Eibonvale Press - Guidelines for Writers.

What I am looking for

Eibonvale Press aims to produce exceptionally attractive and lovingly designed editions of good quality and intelligent modern horror, magic realism, slipstream, the surreal and related areas. ‘Horror’ is a vague term at best and not one that I want to try to define here.  Indeed I am inclined to believe that things are much more interesting when they are not a direct part of a recognised genre (and maybe haven’t a clue what they are) but seek to develop their own voice.  Therefore, Eibonvale Press is not constrained by genre boundaries within our general area of what might be termed ‘magic realism/surrealism, fantastical and strange stuff’. What I am interested in is that a book be genuinely striking and original, well written, engaging and justifiable as a thing to be launched into the world.  

A few of the areas I might be interested in:
•	Horror Fiction
•	Surrealism 
•	Magic Realism
•	Experimental Fiction with a ‘fantastic’ slant.
•	Fairytale spin-off
•	And many more!
		
A few things I am almost certainly NOT interested in (but never say never!):
•	High Fantasy and sword and sorcery – unless it has a very unusual angle or a highly original connection to the real world.
•	Stories involving only really classic mainstream horror themes such as vampires or werewolves – unless it has an exceptionally original take on them.
•	Mainstream non-fantastic horror, thrillers or slasher tales.  This is a problematic one to define though.  I might be interested if there is an unusual allegorical or philosophical slant to them.  Ie, a more interesting moral landscape than just people killing other people in inventive ways.  

Writers should browse around the website and read some of our books ideally, to get a feel for what we are like and what we are interested in. 

I am interested in novels or novellas and also single-author short story collections.  In fact I would conceivably be happy to take a look at almost any literary format that I could make into a book with the technology I have at my disposal!  However, as a general guideline you should aim at not less than 20-25,000 words in total.  As yet I have no plans for producing chapbooks, any anthology plans will be announced separately and I don’t have a magazine to accept single stories.

Terms  

In all cases, copyright will remain with the author.  Or – to put it another way – Eibonvale press releases are permanent, but I don’t mind what else you do with the material after publication.  Any payment will either be a standard 10% of the value of the book per sale or possibly in the form of a percentage of total profit (if any).  No advances or one-off payments are possible as yet.  Authors will also receive contributor copies (to be negotiated).

How to Send to Me

Please note.  Only send me anything when submissions are labelled as OPEN, otherwise they won’t be read and might just be ignored.  I am human after all and lead a horribly busy life!  You can check this at
www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/infowriters.htm 

Don’t send me the complete manuscript to begin with!
In order to speed up the process, I prefer to receive a synopsis plus samples first of all.  I am flexible in what I like to receive, preferring that it is suitable for the book in question rather than corresponding to some arbitrary set of rules, so the following are just guidelines:

For Novels or Novellas select maybe one to three excerpts from throughout the book up to roughly 50 pages in total or whatever seems appropriate.  For Short Story collections send me perhaps two to four stories that represent a good selection of the work in question.  Accompany that with a synopsis and any other comments or info you think relevant.  I don’t encourage or discourage such things as extra info or background data – it all helps form an image of the story and the writer behind it but it is not essential.  You can also explain any philosophical, allegorical or even moral ideas or ‘messages’ that the book is trying to put across alongside the direct story.  Also let me know about any previous publications, if relevant.  That’s just to help me get a picture – if you have never been published before, that won’t affect my decision on accepting it or not!  It is the writer’s responsibility to make sure that any submitted material is ‘available’ for publication and not tied up in any rights.

Electronic submissions preferred!  In contrast to many publishers, I much prefer the electronic submission of digital files.  I will accept hard copies that are mailed to me (with a suitable SAE if you want it returned), but only if an electronic copy is available later on request.  The reason for that is simple enough.  I am a busy man and don’t really want to put all my time into typing or OCRing entire manuscripts!  Submissions should be emailed to me at:

contact@eibonvalepress.co.uk 

Alternatively you can mail me digital files on CD or floppy disk – again with an SAE if you want it returned.  

Files should be in RTF or DOC format (others by negotiation) and sent as email attachments.  Please note, by the way, that I don’t really care how you format the damn thing so long as it is readable.  I don’t care what margin size you use or if you have it with single or double line spaces.  Use whatever you feel most comfortable with or whatever is closest to how YOU see the final book looking.  In this world of electronic submissions, such rigidly defined standards are a waste of time, IMHO!

What happens next?

Much as I would like to, I doubt if I will have time to discuss all rejects in detail (though I will if I can).  Don’t be disheartened!  A rejection need not mean I think it is a bad book!  Most of the time, it simply means that I think the book doesn’t fit the press or vice versa.  If I am interested then I will contact you and ask to see the complete manuscript, or start discussing possibilities for a collection.  

Finally . . . good luck with everything and happy writing!

David Rix

Eibonvale Press
www.eibonvalepress.co.uk