Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Publishers
In a previous post, we listed off 13 great indie publishers that focus on the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Here are 12 more! Indie presses are invaluable resources for writers and readers because they’re a step away from mainstream. Mainstream can be fun but it can also be predictable—same authors, same types of stories, all things the big companies have confidence will sell.
Indie presses take chances on unknown authors and stories that are stranger than you’ll find on the typical bookshelves dominated by J.R.R Tolkien and Robert Jordan. Tolkien and Jordan are excellent authors, but they’re already among the historical ranks. The kinds of books small presses highlight are stories that will stick with you a little bit harder because they tread the unbeaten path.
Buying from the indie press is the equivalent to buying the boysenberry jam made an hour away from your house versus Strawberry Smuckers. I can’t stress enough how important they are to the greater SFF lit community. Support them. Share them. Read them!
Check out part one for more publishers and please take the time to see what these guardians-of-variety have to offer because, dang, these are some badass books.
Small Beer Press
Founded in 2000, Small Beer publishes 6-10 books per year. The fiction they publish is enchanting and uncanny and the cover art they produce is on par with anything put out by the big five. Under their physical address, they have this on their website, which is pretty cool of them:
“Our office is on the lands traditionally owned by the Pocomtuc people and we wish to acknowledge them as Traditional Owners. We would also like to pay our respects to their Elders, past and present, and Native Elders of other communities who may be here today.”
Big Mouth House and Peapod Classics are also owned by Small Beer. On an interesting note, in the recent This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, a character recommends Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison, a Peapod Classics book. Click here for more info.
Rosarium Publishing
Rosarium specializes in speculative fiction, comics, and a bit of crime. They have a particularly lovely website and bio where they tell us their goal is to “introduce the world to itself.” They strive to find writers and readers across all demographics so they can make all voices heard. Some of the subgenres they tout are afro-futurism, Rastafarian sci-fi, Southeast Asian steampunk, and hip-hop time-traveling fantasy. Founded in 2013, they’re working to stake a place in the greater industry as the megaphone of underrepresented writers. Click here for more info.
Severed Press
Established in 2008, Severed Press is recognized for their quality work in horror and science fiction. They’re frequently voted in to top reading lists and publisher selections. They have a long list of authors they’ve worked with so far and they make a great effort to create a lasting relationship with those authors and with their readership. They print stories about monsters, military escapades, apocalyptic scenarios, and RPG fiction. Click here for more info.
Falstaff Books
Falstaff Books carried the tagline, “The Misfit Toys of Fiction.”
“The battered, ignored, rejected “misfit toys” of fiction are all welcome at Falstaff Books, where we understand that every scar is a story and only with different voices can harmony be created.”
Based out of North Carolina, they were founded in 2016 and put out over 40 stories per year. As a company, they are committed to the literary community and work to encompass a broad range of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, mystery, and drama written by a broad range of authors. Click here for more info.
TCK Publishing
Named after its founder’s initials, TCK started small in 2011 and has since grown to publish internationally. Tom Corson-Knowles was a self-publisher who was able to reach a substantial income with his books alone and has since put those practices into play to build his own publishing company. TCK prints both non-fiction and fiction in all major genres and they create an in-depth publishing strategy with their authors. They do their best to show the global values they hole show up in their business. Click here for more info.
Parvus Press
Parvus focuses exclusively on science fiction and fantasy. They are relatively new to the game (founded in 2016) but they’ve had some great successes so far. Their team of four has put their all into each book that’s been published so far. They’re committed to handling each publication with the utmost importance and will be working hard to develop a reputable press into the future. They’ve got a great start so far and deserve a look! Click here for more info.
Tachyon Publications
Tachyon has published great, acclaimed authors such as Peter Watts, Kameron Hurley, and a good number of other recognizable names. They’ve been around since 1995, long enough to know what they’re doing, and have earned their books many awards. The stories they seek are imaginative, high-end works centering around the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres but also stretching into some mystery, memoir, and YA. They created an imprint in early 2018 called Particle Books, publishing original and hard-to-find works. Click here for more info.
Ink Smith Publishing
Beginning in 2012, Ink Smith focused on the SFF & horror genres but they quickly realized that genre was less important to them than a good story. They still keep SFF as their main focus but have branched off into a few other categories. They’ve even gone as far as starting an imprint, Native Ink, that produces children’s books and non-fiction. Ink Smith puts out about 12-15 books per year and have made themselves into international sellers. Click here for more info.
Centipede Press
Specializing in tales of the weird and the macabre, Centipede publishes modern authors but largely focuses on classic works developed for collectors. They’ve won awards not only for the author’s works they print but also as a specialty press. Centipede is a highly regarded publication respected by the likes of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The American Scholar. Click here for more info.
Flame Tree Publishing
“Fiction Without Frontiers,” they say. Flame Tree just launched in 2018 but they’ve already published globally. They print well-known award winners alongside new, original voices focusing on SF, fantasy, horror, and crime categories. The job they’ve done so far is phenomenal. They have a huge line of Gothic Fantasy short story collections divided up by theme such as Celtic, Chinese, and African myths. Flame Tree will occasionally make calls for short stories to contribute to these collections. They also put out their authors’ full blog tour schedules. The opportunities with this press are abundant. Click here for more info.
Ghostwoods Books
With more than 30 years of publishing experience behind their staff, Ghostwoods has been able to put out more than 100 novels and 300+ short pieces since their inception. They call themselves “fair trade” after fair trade coffee. It’s the idea that they give back to the writers they publish and seek to create a fair marketplace for all to thrive in. Click here for more info.
Arkham House
Arkham House has been printing for over 80 years. It was started by August Derleth in Wisconsin with the intention to preserve the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The name is derived from Lovecraft’s fictional city, Arkham. The press has been committed to weird fiction for most of its years, however, nothing new has been published at Arkham since 2011. This may mark the end of the publishing house but even so, its run has been historic. Click here for more info.
If you’d like to see more indie publishers that focus on the science fiction and fantasy genres, click here to see part one of this post. And, for more articles on writing and reading, be sure to sign up for our newsletter updates and follow us on our Facebook page!
