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 N
Neem Tree Press
Neem Tree Press is a vibrant, independent publishing house producing books that change and broaden perspectives. Dedicated to the enthusiastic discovery of both British and international literature, we are truly global in scope, with titles under contract from across the world. We are the recent recipients of a prestigious English PEN grant, a literary award for an upcoming work in translation, and our books have been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, on BBC Radio, and at the Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.
New Ruins Books
New Ruins is a collaborative project from Dead Ink and Influx Press.
New Ruins is a paperback originals imprint focused on the porous and uncanny boundary between the edge-lands of literary and genre fiction.
New Ruins publishes books that are comfortable sitting across, within, or outside of genre labels, for readers unafraid of transgressing boundaries.
New Welsh Review/Rarebyte
Founded in 1988 as the successor to The Welsh Review (1939-1948), Dock Leaves and The Anglo-Welsh Review (1949-1987), New Welsh Review is Wales’s foremost literary magazine in English.
For over twenty-five years, New Welsh Review has been central to the Welsh literary scene in offering a vital outlet for the very best new fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry, a forum for critical debate and a rigorous and engaged reviewing culture.
New Welsh Review has published some of the greatest writers and thinkers from Wales and beyond; Dannie Abse, Paul Muldoon, P.D. James, Emyr Humphreys, Leslie Norris, Gwyneth Lewis, Les Murray, Rachel Trezise, Niall Griffiths, Owen Sheers, Terry Eagleton, Robert Minhinnick, Chris Meredith, Mary-Anne Constantine, Jem Poster, Edna Longley, Byron Rogers and Gillian Clarke provide just a snapshot of the high-calibre names that have appeared in the magazine over its history.
Today, New Welsh Review holds true to its original mission statement: to be dynamic, curious, lively and outward-looking, to commemorate the past but to celebrate contemporary excellence and new directions.
New Welsh Review is supported through core funding by the Welsh Books Council and is hosted by the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University.
Our book imprint, New Welsh Rarebyte, publishes the winners of our writing competition, the New Welsh Writing Awards, which was set up to champion the shorter writing and publishing forms, under 30,000 words. This imprint generally comprises short books but we also develop manuscripts to full-length, using our Award-winning entries as a starting point.
Newcon Press
NewCon Press is a multiple award-winning independent publisher specialising in science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy and horror. Founded in 2006 by author and editor Ian Whates, NewCon Press has established a reputation for quality, working with some of genre fiction’s best known names as well as with exciting new voices.
NewCon produces signed limited edition hardback, paperback, and eBook editions, and we are never frightened to showcase the talents of debut authors alongside those of more established writers. In 2015, we launched sister imprint Steel Quill books, featuring genre-related non-fiction and other projects that fall outside our normal remit.
Whether through novels, novellas, anthologies, or single author collections, NewCon Press remains determined to stay at the forefront of speculative fiction in the UK and beyond, willing to venture where traditional publishing houses dare not go.
Nightjar Press
Nightjar Press is an independent publisher specialising in limited edition single short-story chapbooks by individual authors. It is brought to you by the people behind early 1990s British Fantasy Award-winning publisher Egerton Press, responsible for Darklands, Darklands 2 and Joel Lane’s short-story collection The Earth Wire. The publisher and editor is Nicholas Royle, the designer John Oakey. We are open to submissions from writers who have taken the trouble to research what kind of stuff we like.
The nightjar – aka corpse fowl or goatsucker – is a nocturnal bird with an uncanny, supernatural reputation that flies silently at dusk or dawn as it hunts for food. The nightjar is more often heard than seen, its song a series of ghostly clicks known as a churring. In her poem ‘Goatsucker’, Sylvia Plath wrote that the ‘Devil-bird’ flies ‘on wings of witch cloth’.
Nine Arches Press
NINE ARCHES PRESS was founded in 2008 and emerged from an awareness of the local literary landscape and a desire to provide a platform for new and emerging poets. As a result, Under the Radar magazine was set up first, and Nine Arches Press swiftly moved onto publishing pamphlets by October of that year. By the following year we had brought out our first two full-length poetry collections, and a further batch of poetry pamphlets and issues of the magazine.
Since 2008, Nine Arches has continued onwards and upwards, publishing poetry and continuing to develop Under the Radar magazine. In 2010, two of our pamphlets (The Terrors by Tom Chivers and The Titanic Cafe closes its doors and hits the rocks by David Hart, both now out of print) were shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Pamphlet prize. Next, Mark Goodwin’s book Shod won the 2011 East Midlands Book Award. In 2017, All My Mad Mothers by Jacqueline Saphra was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Poetry Prize. Our titles have also been shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Prize, and in 2016 David Clarke’s debut poems, Arc, was longlisted for the Polari Prize. To date we have now published over seventy poetry publications, and 20 issues of Under the Radar magazine (and counting).
No Alibis Press
No Alibis Press is a small publishing company with a big shouty attitude. As an independent press we’re relatively new on the scene, but for some time now we’ve been quietly incubating among the shelves of No Alibis bookstore where David Torrans and his team have been selling books for more than twenty years.
Our mission: to find extraordinary novels with a strong voice that aren’t afraid to be themselves, get them suited and booted and unleash them on the book-devouring public.
No Exit Press
No Exit Press is an imprint of Oldcastle Books. No Exit Press, introduced in 1987, is primarily a crime fiction imprint.
Noir Press
The aim of Noir Press is to introduce the most exciting new Lithuanian writing to an English reading audience.
Lithuanian is spoken by around three and a half million people in the world. It is an archaic language and retains many features of Proto-Indo-European now lost in other Indo-European languages.
As a literary language, however, it’s history is more recent.
The first Lithuanian text was a catechism printed in 1547, and most texts written in Lithuanian prior to the 18th century were religious.
One of the most important early secular texts was The Seasons, a poem by Donelaitis; poetry has continued to be a dominating force in the country’s literary output.
During the long years of Soviet oppression of the country, Lithuanian fiction continued to be published both in Lithuania and among the community in exile, mainly in America with writers like Antanas Skema, whose most famous novel was ‘The White Shroud’.
In the late twentieth century there was something of a renaissance in Lithuanian fiction with celebrated writers like Jurga Ivanauskaite, Ricardas Gavelis and Jurgis Kuncinas.
Today there is a wide and healthy literary scene in Lithuania, with a number of prominent writers who are being translated into other European languages. Unfortunately, not many of these writers are currently being translated into English and so the Lithuanian fiction scene is almost completely unknown to the English reader.
Noir Press seeks to remedy this by publishing some of the most interesting writing being produced by contemporary writers in Lithuanian.
Nordisk Books
An independent publishing house in Whitstable, founded in 2016 and with a focus on modern and contemporary Scandinavian literature.
North Staffordshire Press
We’re opening the door to publishing.
Our mission is to provide unmatched editorial, indexing and creative services from the budding debut author, to the international publishing community.
We can lend a helping hand in various ways, including:
Taking a look at your manuscript and book proposals; giving general publishing advice, proof-reading, copy-editing and typesetting your books, documents, and anything else; as well as providing highly-experience indexing services.
We pride ourselves on our personal, friendly service and are happy to work with a range of topics and materials. If we can help you out in any of these ways, head over to our ‘services’ tab for more in-depth information, or contact us on the information listed above.
Northodox Press
THE HOME OF NORTHERN VOICES
Northodox Press is a publisher catering to readers of crime fiction with the authentic voice of Northern England. If you’re exhausted by a book market oversaturated with stories of a London-centric Britain or the cosy-crime of the Cotswolds, look no further.
In the digital age, we’re no longer confined by the traditional borders of publishing. Northern voices deserve to be heard, our stories need to be present.
We offer end-to-end publishing and creative support for our authors in both print and digital formats. Our team of industry experts will manage the editorial, cover design, and production processes, while you focus on the writing. And once published our publicity and marketing teams will make sure the audience is waiting.
Norvik Press
Norvik Press is a small, independent, nonprofit publisher, with the aim of publishing classic and contemporary Nordic literature in quality English translations, along with critical writing on Nordic literature and culture. Norvik Press is situated within the Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London.
Around 120 titles have been published to date, most of these translations of Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish literature. Norvik Press also publishes the journals Scandinavica, an international, scholarly, peer-reviewed journal, and Swedish Book Review, which introduces new Swedish literature to non-Scandinavian readers, including publishers.
Nyx Publishing
Nyx Publishing is a small indie publisher based in Sheffield, United Kingdom. Our goal is to bring exciting speculative fiction to readers, focussing on under-represented voices while retaining the tropes we all love.
We specialise in genre fiction, particularly fantasy, science-fiction, and horror (and it’s pretty much all queer).
Jill's Book Cafe 