A press in motion
About
Zeytin Press publishes literary fiction and nonfiction in translation and English-language originals. We support seasoned and debut authors alike whose work has the range to move between the page, the screen, the stage, and beyond. We’re equally a home for journalists, artists, and others arriving at literature from adjacent disciplines.
Our Publishing Approach
The press begins with a petite, but deliberate pun.
Zeytin, in Turkish, means olive. Press is both the noun you’d expect from a publishing house and the verb for what we do to olives in the making of olive oil. It’s a name that holds both stillness and movement at once, the patience of nurturing something rooted and the decisive pressure required to transform its entirety into its essence.
It grows in the places this press comes from and in the conversations that shape it.
Before a work goes into the world, the first question is always where it can travel, and with whom? Our journalistic instincts drive us toward the source rather than waiting for it to arrive, from sitting with people and hearing the story before deciding what it is. Voice comes first, always. The rest follows. We’re here for the work that doesn’t yet know how far it can go. The manuscript that has something to say and hasn’t found the right room to say it in. The writer who came to the book from somewhere else entirely and brought that somewhere with them. That’s the work worth pressing.
The Publishing Landscape
Narrow gateways
<2%
of manuscripts submitted ever make it to print
0.03%
chance of being signed at some agencies, as few as 3 in 10,000 queries
Literary inequality
3–6%
of UK books published are translations, sidelining international and multilingual authors
72%
of those translations come from just ten source languages, overwhelmingly Western European
Visibility
Books recognised as the best of the year routinely sell in the hundreds or low thousands before nomination. The market often does not find them until the prize does.
~50%
of the UK print market is controlled by four conglomerates, while the majority of prize-winning literary fiction skews toward independents
1,300
copies sold before longlisting. A 435% jump followed the International Booker win
– Time Shelter, Int. Booker Prize 2023
4,000
copies sold before longlisting. Over 100,000 sold after winning
-Prophet Song, Booker Prize 2023
Authors We Support
01
The Debut Storyteller
You’ve spent years shaping a manuscript outside the spotlight. You may not have a literary agent or formal training, but your work is grounded, compelling, and ready for careful attention. You’re looking for a publisher who values voice over platform and believes first books can be unforgettable ones.
02
The Cross-Disciplinary Thinker
You come from a background in journalism, academia, or the arts. You’ve written articles, essays, research papers, or curatorial texts, and now you are turning toward narrative. Your manuscript may blend personal insight with public inquiry, or explore questions of memory, politics, place, or identity through a literary lens. You’re drawn to complexity and care about precision. You want a publisher who will take your work seriously, even if it doesn’t follow conventional paths.
03
The Multilingual or Diasporic Writer
Your work moves across languages, geographies, or cultures. You may write in English or in translation, but your voice carries the influence of more than one world. You tell stories that defy simple categories and reflect the richness of layered experience.
04
The Narrative Risk-Taker
You write at the edge of form, whether through fractured memoirs, poetic nonfiction, or inventive fiction. You believe structure is part of the story and want an editorial home that encourages innovation while holding space for clarity, ethics, and depth. You are not experimenting for effect, but to find the most expressive and impactful way to tell what needs to be told.
Pedagogy
The Deeper Draft
A future offering for aspiring authors whose draft shows promise but isn’t yet ready for publication. The course equips writers with the tools they need to carry out a rigorous developmental edit of their own work at their own pace as they prepare for the submissions process.
Editorial Diagnostic
A future offering for writers who have completed their manuscript but need targeted editorial direction. The editorial diagnostic combines the qualitative elements of a traditional Critical Review and Analysis (CRA) with a quantitative text analysis accompanied by data visualisations.
What we look for
is substance
We value prose that speaks to the human experience as a form of immersion, intimacy, and closeness with others, despite powerful forces driving polarisation. Even in moments of fantasy or retreat, literature offers us the rare chance to briefly inhabit another mind, free from our own interjection, and receive it without interruption. At its highest form, it is an act of empathy.