House of Thieves Press

R E S U R R E C T I N G  5Islands Press with Steve has reminded me how many good books, perfectly worthy of publication (once edited), will never find a publisher. Far more good books are written than there will ever be publishers to publish them. We could publish twice as much poetry at 5 Islands than we do, if there were more than two of us, and if we had the capital. And if more people wanted to read and bookshops to stock contemporary poetry, but those are challenges without easy fixes.

I’ve founded House of Thieves to address that need: to offer another route into print. To publish good books of poetry and prose that might struggle to persuade a commercial press or an Indie like 5Islands, to take them on.

A word about the name. “House of Thieves” is an old and favourite poem of mine (“I live in a house of thieves: they steal my toast; they steal my time…”). House of Thieves is also the title of a selection of my poems published in Chinese. The poem is a litany of all the ways that those one loves (one’s children in particular) steal your life from you; but, then grace strikes, and the poet concludes, “I would be no other man than this,/ this looted self, blessed by theft,/ this harbour for love’s worst scoundrels.” The spirit of joy and gratitude and delighted domesticity is also the spirit of the press. The only theft likely to go on is the stealing of good books from obscurity. The Robin-Hooding of them into a world that doesn’t know yet how much it needs them. There is a lot of honour among the kind of thieves I love, the kind that inhabit the House of Thieves.

            For me, of course, House of Thieves Press is also a practical move—one way a poet and editor/publisher might turn a dollar from their craft. I was a publisher (Butterworths, Allen & Unwin, HarperCollins) in a former life, before my reincarnation as a poet and essayist and my recent work at 5Islands. I’m the author of those two books of syntax and style, The Little Red Writing Book and The Little Green Grammar Book. So I bring a fair bit to the publishing table.

For writers, perhaps for you, House of Thieves may be a way to cross the tricky threshold into print, to turn your manuscript into a book—into a well-produced book—when commercial doors won’t open and when self-publishing is a bother or a mystery and won’t do your book justice.

House of Thieves is a boutique press, a kind of gourmet self-publishing option. It won’t suit everyone’s plans or budget. Bear in mind, though, what the fee buys: in addition to the ink and paper and the covers, the House of Thieves will give you editorial wisdom, typographic literacy, design insight and print knowhow, all of which are missing in most self-published books.

Marketing (beyond social media posts, website promotion, my profile and contacts) and distribution are not part of the offering. But of course HoT will be happy to advise and support in these areas, too.

Maybe House of Thieves is the way you’re going to get your book off your desk and into the world. And who knows what may happen once it’s out there.

To publish with Mark through House of Thieves Press click  here.