Ylva’s Dazzling 2016—Bring on 2017!

For us at Ylva HQ, 2016 was a hoot. We published over fifty English novels, novellas, anthologies, and short stories. Some of them were shortlisted for awards, some of them even won awards, a lot sold in the thousands (see our blog about our bestsellers), others didn’t. All of them, though, were important, and we’re so proud to have so many great authors publishing with us.

The Ylva team travelled the globe and participated in conferences, Prides, and everything in between. We met a lot of readers and some possible new authors.

One of the greatest things for us is to witness sales in the Ylva shop. Of course sales in our shop help us financially, but something else makes us jump for joy: Finding out a bit more about our readers.

We discovered most buyers are from the US, followed by Australia, and Europe, but some are from countries where LGBTQ+ people are having a tough life (think Russia, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, India, and so on). To know that our books bring those readers joy is the icing on the cake.

So, what will 2017 bring for Ylva and you?

Astrid Ohletz, CEO

We’ll publish over forty books in English by veteran and new authors. And we’ll be publishing at least four English books with our new imprint, Queer Pack; an imprint in which we strongly believe, as it aims to cover every shade of the LGBTQ+ rainbow.

Romance was, is, and will remain to be THE best-selling genre. But we, as community, desperately need queer young adult books and more scintillating sci-fi, general fiction, mind-blowing fantasy, as well as the wonderful romance books. We’ll bring it all to you in 2017.

Soon we’ll be announcing a wonderful new co-operation that we started with a feminist publisher from another continent. Networking and supporting each other is something we strongly believe in.

And while 2016 Ylva was well travelled and could be found supporting events in the US as well as Europe, in 2017 we’ll be earning even more frequent-flyer points.

Here’s where you’ll be able to meet us in 2017:

* Book launch for Andrea Bramhall’s new mystery (Norfolk, UK in May)

* Ylva’s Lesvos Lesfic convention (Lesvos, Greece in June)

* Vendor tables at three UK Prides (Summer; one in Norwich, the others up north)

* Vendor table at Pride Cologne (Germany in July)

* International Book Fair (Frankfurt, Germany in October)

* Vendor table at a feminist queer book fair (Berlin, Germany in November)

* Two Ylva events in Australia (in December)

Yes, you read correctly—the wife and I will be travelling Down Under. And we’ll be travelling with author G. Benson, the best possible travel companion, to meet up with our Australian authors and meet as many Ylva readers as possible. We’ll post more information soon, but I can already tell you that one Ylva event will be in Sydney and the other in Perth.

So, we’ll have it all in 2017: tons of fab books and lots of places to meet the Ylva posse.

Stay tuned for more information and see you soon.

Astrid Ohletz is CEO of Ylva Publishing. Being able to publish books where subtext is maintext is a dream come true for Astrid. In her free time, she writes stories under the pseudonym Emma Weimann.