LGBTQI+ indie Cipher Press launches

New indie publisher Cipher Press is launching with the aim of championing LGBTQI+ writers in the UK and beyond.

The new press has been set up by publisher Jenn Thompson, a former bookseller, copyrighter and editor who works at distributor Turnaround, and Ellis, a writer and in-house editor for the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Carly Murphy-Merrydew, who runs design firm Keping the Wolves at Bay, is on board as creative director and will be designing the books to have a common aesthetic, while Turnaround will act as distributors.

Thompson said the press has already signed its first deal and is in discussion over a couple more commissions, with the first book set to be published at the start of August. After that, Cipher, will publish around three or four books a year

Thompson said she had taken inspiration from the catalogues Turnaround used to produce in the 1980s and 1990s which would sometimes run to 100 pages of queer titles.

She said: "It seems like, now especially, people are having the same conversations about identity issues in literature they were then. But things have changed quite a lot with those issues and we think it would be the right time to reflect the way our culture has evolved."

Cipher currently has an open submissions window for agented and unagented authors and is looking to publish adult fiction and non-fiction about queer lives, alongside producing chapbooks featuring essays and short stories

The press wants to push queer voices from the UK and Thompson said she had noticed many of the sorts of books they wanted to publish were more common in the US.

"In the UK I know we’ve come on leaps and bounds with representation in the industry but most of it seems to be focused on YA. We want to take the same sort of enthusiasm for YA but put it in the adult market."

They have also drawn inspiration from a thriving indie scene, along with imprints like Sharmaine Lovegrove’s Dialogue Books.

Thompson said: "The support on social media had been really amazing so I’m excited to see how things evolve."

“It seems like the right time,” she added. “Queer stories are no longer just for queer people, they‚Äôre for everybody and people are open to reading diverse stories.”