Founded in 1998 by David Appelbaum, then editor of Parabola Magazine, Codhill Press has always focused on publishing books for the “serious seeker”, and most books contain a spiritual element, many are still rooted in Buddihism. This includes work of fiction, poetry (including a chapbook series), and creative nonfiction. Their mission statement from the start has been “There is no more important function of writing at this time than to call us to awaken. The state of siege under which human consciousness—human conscience—is living has not abated in the time since Blake wrote. The seriousness of the situation has only intensified. To serve our memory of what is truly important: to that the writer should be a guide.”
They publish between four and six books a year. They also run a yearly poetry contest that has a fee attached. The current publisher is Susannah Appelbaum.
Because they publish so few books a year, please spend time on their site, researching the books they previously published to ascertain if your work is a good potential fit before submitting. One of the reasons we stress this, particularly with small publishers, is that often publishers we review get deluged with submissions that do not in any way fit, and they then have to close to submissions, sometimes permanently, sometimes temporarily. Our mission is to make information more accessible, but when subscribers abuse that information it can cause long-term harm.
They respond to all submissions they are interested in within 90 days, and if you have not heard back from them by that time, assume rejection.
They do not disclose who their distributor is.
To learn more about their submission guidelines, go here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.
She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
