Ylva is an independent, woman-owned publishing house, driven by the belief that the world needs more high-quality queer-positive, women-loving-women books. This includes lesbian romance and lesbian erotica, queer mystery novels, queer paranormal stories, queer YA books, and well-researched historical novels. All our stories have one thing in common: strong female characters who embark on journeys that inspire and drive the plots of their own stories.

Be it ebooks, paperbacks, or audiobooks, we at Ylva believe that it’s no longer enough to simply offer stories with lesbian or bisexual characters; we owe it to our readers to publish the best books possible. To achieve this, we are only working with professionals—be it editors, cover artists, or audiobook narrators.

Our pursuit of perfection also means that we strive to bring to you award-winning authors from all over the world. In addition to winning prestigious LGBT and mainstream awards over the years, our authors occupy a global sphere—from the USA to Australia, India to Spain, South Africa to Germany. They have diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds so that our books can truly be for everyone.

At Ylva, we’re excited about books, particularly lesbian fiction and queer positive stories! That’s why Astrid Ohletz founded the German-based Ylva Verlag in 2011 and its international companion, Ylva Publishing, in 2012. The twin companies work in tandem to find and publish the finest queer and lesbian literature in four different languages and to share them with readers who are just as excited about lesbian fiction books as we are.

We named our company “Ylva” after an old Swedish name meaning “female wolf,” because the wolf’s intelligent, observant, and curious nature embodies to us the pioneering spirit of our company, as well as the kind of intelligent, thoughtful fiction for women loving women we seek to bring into the world.

“Working with Ylva Publishing is a wonderful experience because they share my vision of what lesbian fiction should be. They work just as hard as their authors to publish quality books that readers will love.”

Jae, German author

“Ylva understands that queer women shouldn’t have to just settle for what’s available. They understand that queer women deserve quality content, and they deliver the best. I love being an author with Ylva.”

Alex K. Thorne, South African author

“Ylva Publishing changed my world, showing me the possibilities of superb lesbian fiction I hadn’t even realized existed. I’m so proud to be part of that. Being on the Ylva team has been a wonderful experience.”

Lee Winter, Australian author

Communication and collaboration are key for us. That’s why we work closely with authors, from the initial acceptance of their work through the editing, production, and marketing process. Authors write stories with their hearts and souls, so we don’t exclude them from decisions that affect their books or their reputations as writers. Ylva authors have significant say in choosing the covers of their books, and together, we decide on how to best market their work.

Fairness, especially in financial matters, remains very important to us. Both writing and publishing are ways to live a dream. Our ultimate goal is to help queer women share stories with the world, stories that allow readers dream too.

Over the past years we’ve built a vast network of book worms who support Ylva authors in reaching new readers from all over the world.

We’re constantly searching for new, talented authors. We invite submissions of well-written novel-length manuscripts, as well as short stories. Before submitting your manuscript, please read our submission guidelines here.

Publicity: Please contact us at info@ylva-publishing.com if you are looking to contact our management, editing team, or one of our authors for an interview, or any other kind of public appearance.

Booksellers: Please contact us at astrid.ohletz@ylva-publishing.com for assistance with selling Ylva publications at your store.

Readers: Feel free to contact us at contact@ylva-publishing.com if you want to get in touch with one of our authors.