Press founded to publish dyslexia-friendly books launches campaign to fund more

A press launched last year to publish dyslexia-friendly books has started a second round of crowdfunding to publish more.

Dr Alistair Sims, owner and manager of the Books on the Hill in Somerset, set up Books on the Hill Press because he saw no dyslexia-friendly books in mainstream publishing. 

Thanks to an initial round of crowdfunding, the press launched in 2021 with eight dyslexia-friendly titles by authors such as Steven Savile with Sherlock Holmes and the Four Kings of Sweden, Thana Niveau with Ultrasound Shadow and Adrian Tchaikovsky with The House on the Old Cliffs. 

Sims, who had difficulty reading until he was 13, now hopes to raise  £16,000 to publish a further eight titles, this time by Bernard Cornwell, Gareth Powell, Arthur Conan Doyle and others. Last year the kickstarter raised £6,368. 

“We’re back and more ambitious than ever, because we have to change the narrative,” he said. “There are too many people who haven’t got the joy of reading. There’s something so much more enjoyable when you have something in your hands to read and open, that’s tactile. 

“That is why we’re doing this, in this thicker cream paper, in this format that is much easier to read. There is a need and a demand for these books.”

Sims, who has written a comment piece for The Bookseller about his efforts, said there needs to be a choice for people to read for pleasure, with books designed to be “friendly and dumbed down, of high quality and enjoyable fiction, which people can chat about with friends and family” 

“We should and must cater for these intelligent and amazing people,” the crowdfunding page reads. Sims explained that the press’ dyslexia-friendly titles have larger text in the font Verdana, which is easier to read, and thicker paper so the ink does not bleed through from the other side. 

Book pages are cream-coloured rather than white, providing a greater contrast for dyslexic readers to make out the text more easily, and there are larger gaps between sentences and paragraphs. The paragraphs are not justified, so that all spaces are the same. 

“All these small elements together make something that is so much easier to read. We had some reviews, from people who are not dyslexic, asking why aren’t all books like this,” he told The Bookseller. “It is not rocket science to produce dyslexic-friendly fiction for adults. At the conclusion of the kickstarter we want to be able to publish eight brilliant books that millions of people will have access to, but more than that we really don’t want to be the only ‘dyslexic publisher ’ in town, and we call for more to be done by the top publishers.”