Plough Publishing House was founded in 1920. They are an independent publisher of books on faith, society, and spiritual life. They are primarily based in Walden, New York, with additional branches in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Plough is the publishing house of the Bruderhof, which is according to the site “an international movement of Christian communities whose members are called to follow Jesus together in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and of the first church in Jerusalem, sharing all our talents, income, and possessions (Acts 2 and 4).”
They publish a quarterly magazine as well as books. The books they publish include books on Christian living, social issues, devotionals, church history, spiritual classics, parenting and education, poetry and literary fiction, as well as children’s books. In spite of this wide range of genres they focus on quality rather than quantity. They only publish about 20 books a year. You can get a good feel for what they publish here.
They don’t share their distribution company but I have seen books they have published in bookstores, which is a good sign. I have also not seen a sample contract.
They have specific guidelines for book proposals that are important to follow. You can learn more about that here. It’s important to not submit a complete manuscript to them unless it’s explicitly requested. They respond to all submissions within six weeks. They ask that all submissions be made by email or mail.
To learn more or to submit, visit their website here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, The 2019 Guide to Manuscript Publishers, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The Authors Publish Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Publishing.
She occasionally teaches a course on manuscript publishing, as well as a course on publishing in literary journals.
