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Hosted by English PEN, this panel featured Novelist and Poet Will Eaves, Freelance book marketer Rachel Quin, Co-founder and publisher at Cipher Press Jack Thompson, and was chaired by Katie Fraser, Deputy Books Editor at The Bookseller. In this conversation, small presses were given the stage. They were celebrated for their push against the mainstream and highlighted for their struggle in the world of publishing corporations.

All sessions in this room at The London Book Fair were hosted by English PEN, a human rights organisation that promotes the freedom to read and write. At each session their mission was introduced, alongside an explanation of why there was an empty seat on each panel. The ‘empty chair’ represented the absence of publishers, writers, readers and educators who, due to persecution or marginalisation, were absent from conversations like these. This felt particularly significant for a conversation about the struggle and the joy of small presses, where a small press often acts as a voice for the underrepresented in mainstream publishing. Jack Thompson, from Cipher Press, reminded us powerfully that if we lose small presses, then we risk losing a generation of children who feel ‘literature is not for them’. Saying that it would be ‘Section 28 all over again’, speaking of their own experience growing up where conversations about homosexuality and LGBTQ+ were prohibited by law in schools. In a room full of publishers who were likely all aware of the worrying reports by the 2025 Annual Literacy Survey by The National Literacy Trust finding a decline in children aged 8-18 years reading in their spare time, this felt like an urgent problem.

In this conversation small presses were described as agile, able to publish what they wanted without large acquisition meetings, and able to focus on championing diverse voices without the push of doing it for profit’s sake. But their endeavours are not without struggle. Growth was described as difficult for a small press due to the rising costs in production yet the selling price not rising alongside it. Will Eaves talked about how large publishers can survive multiple cuts to profit, relying on their back lists as a buffer but small presses with small lists struggle. Jack Thompson, as co-founder of Cipher press admitted that ‘being held up to the same discounts, the same standard as Penguin Random House is crushing’. All members of the panel agreed they’d like to see an environment of collaboration, instead of competition in the publishing ecosystem.