Indie Publishers to Watch in the UK This Year

Indie Publishers to Watch in the UK This Year

At a time when the UK’s publishing landscape is narrowing, indie presses are opening doors — to voices, stories and forms that might otherwise be silenced or overlooked. These publishers are curating the literary future from the ground up, often running on passion, belief, and a shoestring budget.

Why Indie Publishing Matters

  1. Take creative risks that bigger houses often won’t, discovering and nurturing bold new writing.
  2. Launch debut writers and help them build long-term careers — many of today’s award-winners began with indies.
  3. Support local bookshops with beautifully crafted titles that are hand-sold by passionate booksellers.
  4. Sustain literary diversity by championing marginalised, regional, and experimental voices.
  5. Survive economic fragility with resilience and ingenuity — but they need readers’ support more than ever.

At Salt, we know this first-hand. We’ve worked for over 20 years to publish books that matter — and we’re proud to share this space with a community of extraordinary UK indies.

Ten Independent Publishers to Watch in 2025

And Other Stories

SHEFFIELD
https://www.andotherstories.org

Always boundary-pushing and international, Your Love Is Not Good by Johanna Hedva is a novel that stuffs queer explosive into the cracks between identity and aspiration, between desire and art, and revels in the raining debris. Checkout Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq, too – shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. And Other Stories continue to publish some of the best translated fiction in the UK.

Notable titles:

Bluemoose Books

HEBDEN BRIDGE
https://www.bluemoosebooks.com

Publishing just a handful of titles each year, Bluemoose is renowned for its literary integrity and sharp editorial taste – this year reward when the press won Northern publishers of 2025 in The British Book Awards. 2025’s must-read is The Accidental Immigrants by Jo McMillan– political fiction based on the facts of the years since Brexit. Set on an island that’s a mirror image of Britain, it’s both allegory and warning, and a poignant, prescient tale for our times about the dangers facing us all.

Notable titles:

Comma Press

MANCHESTER
https://commapress.co.uk

Fiction specialists with a global reach, Comma delivers powerful political and speculative anthologies, 2025’s list features Palestine - 1: Stories from the eve of the Nakba edited by Basma Ghalayini — this anthology asks 10 Palestinian writers, all of whose grandparents were forcibly displaced by the events of 1948, to re-imagine Palestine the year before this catastrophe, and to explore the events leading up to it, on a village-by-village basis. Also on offer are events, workshops, courses and prizes – the Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction 2025 is now open to submissions.

Notable titles:

Conduit Books

LONDON
https://www.conduitbooks.co.uk

Launched in 2025 by Jude Cook with a focus on male authors and fresh storytelling, Conduit Books is one to watch. No titles announced yet, but early buzz suggests a bold debut list is incoming. Read the launch feature in The Bookseller

New titles are yet to be announced

One to be watched.

Cōnfingō Publishing

MANCHESTER
https://www.confingopublishing.uk

Cōnfingō is an independent publishing house based in Manchester – the specialise in beautiful editions of new fiction, poetry and art in all forms. Twice a year the press produces a unique collection of previously unpublished works, available to purchase directly or from one of their stockists – details on their site. This year features The Crib and Other Stories by Albertine Sarrazin (translated by Sonya Moor), and Precipitation by Ailsa Cox, with images by Patricia Farrell.

Notable titles:

Dead Ink Books

LIVERPOOL
https://deadinkbooks.com

Dead Ink began life in 2011 as one of the first digital-only independent presses before branching out into print. Though the feisty press has grown over the last decade, their DIY roots persist and feed their ambitions. Based in Liverpool, they operate out of their own bookshop on Smithdown Road. Adam S. Leslie’s psychedelic roadtrip, Lost in the Garden, won Best Fiction at the 2024 Nero Awards.

Notable titles:

Fitzcarraldo Editions

LONDON
https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com

Fitzcarraldo Editions is an independent publisher specialising in contemporary fiction and long-form essays. Founded in 2014, it focuses on ambitious, imaginative and innovative writing, both in translation and in the English language. The series, designed by Ray O’Meara, are published as paperback originals with French flaps, using a custom serif typeface (called Fitzcarraldo). Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, and translated by Sophie Hughes, is longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize.

Notable titles:

Galley Beggar Press

NORWICH
https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk

Galley Beggar Press is an independent publisher committed to publishing daring, innovative fiction and narrative non-fiction. The East Anglian powerhouse has been called a “small-but-mighty institution” (The Desmond Elliott Prize), a “tiny publisher… with a cartload of guts” (The Guardian), and “revolutionary” (The Telegraph). The business is run by co-founders, Sam Jordison and Eloise Millar. 

Notable titles:

Influx Press

LONDON
https://www.influxpress.com

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 and creative non-fiction from across the UK and beyond. Following a hiatus, Influx resumed publishing in 2024, resuming full operations in 2025, with Caless leaving to pursue academic interests. Budden is now director of Influx Press, spearheading a new list and new direction for the press.

Notable titles:

Little Toller Books

BRIDPORT
https://www.littletoller.co.uk

Little Toller Books was born in 2008 as an imprint of the Dovecote Press, a family-run publishing company that has specialised in books about rural life and local history since 1974. Little Toller was started with a singular purpose: to revive forgotten and classic books about nature and rural life in the British Isles. This year sees the publication of We Came By Sea, Stories of a greater Britain by Horatio Clare – the untold story of the small boats crisis, a story which shows the best of us.

Notable titles:

Salt Publishing

CROMER
https://www.saltpublishing.com

As Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, said of the North Norfolk press: “All human life needs Salt.” Salt is one of the UK’s leading independent publishing houses, established in 1999. Since its founding, Salt has discovered more than a thousand writers from around the world, and they continue to publish absorbing, bold and surprising voices in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and short stories. This year sees an expansion into horror, historical fiction and non-fiction. Xan Brooks’s epic novel The Catchers has been shortlisted for the 2025 RSL Ondaatje Prize.

Notable titles:

 

Final Word

If you care about the future of books, support indie publishers, remember:

✅ Buy direct
✅ Leave reviews
✅ Share what you love

Independent publishers are not just surviving — they’re shaping the next generation of literature. 

Chris Hamilton-Emery was born in 1963 in Manchester. He has published four collections of poetry, a writer ’s guide, an anthology of art and poems, and edited selections of Emily Brontë, Keats and Rossetti. A new collection, Wonder, is forthcoming from Salt. He works in publishing and lives in Norfolk. Follow Chris on Bluesky 🦋 @chrisemery.me

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