Submissions.

8d Press is accepting submissions for 2025 and 2026

As a small, independent Scottish publishing house, based in Dunfermline, Fife, we're looking for Scottish writers.

By this we mean, writers resident in Scotland and who call Scotland home. You don't have to have been born in Scotland to submit your work to us; you just have to be resident here.

We are NOT a vanity press or partnership press. Writers selected by us NEVER have to contribute financially to the publication of their own stories. EVER!

We pay our writers for their words! In this respect we have to be extremely strict on who we publish because a) we are small, b) we are independent, and c) we have very specific editorial requirements.

Publishing Calendar 2024, 2025, 2026

8d Press is thrilled to announce that we have signed talented Scottish CRIME FICTION writer, David McGuire for his HANGMAN series.

We anticipate released the first of his three-part series in December 2024.

And in this respect, we are accepting now submissions for our 2025/2026 publishing calendar.

Before you contact us with your submissions, please remember we are a small indie publishing house, run by a team of two (sometimes three), and we have a very clear vision of what we want in terms of submissions; details are below.

Please carefully consider if approaching a larger publishing house or literary agent wouldn't be better for you, before contacting us. We recommend Query Tracker for your search in this regard.

Please know too that we are Scotland-focused and therefore we are looking for stories that come from a Scottish perspective. This geographical element means that you need to live in Scotland to submit to us, and your stories should always have a Scottish focus. You don't need to have been born in Scotland, but you do need to be a resident of this country at the time of submission.

Our guidelines for submission are below:-

* Please submit a short sample of your writing. If you are submitting poetry, please send one complete poem. If you are submitting a novel, please send one chapter (it can be any chapter - we are looking at your writing style).

* Make sure that your name and the title of the piece is on each page of your submission.

* Send us a short bio in which you detail what prompted you to write your piece. Please be honest. If you have never been published before, this is absolutely fine. We care only about the writing, the stories, not your publishing CV or lack of it.

* Consider buying one of our books so you can get a feel of how we like to publish. You can buy our books through this website.

* Understand our preferred story types:- surreal poetry, prose-poetry in the manner of D.H Lawrence, William Trevor, or Yann Martel, short stories in the history, gothic, mystery, suspense/thriller, or Noir genres.

* Please know that we will NOT publish long stories. We are a massive fan of novellas and series. It you have written an epic novel, consider splitting it up into a series.

Please DO NOT send us poems or submissions through social media. They will NOT be looked at, only deleted.

* Give us time to consider you.

And then.......

* If we like your work, and feel that your story/poem fits a book in our forthcoming publishing calendar, we will want to get to know you a little before making a commitment. This will mean a phone chat, a chance for us to get a beat on you as a writer, as a person, and how you and the team here could potentially work together. And it will give you a chance to get to know us too, what we expect, how we work etc.

Please know, we are a friendly team, and we are actively looking for new Scottish writing talent.

We also appreciate courtesy, and old-world consideration when it comes to being approached.

We love phone chats and real-life connections, talking in person and living in the moment. This is who we are.

Thank you for your understanding.

Send your submissions to hello@8dpress.co.uk

Please understand that we are a SMALL, ARTISAN PRESS.

In this respect, we have extremely high standards in our interactions with writers.

A larger press, with big budgets and staff might operate differently, but we except you, as a writer, to have read the above, and to genuinely want to know who we are, BEFORE you submit to us.

This means that you will have taken the time, and offered us the respect of reading the above in detail, understanding what we're saying and trying alternative publishers, using the Query Tracker - link above - method first.

Nothing is ever personal but our methods of doing business are strict:-

* if you drop long emails in our inbox telling us to publish you, we WILL NOT ANSWER YOU, because this indicates to us that you have NOT read our editorial guidelines

* if you send us hard copy manuscripts by post, we will NOT read them, but we will return them to you if you supply return postage

* if you send us submissions through social media we will NOT answer you, and delete your submission

* if you act like a DIVA or a MAN-BABY we will NOT WORK with you. Read our post on MEDIUM by clicking here, and you will understand how we work.

If you're a writer who wants a relationship with us, start by BUYING our books. The sooner we sell our stock, the sooner we will be able to commence new projects. That's life now in the UK.

We receive ZERO funding for 8d Press. Everything is organised and funded by US.

To re-iterate, we are a SMALL, ARTISAN PRESS, and have to run our business accordingly.

Thank you for your understanding.

8d Press