Gomer Press

Last week we put together some logos of six different independent publishers, some of them British and some of them not, to see if you could identify any of them by their logos alone. Today we’re going to reveal which publishers those logos belong to, and tell you just a little about them!

Persephone Books was founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, whose original concept was to publish a handful of lost or out-of-print books each year. The majority of these books would be inter-war novels and short stories written by women, and so the name Persephone was chosen as a symbol for female creativity. Though they sell the majority of their books online, they also have a bookshop in London where they are based.

A little earlier, Honno Press was founded by a group of volunteers in 1986 who wanted to increase the opportunities for women in the realms of Welsh publishing. They asked for support from the Welsh public, and in the first 6 months 400 people became shareholders in the company. To this day they still only publish work by the womenof Wales, and have published everything from fiction to poetry to non-fiction. They are based in Aberystwyth.

Twelfth Planet Press are a little further afield – in Australia, to be exact! Founded in 2009 and based in Yokine, Western Australia, Twelfth Planet Press specialises in speculative fiction, whether it’s Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, or any sub genre in between! Their aim is to publish fresh fiction away from the typical work seen in the speculative fiction genre today, as well as to promote Australian fiction to a wider audience and give a louder voice to women writers.

A little closer than that, Two Ravens Press is based in Scotland. Founded near Ullapool in 2006, they later moved to the Port of Ness in 2013. Quite possibly the most remote independent publisher in Britain, they publish contemporary literary fiction, non-fiction and poetry, some of which has won a variety of major literary awards.

Back to Wales now, to a publisher who may be a little more familiar to many of you. Gomer Press was founded back in 1892, and to this day it’s still run by the same family! They specialise in English and Welsh books for both children and adults, whether it’s fiction, non-fiction or poetry, and are based in Llandysul, west Wales.

Based in Cork, Mercier Press are Ireland’s oldest independent publishers, having been around since 1944. Mercier rose to prominence publishing books which explored topics such as religion, women’s rights, domestic violence, the sexual revolution and drug abuse, some of which had previously been banned in Ireland. They publish both fiction and non-fiction, and offer an alternative voice to the Irish publishing world.

So, did you guess any correctly?