In Love with Books

I have loved books all my life—not just the words, but the binding, the covers, the physicality of books. Admittedly, even as a child I was drawn to the weird books. I’d rather read Where the Wild Things Are than Blueberries for Sal. In my life there have been landmark books that have influenced me beyond the pages they contained: The Wizard of Oz, Half Magic by Edward Eager, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave, anything by Andre Norton, Robert Heinlein, and many others. I still read fairy tales.

I remember very clearly seeing Nick Bantock’s book Griffin and Sabine on the new books shelf at my tiny local library. That was the first time it really struck me how beautiful adult books can be. At about the same time, I discovered Orb, a Tor imprint. There are too many moves between my purchase of their books and now to be able to check the exact wording of the introduction I read and I don’t remember who wrote it, but I remember being impressed by the idea that a publisher could have a mission, to reintroduce classics to new readers, to share the joy of the book. That’s about the same time that Terri Windling hit my radar as an editor. She loved the same stories I did. She shared similar stories with readers like me. There actually were readers like me, she introduced me to Charles De Lint, and one of my favorite books remains her only novel for adults, The Wood Wife.

I’ve had arthritis for years. At first it was a minor inconvenience, but in recent years, it’s become difficult to hold a book. I found that I was reading less often, for a shorter amount of time in one sitting, and enjoying it less. It was difficult to face that the arthritis was taking away something that is central to who I am. I logged on to the library website one day to look something up in the online catalog and found that the library offered ebooks. Books by many of my favorite authors, as well as new authors who quickly became favorites, were available for direct download to my computer. Books I didn’t have to hold. Instant gratification and books without pain! Eureka!

I’d heard about ebooks before but had also heard that they were badly edited, had ugly cover art, and were primarily available only in the genre of erotic romance. I like erotic romance, but I didn’t want to spend money on books I couldn’t be sure were well edited or worth the cost. My library, however, offers books in a variety of genres, (and none better or worse edited than anything I’ve read in print) including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, thrillers, general fiction, non-fiction, and yes, romance, by well-known and lesser known authors. The light dawned.

I began to research the subject. I’d already heard of Ellora’s Cave, of course. It’s the ebook publisher that really brought public attention to the possibilities of ebooks, and my husband reminded me, with his love of small press books, that a publisher could have a mission, but it took the thought of losing books to make me really put it all together and begin Drollerie Press. I wanted to bring beautiful, quality books to readers, to share the joy of the book, to publish books for readers like me.

Our first books were published in July 2007, and we publish both ebooks and in print. We’ve published some beautiful stories by great authors, and we plan to publish many more. I hope you’ll share them with us.

p.s., to learn more about ebooks, read our “Why Read e?” page.