INDEPENDENT BOOK PUBLISHERS UK

Start your Book Publishing journey here! As a multi-award winning publisher, we use our many years’ experience to

guide you step by step through the process from your precious manuscript to the finished book.

As a UK book publisher with experience in the full range of book genres including novels, children’s books, biographies, non-fiction, true stories and not being afraid to take on controversial issues, we are open to a range of voices and we want to see your manuscripts. If your book is ready to publish, simply choose from one of the options below. Our manuscripts usually arrive in digital format but, if you only have a physical copy, please contact us via our contact form. We get a lot of submissions and working with digitised copies enables us to speed up the process and reduce costs thereby offering the best possible publishing packages to our authors.

To find out more, just follow either of the links below or give our indie publishers a call so we can begin the process of making your book come alive.

People want to write for many reasons. It may be that they have an individual passion which they want to share with others or maybe they have written an incredible new fictional concept and want more people to read it. The UK publishes more books per capita than anywhere else in the world with almost 200,000 books published each year and over half a million published each year in English worldwide. With such competition, if you want to see your work in print it requires a lot of effort and ShieldCrest can help make your dream come true.  Beware, there are a lot of companies that say they are publishers or offer book publishing services but they outsource most of the work so, in reality, you are only dealing with the front man.

ShieldCrest is part of Pressman House Publishing Ltd a mainstream publisher with years of experience. We do all the work in-house and turn your manuscript into a high quality professional book which will stand tall against any of the competition you will see on a bookshelf by the world’s leading mainstream publishers.

At Shieldcrest, we also won’t give you any false promises. As well as our range of independent publishing packages, we have a number of support schemes and guidance on marketing. Competition is tough and we treat our authors as part of the family and have the tools to help our authors succeed in getting their work out there.

Many publishers will say they are the best but we rely on independent companies to assess the real situation and ShieldCrest has been No1 for many years on the independent FreeIndex site from over 200 UK book publishers. They are all based on customer feedback taking into account service, quality, price and ultimately success. We are proud of the fact we have also been voted the UK’s best self-publisher by SME Business Journal in both 2019 and 2020 and by Prestige Awards in 2021 and 2022.  See our Awards page for details.

Don’t just listen to what we say, listen to what our authors say. We are unable to access or influence what an author says as these are held by independent companies.  OK, we are proud of our achievements and you can see what they say here.

Publishing a book

When thinking about publishing a book. You have to consider the practical aspects. For example, what size do you want the book? If you are writing a phrase book then ideally it should be something that is easily portable for someone visiting another country and may wish to refer to their phrase book when they need to ask a specific question.

The same is true of manga or graphic novels, the readers will have certain expectations of the look and size. This is especially important to consider if you are self-publishing and are looking to distribute the books yourself.

How to get a book published

Once you have established the style and size, you need to ensure it is correctly formatted.  You also need to consider if you want to spend the time pitching it to an agent or whether you want to deal directly with the publisher and go down the self-publishing route.

The truth now is that the best self-publishing houses can deal with smaller print runs such as an anthology for a local creative writing group and have international representation and can ensure your book reaches the widest possible audience. See How to Publish a Book for more details.

Option one is a basic publishing package without distribution.

This is ideal for community projects, business handbooks and manuals or smaller personal work. For example, we have produced company training manuals and family memoirs which have been researched by a family member requiring it to be handed down to future generations.

With this option, we provide professional standard formatting and layouts, design the front and rear covers according to your instructions and a print ready document. You will receive a proof copy within 21 days and the finished book should arrive within a further 14 days.

Option two is the full retail distribution package and includes:

Allocation of a unique ISBN, incorporating the necessary copyright protection, lodging book copies with the Legal Deposit Libraries, ensuring your book is available for order through all major high street booksellers and the metadata for the book will be available both online and through retailers worldwide including on-line retailers such as Amazon.

Your royalties from resultant sales through retailers and the author web page are paid quarterly.

The support for your work doesn’t end with the initial publication. At ShieldCrest Publishing House, we provide additional ongoing support for your book for at least ten years.

Once a book is out there, the challenge is then how you get people to read it. ShieldCrest Book Publishing House offer a range of Marketing and Promotional services which are described on our website. This includes a customised author webpage which is particularly useful if you want to arrange book signings and want to offer discounts to entice people to buy your book.

One of the most successful in recent years has been social media. With our social media promotional packages, there is the opportunity to engage with your potential audience, giving them the chance to learn why they should buy your book and turn them from casual onlookers to potential fans.

You may see some independent publishers referred to as a publishing house. Often, these will do more than just get words put onto paper. They will often be proactive in overseeing how a writer develops, and edit manuscripts in order to make them as tight as possible as well as handling the distribution and financial management of their titles.

We also ensure that our author’s work is beyond criticism and free from typos, grammatical errors, misquotes, etc. by offering a proofreading service. This is something we strongly recommend where required. There is nothing worse than having a great novel that, when reviewed, is criticised for its typos and poor grammar.

Full editing is another option. All authors find that by the time they get to their third book their style and ability to write effectively and keep the reader’s interest improves considerably. With published authors on its team, ShieldCrest Publishing House will give that first-time author a more seasoned voice but it is important to emphasise that it is not the job of an editor to change a writer’s style. What they do is look at what you are trying to say and make it tighter and more effective. Sometimes when reading a book it can take the reader out of a moment if they feel the description is excessive or the individual is talking in a way that doesn’t seem to fit how the writer has set the character up.

When researching a publishing house, look at what they have to offer so you can decide if their services are appropriate for your book and remember to check their submission guidelines before giving them your work (for example they may only want a sample chapter or a summary before deciding if they want to look at your full manuscript).

Because of its short form, there are a number of ways that poetry can be published. With websites and social media, you can share your work for free. If you want a more traditional route, you can submit to magazines, anthologies and literary competitions.

If you have a large enough collection of poems (around 40) then it is something you can put together and submit as one volume, ideally with some kind of theme to tie it together. There are listings available so you can find an ideal poetry publisher to suit you.

Remember, publishing houses look at a lot of manuscripts, so be prepared to wait for a response. If they say that they will get to you in a month, then it is best to wait a little longer if they don’t immediately get back to you. Remember to be polite and if possible do some research to find the contact within a specific department to reduce too much time.

As a recognised reputable book publisher, we do our utmost to tailor our services to suit you. We work on a diverse range of topics and are open to a wide array of submissions. To find out more about how to publish a book with us and what we can do for your work please contact us today. If your manuscript is ready then send it to us below.