I have been reading fantasy books for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I really liked the science fantasy publishers. I read books like The Giver and A Wrinkle in Time voraciously. I just could not get enough. It was so thrilling to read about galactic struggles between good and evil, post-apocalyptic societies living in a world of enforced conformity, and all that other stuff. It was the perfect food for a young and developing mind like mine.
As time has gone on, however, I have started to think of publishers of fantasy in a different way. I have recently completed my first fantasy novel, and started looking for a fantasy publisher of my own. It has been no easy task. Nowadays, fantasy publishers, like the rest of the publishing industry, are really market driven. A lot of them are not so much looking for a good novel as one that they think will sell. They study recent sales trends instead of classics, trying to find the next big thing.
Still, you can use that to your advantage if you know how. You see, fantasy is sort of a niche market, and the various fantasy publishers occupy their own niches within that market. One fantasy publisher might focus for the most part on Gothic fantasy, while another might go in for sword and sorcery. Still another might cater to a Steampunk audience with that quirky aesthetic. If you know where to look and who to talk to, you can save a lot of headache shopping your book around.