Saraband is an award-winning independent publisher of outstanding fiction, absorbing nature writing, pressing environmental issues and compelling memoir.
Praised in the Guardian as “a small but brilliant independent press,” we publish authors with deep knowledge of the culture, local landscapes, wildlife, folk traditions and history wherever they live. Our fiction includes literary, historical and contemporary stories reflecting UK and international perspectives, all with unforgettable voices. Our books inspire, inform and entertain, each helping to make the world a better place.
From our inception, we have provided a platform for underrepresented and local voices that are often overlooked. Our working style is collaborative, and we place a high value on relationships with authors and partnerships with colleagues in the indie publishing and bookselling sectors, libraries, literature organisations, and wherever good writing lives. We work hard to make sure that we follow the most sustainable practices at all times.
We publish across all print and digital formats, with ancillary content in our podcast, video and social channels. We are based in Salford, Manchester and are part of the Northern Fiction Alliance and members of Publishing Scotland, the Independent Publishers Guild and the Publishers Association.
We hope you’ll enjoy browsing our website.
Photo by Aswin Mahesh on Unsplash
Our history
Founded in 1994 in Norwalk, Connecticut, near New York City, in the early years Saraband created illustrated non-fiction and reference books in nature, history, arts and mind/body subjects. We were members of the American Book Producers Association until our relocation to Glasgow, Scotland, in 2000.
In 2011, with the growth of digital publishing, we introduced literary fiction to our publishing, with Contraband following in 2014 as a sister imprint, with Graeme Macrae Burnet’s debut novel among our first fiction acquisitions.
In 2017 we moved our base of operations to the Manchester area and began to engage with authors, readers and colleagues in the literary world in the North of England, but we have also retained our Scottish affiliations.
Awards and accolades
We were inaugural winners of the Saltire Society’s Scottish Publisher of the Year award, and achieved shortlisting in the IPG’s Independent Publisher of the Year award. In 2012 we were the sole publisher selected for the London Olympics Scottish cultural programme, to showcase digital innovations including our hit Burns Night app. Partnering with Publishing Scotland, we created a book discovery app under a Nesta innovation initiative. In 2022, we were shortlisted for the Regional Small Press of the Year award at the British Book Awards.
Over the past few years our authors have won or achieved shortlistings for a host of literary awards, including: International: The Booker Prize, LA Times Literary Awards, the Frank O’Connor short story award, the Bram Stoker First Novel award, the Aurealis Award for Science Fiction, the Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book Award, and Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year.
In the UK: the Wainwright Prize for nature writing, the Rathbones Folio prize, the Portico Prize, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown, the Comedy Women in Print prize, the Polari Prize, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, the Saltire Society’s Fiction, First Book of the Year, Research and History prizes, the Mslexia Novella Award, CrimeFest Last Laugh award, the Robin Jenkins award for environmental writing, the Lakeland Awards and the Highland Prize.