What best characterizes the 70,000 or so independent publishers in the book industry worldwide is their freedom to take risks. Because independence means a press isn’t bound to meet the high sales volumes of the Big Five, indie presses have more latitude to take on titles about a vast array of boundary-pushing subjects or narrow their focus to a single niche genre.

The publishers we spoke with this month exemplify the diversity in the indie ecosystem. Since its 1916 founding, New York University Press has identified itself as a “publisher of original scholarship.” Its publications run the academic gamut from law to psychology to the ambitious academic research project at the University of Cambridge introduced in this feature.

McFarland & Co. has also taken the depth-and-breadth approach to its lists and credits libraries for enabling its success. “As McFarland was finding its place, libraries were supportive and reliable customers that allowed us to be adventurous and work with authors of worthy but specialized books that were viewed as a risky investment by corporate publishers,” says Karl-Heinz Roseman, McFarland & Co vice president of sales and marketing.

New Harbinger Publications, on the other hand, has thrived by staying in the psychology self-help lane for decades and been able to take its independence to the next level as a 60 percent employee-owned company. Likewise, Pluto Press prides itself on publishing through a focused radical, anti-capitalist lens, sharing a timely title on Marxist politics in Palestine. Read on for details on this book and other audacious titles from the four publishers featured here.

New York University Press

In 2010, New York University Abu Dhabi established the Library of Arabic Literature to produce Arabic editions and English translations of Arabic texts—particularly poetry—from the pre-modern period (circa 550–1920 CE). The project was a response to a collective frustration among professors of Arabic literature at the dearth of available materials with which to teach.

“Prior to this project, the most regularly translated texts from Arabic into English would have been either the Quran or the Arabian Nights. There was really nothing in between,” says James Montgomery, Sir Thomas Adams’ professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge. “We were aware of the scope and richness of the tradition [of Arabic poetry] and wanted to try to bring this to the attention of the English-reading world through translations.”

The library has since published 54 titles as bilingual Arabic texts with English translations, English-only paperbacks, and Arabic-only PDFs. Montgomery is editing and translating collections of Arabic hunting poems, a distinct genre known as tardiyyat. The poems typically focus on the animals trained to perform the hunt, describing falcons, hawks, eagles, cheetahs, and dogs in detail. Fewer than 300 of these poems have survived.

Montgomery’s first volume, Fate the Hunter, May 2023, ISBN 9781479825257, is an anthology of 27 of the most famous Arabic hunting poems from 550–750 CE. These include “Echoes of Love Lost,” “That Might the Eagle,” and “Like a Spleen Dark Wolf.” The poems take two forms: qasida, an artistic, literary form of 20 to 80 lines of the same meter with the last word of each line ending on the same consonant, and rajaz, an informal, improvisational form of shorter poems.

In Deadly Embrace, September 2023, ISBN 9781479853182, collects 59 poems written by Ibn Al-Mu’tazz circa 880 to 908 CE. The poems, some in the rajaz form, average 20 lines or fewer. “These poems are very short, but they’re very vivid,” Montgomery says. “You often feel that you are in the company of the animal that Al Mu’tazz is describing, because he’s able to bring it to life in such detail.”

Montgomery’s third collection, A Demon Spirit, ISBN 9781479834129, contains 126 poems by Abū Nuwās and will be published in November 2024. He plans to include the remaining existing poems of the genre in a fourth volume.

New Harbinger Publications

California-based New Harbinger has published self-help and psychology books for over 50 years. “Our whole mission is to reduce human suffering,” says Sales Director Margo Beren. “We work with authors who are experts doing this work on the front lines.” The press puts out 75 new nonfiction titles a year.

Toxic Striving by Paula Freedman Diamond, PsyD, November 2024, ISBN 9781648484063, seeks to help women break free of external pressures they’re exposed to on social media. “Hustle and wellness culture pushed forward by social media sets unrealistic standards,” Beren says. “All of these things contribute to toxic striving, which leaves people feeling completely burnt out and stressed. And usually, the goals aren’t really in line with the person’s own values.” Using tools and strategies from acceptance and commitment therapy and intuitive eating, Toxic Strivinghelps readers identify their authentic values and begin setting priorities from within.

Coming in December 2024, Releasing Toxic Anger for Women by Karyne B. Wilner, PsyD, ISBN 9781648483295, is a direct response to statistics showing that more women than men are angry in recent years. “Women aren’t taught to express anger,” Beren says. “We’re expected to push it down, which leads to inner criticism, feelings of self-doubt, resentment, emotional avoidance, and then conflict with others.” Wilner aims to break this cycle by teaching women to use body-awareness practices drawn from tai chi and yoga to identify physiological signs of anger. Then she explains how women can respond productively and communicate with intention, using cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to get their needs met.

Breaking Trauma Bonds with Narcissists and Psychopaths by Shahida Arabi, January 2025, ISBN 9781648483561, explores the latest psychological research on abusive relationships. Despite feeling manipulated, exploited, and abused, people in romantic relationships with partners possessing narcissistic or psychopathic traits often feel stuck. This book explains the biochemical and psychological ties one develops to their abuser out of a need for survival. “By bringing the research to the forefront of this book, it says to the reader, ‘This is real, and this is why you feel this way,’” Beren says. Empowered by validation and understanding, readers then learn how to set boundaries, boost self-esteem, and safely get out of the relationship.

Pluto Press

Established in London in 1969, Pluto Press is proud to be one of the oldest radical left-wing independent publishing houses in business. “Our focus is largely about making timely interventions on contemporary struggles,” says Patrick Lee Hughes, sales manager for North America. The press publishes nonfiction on gender studies, feminism, Middle East studies, and African American studies from a globalist perspective. In 2022, Pluto opened a U.S. office to expand into the North American marketplace.

Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings, edited by Tahrir Hamdi & Louis Brehony, October 2024, ISBN 9780745349374, is the first collection of the influential Palestinian novelist’s essays on contemporary politics and theory. First a fiction writer, Kanafani began writing about politics when he became involved with the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the 1960s. He took on editing roles at various political publications and wrote essays on the revolutionary Palestinian struggle through a Marxist-Leninist lens. In 1972, he was assassinated by the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, for his involvement with the PFLP.

“These selected writings are a testament to Kanafani’s continuing relevance and contain new commentary from leading contemporary writers,” Hughes says. “Reaching back to what people were thinking in a different time, I think could hopefully influence some of the way that the current conflict is being perceived.”

Another upcoming Pluto title, Solidarity Betrayed by Ana Avendaño, February 2025, ISBN 9780745349060, is an insider’s account of howunions enable sexual harassment. Avendaño teaches labor and employment law at the City University of New York School of Law and runs a consulting firm that helps workplaces create healthy, safe cultures.

“The book explores how labor laws and practices sometimes perpetuate harassment, and how women labor leaders are too often enablers,” Hughes says. Through stories of women being turned away or further abused by the unions they went to for help, Avendaño makes the case for a necessary cultural shift within the labor movement. She also suggests concrete steps unions can take to change course, such as assessing the climate of an organization’s culture with surveys and then working to shift it through focused training, coaching, and mentoring.

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

In 1979, Robert Franklin founded McFarland in North Carolina with a libraries-first approach that persists today.  “We were taking risks on quirky pop-culture or sports books that other publishers shied away from,” says Karl-Heinz Roseman, vice president of sales and marketing. “And librarians were supportive of the types of books McFarland was bringing out.”

The press continues to pride itself on an adventurous list of nonfiction for a general audience, spanning everything from military history to reality television.

Among its 140 fall titles, The Dragon in World Mythology and Culture by Robert M. Sarwark, August 2024, ISBN 9781476685298, introduces dragon myths and legends from around the world and examines how dragon motifs still pervade modern culture. Originating in literature, dragons now appear across modern media, from TV shows like Game of Thrones to video games like Minecraft. They’re symbols on everything from postage stamps to coats of arms. Both the flags of Wales and Bhutan depict dragon-like creatures, though differently, illustrating how dragons are generally characterized as a symbol of malevolence in the West and a symbol of beneficence in the East.

The G.I. Joe Roster: Characters of the Toy and Media Universe by Theresa Bane, August 2024, ISBN 978146693040, is a who’s who of the G.I. Joe universe, dating back to the 1960s. The book is divided into two parts—G.I. Joe and Cobra. Each part offers overviews of the leadership of the organizations, bases, and more, as well as a large A-to-Z section covering all the characters from the animated films, comics, and fan fiction.

Queer Horror: A Film Guide, edited by Sean Abley and Tyler Doupé,  August 2024, ISBN 9781476690278,is an encyclopedic history of LGBTQIA+ content in horror films. With more than 900 entries, multiple contributors examine how queer characters and themes have transitioned from coded content and subtext into the spotlight, making “queer horror” now a thriving film genre. “One of the great things about this book is that the writers are not only film scholars, they’re true film buffs," says Charles L. Perdue, acquisitions editor. "It’s quite thorough, but the writing isn’t self-serious or dryly academic."

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