Perhaps it’s easier to say what Truth Serum Press is not looking for …
Please don’t send us fantasy, sci-fi and horror, or what many call “speculative fiction”. (Actually, we don’t really know what “speculative fiction” is anyway.)
We also loathe zombie stories, ghosts and anything to do with the supernatural, as well as what many like to call “magical realism”. (Yeah, and horror too.)
War stories (unless it’s about the home front) and romance novels are not going to do it for us either.
Crime isn’t big with us either – there’s a lot of bad grungy noir out there – and chick lit will probably make us gag.
Queer stories … yes, we are interested in those, and we love stories about obsession and hysteria … but making us laugh is the biggie, if you can do that, then you are halfway there.
Zombies don’t make us laugh though.
Stylistically, we are not looking for stories that are disembodied from the narrator or distanced from the reader, and trying to be cool or hip will make us stop in our reading tracks but not for a good reason. And stories written entirely in reported speech, where there is no quoted dialogue? No, we don’t like that either.
But we do like sexy stories, and fun stories, and witty stories, and stories set in interesting places but not the moon or outer space.
If you have a query about whether we might like to read your work, please email us at truthserumpress@live.com.au and it’s not a bad idea to look at the Submissions page either.
Truth Serum Press 