ABOUT US

How It All Started

The story behind Dreamspinner starts in summer 2006. Elizabeth North officiated her brother-in-law’s wedding to the man of his dreams. Later that weekend, she happened upon her brother-in-law reading a Harlequin romance while lounging next to the pool. Obviously, there was something wrong with that picture. When Elizabeth asked, his reply was simple: “They don’t write romances for people like me.” He’d been through the struggles and dark times, and he’d emerged on the other side to live happily ever after. He wanted to read those stories.

Elizabeth’s first thought was that he couldn’t be right—there had to be gay romance out there somewhere. But her Internet searches didn’t turn up very much, only a handful of publishers and very little of the work was remotely romantic. Soon after, while visiting with a group of close friends, she made the offhand comment that someone should start a publishing company that specialized in gay romantic fiction, focusing on treating the authors well and producing quality books that felt good to hold. A group of eight—the founders—stayed up most of the night brainstorming what an ideal company would look like. Those ideas birthed Dreamspinner Press. The name came from the idea and then goal of making authors’ dreams come true.

Elizabeth, supported by that original group of friends who donated their time, funds, skills, and/or writing to help launch the press, officially founded Dreamspinner in December 2006. The company released its first book, an anthology of novellas called Size Matters: Short Stories Long Enough to Satisfy, in May 2007.

Our Team

Seven of the eight company founders are still involved in the day-to-day management and operation of the press. The founders consider themselves family, and they built that concept of support into the press from the ground up.

  • Petra Abbam, Preproduction Coordinator
  • Sue Adams, Senior Editor and Proofreading Coordinator
  • Lyric apted, Review Coordinator
  • Rose Archer, Senior Editor and Blurbs Coordinator
  • Jade Baiser, French Media Coordinator
  • Julianne Bentley, Editorial Coordinator
  • Andi Byassee, Senior Editor
  • Jane Canby, Senior Editor
  • Desi Chapman, Senior Editor
  • Jaime Clifford, Editorial Assistant
  • Poppy Dennison, Marketing Specialist
  • Gin Eastwick, Executive Editor
  • Liz Fitzgerald, Senior Editor
  • Saura Garcia, Spanish Media Coordinator
  • Petra Götting, German Media Coordinator
  • Naomi Grant, Social Media Assistant
  • Janet Hinton, Art Department Administrative Assistant
  • Sophie James, Submissions assistant
  • Dawn Johnson, Senior Editor, Harmony Ink Press
  • Tricia Kristufek, Senior Editor
  • Iona Lake, senior editor
  • Tammy May, Operations Director
  • Grace McCullough, Executive Editor
  • Mara McKennen, Art Director
  • Elizabeth North, Executive Director
  • Kate Obbink, Production Assistant
  • Erika Orrick, Senior Editor
  • Emanuela P. Italian Media Coordinator
  • Hayley Petersen, Social Media Assistant
  • Anne Regan, Executive Editor Harmony Ink Press
  • Paul Richmond, Assistant Art Director
  • Shannon Shell, Administrative Assistant, Advent/daily Dose Administrator, Series Coordinator
  • Ariel Tachna, Social Media and Translations Coordinator
  • Lynn West, Editor in Chief
  • Polly West, Editorial Assistant and Submissions Administrator
  • Camiele White, Designer and Production Assistant
  • Andrea Zimmerman, Production Assistant

Our Approach

We believe in growing in small sustainable steps and attribute our success to careful planning and a commitment to quality. Our business plan is not to be everything for everybody, but to consistently produce quality gay romance diverse enough to be entertaining. We do our best to provide every customer and every author the best experience possible. The press’s approach to submissions selection is to balance growth and demand with choosing the quality stories we think a varied audience will appreciate. This philosophy has guided our decision in creating imprints, launching a translations division, and offering an audiobook format.

Dreamspinner Press is a full-service publisher. We provide cover art, full editing, and marketing for every title we contract. Authors do not pay for our services. Once we accept a manuscript, it is put through a 16- to 20-week editing process that will involve more than four editors. We provide specialized content editing for historicals and other genres. All cover art is unique to the book and designed by an artist based on the author’s input. All novels are contracted and released simultaneously in print as well as in eBook. Our eBooks are created in four formats: mobi (Kindle), epub (Nook, iBooks, Kobo), pdf, and html (the format used by almost all adaptive devices for the blind or people with disabilities). Titles are released simultaneously across the world.

How we Market and Sell

We sell all of our titles directly through our online stores, all major retailers and digital distributors worldwide. Our distribution includes All online retailers (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Audible, OmniLit, Sony, Diesel Books), more than fifty independent bookstores that we supply directly, and distribution to all physical bookstores through Baker & Taylor in North America, Gardners Books in the UK, Ingram in Europe, and Bulldog Books in Australia. In addition to all the formats available on our website, the books are sold through.

We employ full-time personnel who market and promote new releases and Dreamspinner Press in general, and support authors in their promotions for their publication. We have a review coordinator who handles the submission and processing of reviews to more than 100 review sites and publicizes positive reviews through our website, Facebook, Twitter, our blog, and our newsletter. We have a social media coordinator who handles interaction, interviews, and virtual book release days on Facebook, Twitter, our blog and Goodreads.

Our Art Department produces unique and new ads each month for our standing advertisements in Library Journal, School Library Journal, 26 websites, and various other season-based advertising. We also promote in program books at over 50 conventions worldwide each year. As a company, we attend BookExpo America (as the only LGBTQ+ press that has attended BEA in the past three years), the Frankfurt Buchmesse (the largest book fair in the world), the American Library Association annual and mid-year meetings, the Romantic Times RT Booklovers Convention, and the GayRomLit convention. We promote and offer all our titles at these events, and we also support our authors in these venues with radio and TV interviews and book signings.

Awards

Dreamspinner titles and authors have been recognized in a variety of venues, both within and outside the LGBT community. Award winners include: 

The Companion by Lloyd A. Meeker, 2015 Lambda Literary Award finalist in Gay Romance.

Pukawiss the Outcast by Jay Jordan Hawke, 2015 Lambda Literary Award finalist in LGBT Children’s/Young Adult.

This Is Not a Love Story by Suki Fleet, 2015 Lambda Literary Award finalist in LGBT Children’s/Young Adult.

Into This River I Drown by TJ Klune, 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance.

The General and the Elephant Clock of Al-Jazari by Sarah Black, 2014 Lambda Literary Award finalist in Gay Mystery.

Play me, I’m Yours by Sarah Madison (Harmony Ink Press), 2014 Lambda Literary Award finalist in Gay Romance.

Xylophone by K.Z. Snow, 2014 EPIC eBook Award winner for Best Contemporary Fiction.

When One Door Opens, by J.D. Ruskin, 2014 EPIC eBook Awards winner for Best Contemporary Romance.

Whistle Pass by KevaD, 2013 EPIC eBook Awards winner for Best Suspense/Thriller.

Caregiver by Rick R. Reed, 2013 EPIC eBooks Awards winner for Best Contemporary Romance.

GreenWode by J Tullos Hennig: 2013 Rainbow Award winner for Best LGBT Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and Sci-fi/Futuristic, 2013 Rainbow Award winner for Best LGBT Debut novel, 2013 Rainbow Award winner for Best LGBT novel.

Dex in Blue by Amy Lane and Raining Men by Rick R. Reed, tied for 2013 Rainbow Awards for Best Gay Contemporary General Fiction.

Racing the Sun by Amy Lane, 2013 Rainbow Awards winner for Best Gay Contemporary Romance.

Brute by Kim Fielding, 2013 Rainbow Award for Best Gay Fantasy.

Under the Rushes by Amy Lane, 2013 Rainbow Award winner for Best Gay Sci-Fi/Futuristic.

The Nothingness of Ben by Brad Boney, 2013 Lambda Literary finalist for Gay Romance.

Infected: Freefall by Andrea Speed, 2012 Rainbow Award winner for Best Gay Paranormal/Horror.

Sidecarby Amy Lane, 2012 Rainbow Award winner for Best Gay Contemporary Romance.

Community and Industry Involvement

In addition to publishing, Dreamspinner Press supports the LGBT community through sponsorship of events such as the Rainbow Book Fair in New York and a number of local Pride festivals. Dreamspinner has contributed a portion of profits from its titles to organizations such as the Family Equity Council; COLAGE; It Gets Better Project; Service Members Legal Defense Network; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of New York City; Lambda Legal; Mass Equality; and the Trevor Project.

We are a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association and Association of American Publishers Inc.