Dragon Mythicana: Kickstarting a Fantastical Collection of Dragon Tales

An Interview with Kevin A Davis

By Angelique Fawns

Inkd Pub is creating a gorgeous anthology full of fire-breathing, magical dragons. Eighteen authors have stories flying in these pages, including my own creation, “The Emotional Support Dragon.” The Kickstarter, which is running now till December 14.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inkd/dragon-mythicana

Kevin A Davis, a publisher at Inkd Pub, shared more details about this fantasy offering.

AF:  What was your inspiration for this project?

KD: A. Balsamo mentioned an interest in the topic and quickly grabbed my attention. I believe House of Dragons had just finished a season and I grew up Dragonriders from the Pern stories. Her title intrigued me and I ran the idea across a couple writers and publishers to see how a dragon anthology might work in the market.

AF: How did you choose your authors?

KD: The submissions are anonymous since often people I know are responding to the open call. Our slush readers score the stories on a simple rubric. The highest scores are fed to the editor to select from. The guidelines are important; especially in regard to no simultaneous submissions or previously published stories. We’ve gone through the effort of selection only to find the story pulled because it is being published elsewhere, or has been published.
Larger pools such as Hidden Villains require much more of my involvement in shuffling the stories between readers and often I’ll do a three-page glimpse to see which ones to prioritize for readers.

AF: I love the cover art. Can you tell me more about its conception? 

KD: I approached Getcovers with two concepts. Mother and baby dragon, or modern iconic. They went with the present design and only needed a couple tweeks to get it perfect.

AF: Tell us about your rewards (there are so many) and which are the most popular?

KD: Overall the paperback 5×8 version just eclipses the digital ebook. The limited-edition hardcover with a laminated jacket is close behind by a couple sales. We get the most positive responses on the hardcover option.
We offer full libraries of our work, but it has risen to the point of nearly a dozen books. Swag (we love stickers and bookmarks) still hasn’t been a large seller.

AF: Can you tell us about your personal writing journey?

KD: I’ve published seventeen fantasy novels, starting in December of 2021. I should do a count of published shorts (outside of Inkd Pub anthos), but there are probably about twenty in a wide variety of genres. I’ve got five waiting on my editor, one is a collab fantasy romance with my wife, and am working on a collab comedic adventure with Tim Lewis.

AF: Do you have a day job and how does it influence your publishing passion?

KD: I have a couple of businesses near their end which I manage, but mostly I write, attend cons, and publish.

AF: Any advice for authors wishing to sell to one of your anthologies?

KD: Write well, of course. Read short stories. Read what the editor selects. All of the anthologies eventually end up on library systems so you can read for free. I write targeted material for Strangely Funny and each of my own editors (yes, my stories go through the same slush process. I’ve only been rejected for the explicit romance)

AF: What’s next up for Inkd Pub?

KD: We’re talking about doing Beach Reads and a Science Fiction theme. We hope to sponsor Multiverse con in Atlanta again. Our annual lineup is Hidden Villains, Behind the Shadows, Noncorporeal, Detectives, Sleuths, & Nosy Neighbors, Yay! all queer – and Dragon Mythicana if the Kickstarter goes well.