Wales provides fertile ground for independent presses both old and new

The Welsh independent publishing industry is a thriving ecosystem consisting of established players and younger presses, with new entrants hitting the market with regularity. This year, while new indie Panther Publishing is still in its first 12 months, Welsh Academic Press is celebrating 25 years in the business.

Ashley Drake (pictured below right), founder of the Cardiff-based Welsh Academic Press, had early exposure to the business: his father was a director of Blackwell’s. "I remember a copy of The Bookseller being delivered to our home every week. I also remember, as a boy, shaking hands with Sir Basil Blackwell when he welcomed his staff’s children to the annual Christmas party at Oxford Town Hall. I was there so often that the Norrington Room in Broad Street felt like a second home and, as a teenager, I worked for a summer at Blackwell’s distribution arm, Marston on the Cowley Road [in Oxford]." He is quick to thank his parents, and says that "with that background, working in publishing seemed a natural thing to do."

In 1994, after two years covering the north of England and Scotland for a range of scholarly and academic publishers as a sales rep, Drake noted that the genre of books he wanted to read were not being published, and so decided to start his own company while continuing to work as a rep. The press initially focused on Drake’s personal interests and knowledge of Welsh, Scottish and Irish history and politics, as well as of the stateless nations of Europe.

Drake also established two Welsh-language imprints: trade list Y Ddraig Fach (meaning "The Little Dragon"), and educational list Gwasg Addysgol Cymru ("Wales Educational Press") to enable him to publish children’s books in Welsh. "As someone who learnt Welsh at university, I was passionate to see children in Wales have access to bestsellers in their own language, so sought out and acquired the rights to publish the classic Ladybird/Disney mini-hardbacks in Welsh with Y Ddraig Fach, and The Diary of Anne Frank for Gwasg Addysgol Cymru.”

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New press on the scene Panther had a different route in. With a background in photography and admin, founder and "big fiction reader" James Griffiths made the decision to launch his press in 2018. "I enjoy novels, I love authors, and it made sense to me to put both of my interests together and form Panther Publishing," says Griffiths.

"I knew of authors who were struggling to find publishers for all sorts of reasons. There are so many writers, and so many publishers not willing, or not able, to take a punt on new talent, so a lot of voices go unheard, which is a shame, both for the writers and the publishers. We also found that there didn’t seem to be a Welsh publisher specialising in crime, mystery, thriller, horror and paranormal fiction, which is what we publish. S

o our decision to launch Panther was one of wanting to find new talent, wanting to nurture Welsh writing and Welsh settings in novels, and also wanting to publish in those genres."

Panther has signed two authors: J S Strange and W D Jackson-Smart. Strange’s first novel, Murder on the Rocks, is based in Cardiff, and features a gay male detective. The story centres around a murdered author in a prestigious writing group, and how the detective’s mother’s death is related to the killing. Panther is publishing two of Jackson-Smart’s DI Graves series, The Demons Beneath and From Inside the House. The first book follows Graves tracking a killer, and From Inside the House, features brutal murders, a murderer on the loose, and body parts being taken from each scene.