases, at “the intersection of the literary arts and environmental advocacy.” Their authors “explore the diversity of human experiences and relationships with place,” and their books “create conversations about issues that concern the American West, landscape, literature, and the future of our ever-changing planet, inspiring action toward a more just world.” They consider literature has an important half to play in social change and proudly champion marginalised communities of every kind.
Unnamed Press
Founded in 2014 in Los Angeles, Unnamed Press emphasises work that’s “exciting, radical, urgent” — voices which are various, that begin conversations, and which are additionally accessible to all kinds of readers. They publish each fiction and nonfiction, each rising and established writers, and their authors have been finalists for a number of prizes.
Why not observe these indie publishing corporations on the social media platform of your alternative and join their newsletters? Or you may browse the catalogues of those indie publishing corporations on-line — you’re sure to seek out some gems amongst them.
You may also browse our lists of indie publishers with intensive BIPOC & queer catalogs, nonfiction from indie presses, and greatest indie romance books.
Discussion about this post