Jack Thompson’s excellent article in The Bookseller’s LGBTQ+ edition, Small presses take big swing on trans titles, focused, quite rightly, on how important indie presses are to publishing trans voices. Echoing Thompson’s call to the larger publishers that it’s never been a more important time to keep trans authors at the heart of what we all do, I wanted to share some of the things we have learned at Jessica Kingsley Publishers (JKP) from almost 10 years of trans publishing.

Be in it for the long term

At JKP, independent for 30 years until 2017, now part of Hachette UK, we’ve been championing trans voices since 2016, and it’s been both a source of joy and a responsibility for me personally to work on this area of our publishing over the past few years.

Our trans list grew organically out of our neurodiversity list, because there is so much overlap between being neurodivergent and being queer. That meant that JKP ended up being very much at the forefront of the golden age for trans publishing identified by the New York Times article that Thompson mentions, in the late 2010s and under the expert stewardship of Andrew James.

I believe this long-term commitment is crucial for success. Publishers big and small must approach their trans offering as an intrinsic part of their output, rather than a limited push or reactive trend. That means harnessing far-sighted strategies and having a team who understand the issues and the landscape, from commissioning editors to marketeers. In this way you can set the agenda rather than simply reacting to it.

Represent all aspects of trans experiences

Thompson talks about how books by trans authors can be a source of information, connection, refuge and escape, and I would add joy to that list. Our early publishing included informative books like Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker’s How to Understand Your Gender; and powerful anthologies like Charlie Craggs’ To My Trans Sisters. To mark the 10-year anniversary of JKP’s Gender and Sexuality lists, in 2027 we’re bringing out a range of titles that speak to the heart of the issues for the trans and wider LGBT+ community today, including the raw but joy-filled Queer Elders: Lives and Life Lessons from Juno Roche and Michel Lee Garrett’s Transcendent Love celebrating t for t relationships.

It’s important for other publishers to likewise include the joys and positives, without brushing over the trickier aspects of trans people’s experiences; as we see in fiction publishing, in tough times, readers turn to books that can uplift. But it’s also important to remember that the trans authors you sign might not always and only be writing about being trans, just as cis folk aren’t always writing about being cis. 

If you’re an acquiring editor, and there isn’t someone trans on your team, or even if there is, speak to trans folk, follow them on socials, and make sure you involve them in your acquisitions decisions – not just at the authenticity read stage

Stay close to the community

One of the reasons that JKP has been able to keep ahead of the curve is because we stay close to the communities we publish for. We started out as a focused publisher of lived-experience books on autism, neurodiversity, social work and mental health and then broadened to other marginalised identities. This means we’re often able to identify non-fiction topics or under-served communities and intersects before the wider publishing world.

Indies like Cipher and Metonymy are great at this too. As Thompson describes in their article, they often spot break-out authors who then get taken up by the bigger houses. But bigger publishers shouldn’t let themselves off the hook of seeking this talent out in the first place. Inside the community is often where the most exciting writing and ideas are germinating. If you’re an acquiring editor, and there isn’t someone trans on your team, or even if there is, speak to trans folk, follow them on socials, and make sure you involve them in your acquisitions decisions – not just at the authenticity read stage, but way before that, when you’re spotting trends and identifying opportunities.

Respond to the political landscape

We are seeing book bans not just in Florida and other US states, but in a school library in Manchester in the UK too; most recently Essex libraries have been told to scale back their promotion of Pride events.

One way in which we’re responding to this increasingly scary climate is that from July 2026 we will start offering safety covers that can be used with our books. Beautifully designed by trans Two-Spirit artist Vaquero Azul, they are a response to reader feedback and a survey we put out in the community where more than 50% of respondents agreed they could be necessary for some readers, whether themselves or someone they might buy a book for.

As Sarah Thomson, the JKP editor who has led the project, said in a blog piece about the covers, "Everyone should be able to read freely, without worrying about the repercussions. Nobody should need to hide who they are or what they’re reading. But that isn’t everyone’s reality, and we’re trying to keep the door open for everyone we possibly can."

If you are a publisher in the LGBT+ space, it’s important that you’re aware of the current political climate. It isn’t just about Pride month, which everyone knows is both a celebration and highly commercialised, or about tokenistic statements of support. You need to demonstrate your deep commitment to championing and collaborating with queer folk at every level of your organisation, and you need to do this visibly. This is not a time when any of us can afford to sit back and do nothing.

Stronger together

We’ve been working in this space for a long time, but we’d love more publishers to join. In the tough and sometimes openly hostile political landscape that we find ourselves in, we cannot afford to see other trans books or trans-focused presses as "competition". We need to re-vision them as a welcome contribution to the collective culture, and we’re happy to share any insights and learnings we can. It has never been more important for all publishers and bookshops, whatever their size or specialism, to stand together in solidarity, so we can ensure trans authors are represented, visible and integrated into our publishing programmes at every level.