Testimonial - Ghost Orchid Press

Jelena Dunato - Author of Dark Woods, Deep water & Ghost Apparent

Hi! I’m Jelena Dunato, a speculative fiction writer and art historian from Croatia. I write short stories, essays (on being an ESL writer and on Slavic folklore, usually), novellas and novels.

I’ve published a novel, Dark Woods, Deep Water, and a novella, Ghost Apparent, with Ghost Orchid Press. Dark Woods, Deep Water audiobook was produced by Spotify.

You can find me on jelenadunato.com or on Twitter as @jelenawrites.


What are your books, Dark Woods, Deep Water & Ghost Apparent about?

Both books are dark fantasies mixed with horror, inspired by Slavic folklore and the history of the Eastern Adriatic.

Dark Woods, Deep Water is a dark, gothic horror about bad decisions and doomed choices. Three people get trapped in a castle hidden deep in the woods, cursed by the Goddess of Death. To escape, one of them must die.

Ghost Apparent is a novella about betrayal and justice, about a stubborn girl who loses everything and wins it back. It’s a love poem to the sun-kissed walled towns of the Adriatic coast and the hot temperament and pride of the people who live there.

Why did you decide to publish your books with Ghost Orchid Press? How was your querying experience with them?

You can find my whole publishing journey on my blog, but in short - I queried Dark Woods, Deep Water, got an agent, lost an agent, got fed up with querying, decided to try small publishers and sent my manuscript to Ghost Orchid Press. They offered and I accepted and we’ve been working together ever since.

How has your publishing experience with Ghost Orchid Press been (so far)?

Full disclosure: I’d met the Editor-in-Chief, Antonia, at an online writing workshop before she established Ghost Orchid Press so I wasn’t a complete stranger. We’d worked on a few projects together, including the wonderful anthology Beyond the Veil: Supernatural Tales of Queer Love. But when she started looking for stories for the first Ghost Orchid Press anthologies, I had no idea if she planned to publish novels one day, nor did I try to give her my MS. I only sent it when Ghost Orchid Press asked for unpublished full-length manuscripts.

I think we work together very well. I’m happy with the editing process and I love how we discuss the cover artists together and choose the best ideas for the covers. I’m very particular about those things, and I appreciate the freedom very much. You can judge the results yourself - the beautiful covers for Dark Woods, Deep Water and Ghost Apparent.

Would you recommend Ghost Orchid Press to other writers?

I would definitely recommend them. They’re kind and fair, they respond fast and they care about their authors.

For you, what are some of the pros & cons of publishing with a small press/indie publisher?

For me, the pros are easy communication, friendliness and sense of community, freedom to choose covers and other details about the book, speed. Some cons are limited reach, gatekeeping from the big bookshops, publishing magazines and reviewers, limited marketing funds.