Education and library spending cuts and increased consolidation are among the challenges facing independent houses. But for a range of indie publishers, nimble is the watchword and the common denominator that helps them navigate the ups and downs of the kids’ publishing cycle. “When there are internal and external changes happening every day, we can be less rigid and move faster,” says Shimul Tolia, CEO of Little Bee Books. “We don’t have a lot of red tape, so we can make harder decisions faster and be experimental.”

That sentiment is echoed by Angus Yuen-Killick, who launched Brooklyn-based Red Comet Press after many years at large houses including Macmillan, Disney, Penguin, and DK. “When everything aligns, we can bring a book to market quite quickly,” he says. “Flexibility is one of the advantages of being a small, independent publisher.” Small size also means that each book is equally important. “When you publish a limited number of books each season, you have no midlist books—every book gets an equal amount of attention from our team,” says Anita Eerdmans, president of the Michigan-based independent publisher Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Many indies are willing to—and indeed driven to—publish stories with more specialized appeal. “We can publish books that the multinationals might deem too difficult, or too quiet, or too niche,” says Karen Li, publisher of Groundwood Books, a division of Toronto’s House of Anansi Press, citing books such as the imprint’s social emotional titles, including Laurel Croza’s Rock, illustrated by Matt James, and Shy Me by Sandra V. Feder, illustrated by Ashley Barron. “We try not to pay attention to trends, for better or for worse. And I think it’s proven out that if we publish these books well—with high quality and authenticity—readers will specifically seek us out to see who and what we’re publishing next.”

That has been the case for Concord, Mass.-based Barefoot Books, says co-founder and CEO Nancy Traversy. “Having a particular point of view has actually been an advantage. We can call our own shots. We make the product we want to make, and we haven’t been beholden to the market.”

Unconventional Approaches

For British Columbia-based Orca Books, independence allows for a more intuitive approach that lets the company “intentionally cross the education-trade divide,” according to publisher Andrew Wooldridge. Rather than stay in one lane, the company has introduced structured literacy to their offerings in the trade market and offering hi-low books as a brand, not as a category. The company created a multi-reader app for classroom while also offering “front-list worthy trade books,” Wooldridge says.

A number of indie publishers count offering a global perspective as one of their key distinctions and cite international and intercultural connections as a growth area. “The fact that half of us speak Spanish gives us the ability to ensure the highest quality Spanish translations—often published simultaneously with our English books—which has brought us audiences not only in North America but all over Latin America and Spain,” says Arthur A. Levine, publisher at Levine Querido, which he founded in 2019 after more than 20 years with his own imprint at Scholastic.

Wooldridge describes Orca as having a long-term commitment to Indigenous languages and creators. On the other side of the equation, Brooklyn-based Enchanted Lion, headed by Claudia Zoe Bedrick, has centered its publishing on highly visual books in translation that introduce English-speaking children to not only global creators, but different cultural perspectives on common themes such as social justice and the natural world.

A Foot in the Door

Small size requires creative thinking about distribution. “Getting a foot in the door has always been a challenge for small independents like us,” says Anita Eerdmans, president of the Michigan-based independent publisher Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. “We work with a number of regional rep groups. They have close and productive relationships with the key educational wholesalers and do a good job keeping our titles in front of companies that we would have difficulty calling on individually.”

British Columbia-based Orca Books started its own distribution company in the U.S. and Canada to distribute not only its own books, but those of 20 other North American publishers. They recently added Quebec-based French language publishers, adding to its language-spanning reach. “This model gives us greater control over how our books are positioned and sold, while fostering a strong community of independent publishers,” says Orca publisher Andrew Wooldridge. “It also allows us to build and maintain long-term relationships with retailers, wholesalers, schools and libraries in a responsive and collaborative way. This is especially important now because small publishers tend to disproportionately feel the impact as the wholesale market consolidates,” he adds.

Mutual Support

Traversy cites Barefoot’s relationships with a number of literacy foundations and nonprofits including Books for Africa, Books4School, Read Out and Read, and the UK’s BookTrust as a way the brand expands its reach. Working with independent booksellers who market Barefoot Books in their own communities through a variety of platforms and methods gives the company “a direct relationship” with customers, she adds.

Likewise, Levine Querido looks for partners who “share our fierce desire to throw open the gates of creativity to all authors and artists and throw a reading party to which all children are invited,” Levine says. “We train our eyes and ears to find and maintain strong relationships with nonprofit organizations such as First Book, An Open Book Foundation, Kweli, and SCBWI.”

In the Market

Approaching the challenge of marketing as a small press is, in part, a matter of “picking your battles,” says Jason Low, publisher at Lee & Low Books. “If we need to pull funds away from sponsoring author events and instead redirect them toward Google Adwords and conversion tracking, the deciding factor is that actual sales take precedence over potential sales.”

Leaner organizations can be more responsive, according to Levine. “Our smaller structure allows us to pivot and bypass outdated systems more easily,” he says, describing the “social first” approach of his team. “We are also more willing to take calculated risks, such as operating our own Meta store and TikTok shop.”

Bedrick has entered into collaborations with several indie bookstores to present shelves of “picture books for adults,” featuring both her titles and those of other publishers who publish books that have crossover appeal for adults both because of their sophisticated subject matter and their strong artistic appeal. “We are super excited about these partnerships, some developed at Children's Institute, and are very much hoping that the idea will catch on with many more indie bookstores,” she says.

Seemingly no independent publisher has been immune to the effects of book bans and education budget cuts in recent years, especially since so many are mission-driven publishers committed to inclusivity in children’s literature. But while small size means there’s less of a buffer for withstanding these pressures, indies have demonstrated their resilience.

Traversy is clear. “I would never want to work for a big publisher,” she says, “because you can’t control your own destiny.”