An independent imprint, since 2010 — and a sister imprint, in 2026.

Going forward, Queer Ink publishes books drawn from the Queer India Archives.

The Archives hold sixteen years of queer Indian material — oral histories, photographs, correspondence, organisational records, zines, manuscripts, ephemera, and the long-form testimony of people who chose to share their lives with us. From this material, books emerge. Anthologies. Edited collections. Oral history works shaped into book form. Recovered manuscripts. Photographs and ephemera contextualised, curated, and made into something a reader can hold.

The decision to publish only from the archive is a decision about what the imprint is for. There are many fine independent presses publishing new fiction, new poetry, and new non-fiction by queer Indian writers. What there is not, anywhere, is a publishing imprint dedicated to the work of turning a queer archive into the books that record it. This is what Queer Ink does now.

Each book takes its time. Working from the archive requires consent, contextual care, editorial attention, and the kind of slowness that is not available to a press chasing a list. What we are building is the publishing arm of a long-term archival project — books that will sit alongside the Archives as the public, durable form of what is held privately.

Queer Ink Swabhimaan is the second imprint within Queer Ink Publishing, launching in 2026.

Where Queer Ink publishes from the archive, Swabhimaan publishes the writers themselves — queer Indian writers with their own books, their own voices, their own stories to put into the world. The imprint exists because the conventional path to publication, in India and elsewhere, is narrow, slow, and built on terms that often do not serve queer Indian writers well. Swabhimaan offers a different route.

The word swabhimaan means self-respect and dignity. The imprint is named for what it intends to honour: the writer's right to their own story, their own name on the cover, their own terms of publication, their own share of what the book earns.

Crowdfunding-led publication. Each Swabhimaan title is funded by a focused crowdfunding campaign before publication. Readers, supporters, and the author's own community contribute toward the production of the book. The book exists because it is wanted — not because a gatekeeper has decided it should exist.

Mentorship and editorial support. Swabhimaan writers work closely with the imprint through writing, editing, design, and production. Drawing on sixteen years of Queer Ink's experience, the imprint provides the structure that an emerging writer needs and the freedom an experienced writer expects.

Royalty share, not advance. Swabhimaan does not pay traditional advances. Writers retain a meaningful royalty share of every book sold, paid out transparently and on schedule. The model is built for sustainability over time.

Storytellers Studio. Writers preparing to publish with Swabhimaan are supported by the Storytellers Studio — the imprint's learning programme. Read on below.

Storytellers Studio is the paid learning programme that supports Queer Ink Swabhimaan. It is also open to writers who will not publish with Swabhimaan but want to learn what sixteen years of running an independent queer Indian publishing imprint has taught us.

The Studio is built around ten core competencies — from the craft of writing through editing, the financial and legal aspects of publishing, the publishing path itself, book production, marketing, sales, and the long-term work of building a sustainable writing life. The full curriculum is drawn from the Writer's Guidebook and extended into structured cohorts, mentorship, workshops, and one-to-one sessions.

Cohort programmes. Structured group programmes, running over twelve to twenty weeks, taking writers from manuscript-in-development to publication-ready work. Cohorts are small, by design, with regular feedback and a working relationship with the editorial team.

One-to-one mentorship. For writers who prefer to work alone — individual mentorship with Shobhna or a Queer Ink-affiliated mentor, focused on a specific manuscript, a specific stage, or a specific question.

Workshops and short courses. Shorter, focused sessions on individual aspects of the craft and the business — writing queer characters, working with Indian regional languages, the financial side of authorship, the legal side of publishing, building a reader community.

The Writer's Guidebook. Free for all to download, available as the foundational reference text underneath the Studio's work.