Long gone are the days when I could plow through a novel in a day or two. These days, I’m lucky to get through a 200-pager in a week. Part of that’s just life and having more obligations and less free time. There is also the sad fact that a huge chunk of my reading diet doesn’t come in the form of books or magazines, but in emails and spreadsheets, and I think that’s broken something in my brain and/or soul. (I’m sure no one reading this can relate.)

On the plus side, when it’s time to pack for vacation, I no longer need to reserve as much space in my bags for galleys. We went away for two weeks earlier this summer, and I brought two books: Vulture by Phoebe Greenwood, just recently published by Europa Editions, and The Dentist by Tim Sullivan, coming this fall from Grove’s new Atlantic Crime imprint. I loved them both, and, as it happens, both are indie press novels.

I know nobody out there is gasping at that revelation. But when I look back at my past year or so of reading, indie press books occupy a pretty big swath of it, probably more so now than ever. I’m not sure if this would have occurred to me if we weren’t doing this issue; something about working on a project dedicated to what’s new, cool, smart, or just plain weird in the independent publishing world, that sort of puts things in a certain frame.

I’ve been hearing for a while now from folks who work outside the Big Five that they’re seeing the kinds of submissions they never would have gotten before. Big names, authors with bestseller bona fides, those who have long enjoyed critical (if less so commercial) success. As it happens, I was talking to a novelist friend of mine a few months ago, just before her new one was going to be released. This was her second novel with the same independent publisher and she was thrilled, after years of publishing with larger houses. The money wasn’t as good, but she felt better taken care of. Claire Kirch, our indefatigable correspondent, has a piece in here on the great author migration, which you’ll definitely want to check out.

When it comes to how to actually operate and get these books out into the world, indies have a pretty stellar track record of innovation. We spent some time catching up with presses that are trying out new models and putting new spins on established concepts, particularly when it comes to scaling up. Collectives are having a moment, as are new and newish operations built on throwing the standard royalty structure out the window. Then you’ve got places like Dream Baby Press, which you may have heard of in connection with a certain event held at the Penn Station Sbarro.

Elsewhere in here we have our annual roundup of the big indie books of fall. This is always a fun one, and the mix we have this year is as eclectic as you might imagine, from a crashed picture book about New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to a novel about a boy who is possessed by the spirit of a recently deceased corgi. (Why not!) As a way to highlight the depth and breadth of amazing work being done in the indie space, our reviews section in this issue is entirely dedicated to coverage of books published by independent publishers.

So, what’s new, cool, smart, and just plain weird in independent publishing? Tons, and much more than we could hope to fit in these pages. I do hope you’ll enjoy sitting back with this issue and, if you’re like me, reading it slowly.

Read more from The 2025 Independent Publishing Issue.