Submissions

No. We only publish creator-owned books. Creators own their Intellectual Property before, during, and after working with us.

No. Grimmcore Studios does not pay page rates, advances, or production costs for creator-owned books. We are a publishing and distribution company. Think of us as the people who package, market, and send your product out to people. What we can do is get you in touch with our network of artists, colorists, letterers, graphic designers, and editors to help you make the book at rates and timelines that work best for you. We’re also very flexible with production timelines, one 24-page issue will normally take from 6 months to a year to produce. We will work at your pace to make sure you’re able to finish the book without breaking the bank.

We work in the standard model for indie comics publishing that is used by publishers like Image Comics. Signed creators get paid based on the number of units sold of their books and merch. Grimmcore Studios takes a small percentage of every sale as a distributor. For example, if you sell 10 copies of your book through Grimmcore Studios, you keep most of the net revenue after production costs and taxes, and we keep a small cut of that to keep the business going. We believe in creator rights and are focused on making this as financially beneficial for our creators as possible.

No. Due to the high volume of submissions and the fact that we have a small team to review them, we won’t be able to provide feedback for every project we get. If you do not hear back from us within 30 days of sending your pitch deck, you can assume that it has been rejected.

99% of the time we reject pitches because:

• It doesn’t match the genre, aesthetic, or quality level that we are looking for in our titles.
• It’s way too similar to another project we are already publishing.
• The creative team for the book has a proven track record of being rude, unreliable, or difficult to work with.
• The project is very obviously using GenAI.

So, based on that criteria: If your project has a good level of quality in its writing and art, it’s not almost exactly like something that we’re already publishing, you’re not a jerk constantly spewing hate online or screwing over the people you work with, and your project is made by humans without the assistance of generative AI, 99% of the time we’ll accept your pitch!

Yes! As long as you own the copyright and distribution rights to your book, we will consider it for publishing. In fact, your book being a self-published project may give you an advantage during the submissions process.

Two main reasons: A) We’re not jerks. And B) That’s basically impossible to do. US copyright law protects your copyright over your creation pretty much immediately as soon as you finish creating it. Besides, do you honestly think anyone could get away with stealing your ideas with all the electronic records that courts have access to nowadays? Grimmcore Studios only publishes creator-owned comics, so rest assured, we have no desire to steal your idea. We’re just here to help you share it with others.

Yes! We love manga, please pitch your series to us! If it is a one-shot or a self-contained tankobon volume you’ll have a much higher chance of getting it published by us.

Yes! Comics are universal. If you have published your comics in a different country than the United States, or in a language other than English, you can still pitch it to us as long as you are the sole owner of the copyright and distribution rights. In that case, we simply ask that you translate your pitch deck to English so that we can read it, and if possible, that you translate the lettering of your book to English as well.

Hell no. We have a zero-tolerance policy on Generative AI. AI is for lazy, unimaginative losers. If we see AI in your pitch, we will immediately reject it and if we DO accept your book for publishing and find out afterwards that you used AI to produce it we will drop you faster than a bad habit.

No, BUT. Sex and nudity are okay to have in your pitch and project. Sexuality is a perfectly normal part of the human experience and we can showcase it in art. We exclusively publish comics for adults and besides, horror is sexy as hell. But we won’t publish straight-up hentai or erotica and we’re not doing alternative variant NSFW covers where the female characters are naked. There are other publishers out there who would do a great job of publishing your project if that’s what you want to do, but ours isn’t the place for that.

Maybe. We are a horror, dark fantasy, and sci-fi publisher, so superheroes are not really our thing and don’t truly fit in with our general vibe. Having said that, we will definitely consider a superhero comic IF it fits our criteria and has a more horror oriented vibe than a superhero vibe. Think 60% horror, 40% superhero, such as projects like Spawn or The Crow.

If it is a completed series, then yes. Our rule of keeping to only 1-3 issues for limited series is for pitches of new series, but if you have already completed a 6-issue run on your own (complete with art, colors, lettering, etc.), we will take it as a completed graphic novel and consider it for publishing, as long as it is a finished story.

No. Because of the nature of indie comics, the very idea of wanting to have a big universe of characters that has multiple series and goes on for hundreds of issues is extremely unrealistic. Way too many people try to do that just to crash and burn without even finishing their first story arc. Besides, the rhythm of indie comics is usually that one 24-page issue will take a full year to produce. We don’t want to wait 10 years to put out the first 10 issues of a series just for it to not even be over with the first story arc yet. If you want to pitch a new project, pitch either a one-shot, a limited series of 1-3 issues, or a full self-conclusive graphic novel. Tell one small story the right way first and then see if you can pull off a whole multiversal epic that goes on for hundreds of issues.