Drollerie Press publishes transformative fiction in print and electronic format. You might characterize some of our stories as, at least in part, speculative fiction, mythic fiction, slipstream, new weird, urban fantasy, dark fantasy, paranormal, magical realism, mystery, science fiction, or horror. We hope that many of them will also be erotic, but we're more interested in good writing than multiplicity of sex scenes. Our authors use all these tools, and varied genres, to write stories with mythic themes. Think of Michael Chrichton's Eaters of the Dead, Robin McKinley's Deerskin, Tanith Lee's Books of Paradys, Daniel Hecht's City of Masks, or Jenna Starborn by Sharon Shinn.

Drollerie Press stories are inclusive. Our protagonists may be tattoo artists, corporate professionals or anywhere in between. Our favorite characters are involved in varied relationships, and can be hetero-, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered and monogamist, polyamorous, or something we haven't thought of yet. While we presently only publish in English, we welcome authors and stories from, and about, the
worldwide community. Eventually, we would like to publish in translation as well. Use regionalisms, patois, and country specific spellings with our blessing, as long as they enhance the story.

We do not charge our authors for anything. We are not a vanity press. Our submission standards are stringent, but if we like your story we'll work with you. We welcome author input into the cover art and copy process.

We're new, which can be a good thing. We're willing to experiment and take chances on things that might not find a home elsewhere. If an author has a good idea, we want to know about it. However, since we're new, we do not pay advances. We do, however, pay generous royalties and our contract is based on the sample contract available at Epic.

Our novels will be available in electronic and print format in any of the usual venues, both online and in traditional brick and mortar stores, and electronically on our website. We do not guarantee that a bookstore will stock our titles. Space is at a premium and the buyers for each store choose the titles they stock, but if your book is not on the shelves it will be available for order or online just like any other legitimate publisher's offerings.

If you're interested in being published by Drollerie Press, please query with a synopsis and your short work, or a synopsis and the first three and final chapter of your novel as attachments of documents in any word processing software to submissions @ drolleriepress.com.

The whole package should be aesthetically pleasing, so how the story looks is very important to us. We know that good cover art can drive sales, while bad cover art can sink them. We use photos, found objects, and fine art to create unique, high quality covers that will catch the eye and encourage the reader to pick up the book and examine it more closely.

Many of our covers are created in-house, but we are also building relationships with freelance artists. The covers we're interested in are sophisticated. Our covers are painterly rather than photographic, highly textural, and may use grunge elements and/or interesting brush work. We avoid full face depictions, preferring masks, a vertical or horizontal half face or front or back torso. What we're looking for most is eye-catching and reflective of the story. We do not publish Poser—or similar software—style covers. The samples below are illustrative of our style.

If you're interested in being considered as a cover artist for Drollerie Press, please send a query to submissions @ drollerie.com, and provide a link to your online portfolio.