An A-Z of (UK) Independent Publishers – J & K

I’m focusing on UK based publishers of adult fiction, short stories and poetry. I’ll update my master list as I go along (or I’ll try too) but this fortnightly list will give a more personalised shout out.

Each entry features a sample book cover which clicks through to the website. The accompanying ‘about’ information is taken from each publishers website at the time I put this post together.

If you know of publishers I’ve missed or want to help update my master list then please add details in the comments.

Due to the pandemic, we’re all aware that times have been tough for indie bookshops and publishers, so obviously, if you can buy direct from them that benefits them more. Though bookshops are now open, some of you might still not feel comfortable venturing out so you might want to consider using Bookshop.org or Hive Books.co.uk – both of which offer a percentage of the sale to a bricks-and-mortar bookshop.

So here we go with J & K

Jacaranda Books

Jacaranda Books is an award winning independent publisher of award winning adult fiction, non-fiction & YA.

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.

Explore our diverse books that centre around the voices and experiences of Black people, people of colour, women and other underrepresented voices. From award-winning literary masterpieces, to romantic comedies, and short stories, we have curated books for all types of readers.

Joffe Books

DARK WATER an absolutely gripping Scottish crime thriller (Detectives Anderson and Costello Mystery Book 3)

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 and 2021.

We have achieved industry-wide renown for discovering new talent as well as bringing overlooked books back to life and delivering them to millions of readers – transforming the careers of their authors in the process. In 2019, we acquired the Robert Hale backlist from Crowood Press and extended our core list of crime and mystery to include sagas, historical and romance. In 2020, we acquired the rights to Nicholas Rhea’s Constable Nick series, Murder Squad founder Margaret Murphy’s critically acclaimed backlist of gripping thrillers and the whole of Faith Martin’s romance list, written under the pseudonym Maxine Barry. We also began a partnership with Severn House to bring the likes of New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Stella Cameron and Judith Cutler to a whole new audience.

We are deeply invested in creating and maintaining our authors’ careers as writers. Each new title is edited with passion and each new cover is designed with a keen eye on how the book will reach its readers. We have signed debut novelists, such as Taylor Adams and Victoria Dowd, and well-established authors, such as Faith Martin and Joy Ellis, and launched them into the book-reading world with genuine enthusiasm for seeing them succeed. As a result, our authors have become some of the most read in the UK, consistently topping the Amazon Kindle and Audible charts for weeks at a time with every new release.

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.

Kristell Ink

A Friendship Forged (The Darkling Chronicles)

Ink is Grimbold’s science fiction and fantasy imprint. We love unique and quirky; give us fairytale retellings in a future society, love stories set among the stars, or danger and disaster with dragons and wyverns; tales of magic and mystery, scientists and story-tellers, pirates and passions. We publish novels, novellas and anthologies, including our brilliant new series of science fiction and fantasy anthologies.