Updated January 2022: They have remained active on Twitter but they have not published a book in over a year now. I’d hold off on querying for the time being.
8th House Publishing is a newer publisher based out of Montreal and New York. They publish poetry, novels with a literary bent, and non-fiction. They seem to be publishing more books every year and they seem to put a fair amount of effort into promoting their author’s work through launches, readings, and links to additional publications. They also seem to be very good at getting prestigious authors to provide blurbs for their books. Their covers tend to be well designed and aesthetically pleasing.
They sell most of their books directly which means they do not work with a distributor. So you have to depend on 8th House directly to sell your book on their website or to independent bookstores or Barnes and Nobles (for example).
Because they are a newer publisher there is not so much information available on them. I found there site difficult to navigate and also discovered that it does not always appear the way it is intended to. If you are seeing the website with a blue background that is the correct version of the site, the one with the white background is the incomplete version, but it is also the version that loads more commonly.
Submitting your work to them is relatively easy. Submit a sample of your work, ideally with a query letter to their email address submissions@8thHousePublishing.com. Make sure to review the books they have previously published to make sure your work fits within their catalog. When you submit a sample make sure you include no more than 3 chapters of a novel or non fiction book and no more than 25 pages of poetry. Also include the complete table of contents.
To learn more please visit their website here.
