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National Non-Fiction Day: 31 Titles to Get Your Queer Learn On!

A graphic (one of three) with text that reads "31 Queer Non-Fiction Books for National Non-Fiction Day." There are six book covers on the graphic: "Fine" by Rhea Ewing; "Gender Born, Gender Made" by Diane Ehrensaft; "Dear Senthuran" by Akwaeke Emezi; "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel; "Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex" by Angela Chen; "Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America" by R. Eric Thomas; and "Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians" by Austen Hartke. The background of the graphic has indecipherable words in classic fonts overlaid with a rainbow, with red at the top, then orange, yellow, green, blue, and finally purple at the bottom.
Graphic Two (of three) of recommendations for non-fiction day - this graphic is a continuation of the first image in this series, though this one doesn't repeat the label. It shows the covers of 12 books. These books are:
"Bitch: On the Female of the Species" by Lucy Cooke
"Unmasking Autism" by Devon Price
"My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness" by Kabi Nagata
"Transister: Raising Twins in a Gender-Bending World" by Kate Brookes
"Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons" by John Paul Brammer
"Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century" by Graham Robb
"London and the Culture of Homosexuality, 1885 - 1914" by Matt Cook
"Queer Your Craft" by Cassandra Snow
"Female Husbands: A Trans History" by Jen Manion
"The Ethical Slut" by Janet W. W. Hardy and Dossie Easton
"The New Queer Conscience" by Adam Eli; and
"Before We Were Trans" by Kit Heyam.

The background of the graphic has indecipherable words in classic fonts overlaid with a rainbow, with red at the top, then orange, yellow, green, blue, and finally purple at the bottom.
Graphic three (of three) of recommendations for non-fiction day - this graphic is a continuation of the first image in this series, though this one doesn't repeat the label. It shows the covers of 12 books. These books are:
"Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society" by Cordelia Fine
"Peculiar Places: A Queer Crip History of White Rural Nonconformity" by Ryan Lee Cartwright
"Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference" by Cordelia Fine
"Queer Budapest, 1873 - 1961" by Anita Kurimay
"LGBTQ-Inclusive Hospice and Palliative Care" by Kimberly D. Acquaviva
"Queering Colonial Natal: Indigeneity and the Violence of Belonging in Southern Africa" by T. J. Tallie
"Handbook of LGBT Elders" edited by Debra A. Harley and Pamela B. Teaster
"LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media" by Christopher Pullen
"Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations" by Serena Nanda
"LGBTQ Cultures: What Healthcare Professionals Need to Know about Sexual and Gender Diversity" by M. J. Eliason and P. L. Chinn
"The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment" by Cameron Awkward-Rich
"Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community" edited by Laura Erickson-Schroth

The background of the graphic has indecipherable words in classic fonts overlaid with a rainbow, with red at the top, then orange, yellow, green, blue, and finally purple at the bottom.

In the past year, we’ve posted a lot about our favorite queer fiction titles. We wanted to take Non-Fiction day to talk about the non-fiction titles that have impacted us! Whether self-help, memoirs, psychology, history, sociology, or a different non-fiction genre, these are books that have helped us learn, helped us teach, helped us improve, helped us see and be seen, and helped us be more informed. So join us as we introduce our thirty-one recommendations for National Non-Fiction Day!

You can view this list as a shelf on Goodreads!

It can be so difficult to find good non-fiction resources on queer topics. Which titles to DO you recommend?

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25 Book Recommendations for International Pronouns Day

Today is International Pronouns Day, and in honor of the occasion, we’ve put together a rec list, as is our wont. We focused on books that use neopronouns, they/them or it/its characters, and books that did interesting things with pronouns, such as avoiding them completely, changing them between scenes, etc. Basically, if something about the pronouns in the book stood out to us, we considered it for inclusion in this list! Nine Duck Prints Press contributors suggested titles for this blog post. And now…the books!

  1. I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
  2. In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu
  3. Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee
  4. Translation State by Ann Leckie
  5. The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang
  6. The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang
  7. The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
  8. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
  9. Gamechanger by L. X. Beckett
  10. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
  11. What Are Your Words?: A Book About Pronouns by Katherine Locke
  12. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
  13. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
  14. Victories Greater than Death by Charlie Jane Anders
  15. Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee
  16. The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzimons
  17. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
  18. The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon
  19. Spell Bound by F. T. Lukens
  20. Your Shadow Remains Half by Sunny Moraine
  21. Lock In by John Scalzi
  22. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
  23. They/Them by Stuart Getty
  24. The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas
  25. The Light of a Thousand Stars and You by Nicola Kapron, published in Bleed Error Issue 1.

Do you have any favorite books that use pronouns other than he or she, and/or that do interesting things with pronouns? Tell us about them!

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7 Banned Books to Read this Banned Book Week

With book bans sweeping the United States, the Duck Prints Press rec list contributors wanted to take a moment to shout out our favorite books that get banned most frequently. Being us, they are, unsurprisingly, mostly queer.

Learn more about Banned Books Week.


Melissa by Alex Gino

When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she’s not a boy. She knows she’s a girl. George thinks she’ll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte’s Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can’t even try out for the part . . . because she’s a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte—but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all. 


A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, written by Jill Twiss and illustrated by E. G. Keller

Meet Marlon Bundo, a lonely bunny who lives with his Grampa, Mike Pence – the Vice President of the United States. But on this Very Special Day, Marlon’s life is about to change forever…

With its message of tolerance and advocacy, this charming children’s book explores issues of same sex marriage and democracy. Sweet, funny, and beautifully illustrated, this book is dedicated to every bunny who has ever felt different.


I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is the story of a sixteen-year-old who retreats from reality into the bondage of a lushly imagined but threatening kingdom, and her slow and painful journey back to sanity.

Chronicles the three-year battle of a mentally ill, but perceptive, teenage girl against a world of her own creation, emphasizing her relationship with the doctor who gave her the ammunition of self-understanding with which to help herself.


The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.


And Tango Makes Three, written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, illustrated by Henry Cole

At the penguin house at the Central Park Zoo, two penguins named Roy and Silo were a little bit different from the others. But their desire for a family was the same. And with the help of a kindly zookeeper, Roy and Silo get the chance to welcome a baby penguin of their very own.


Forever… by Judy Blume

Katherine and Michael meet at a New Year’s Eve party. They’re attracted to each other, they grow to love each other. And once they’ve decided their love is forever, they make love.

It’s the beginning of an intense and exclusive relationship, with a future all planned. Until Katherine’s parents insist that she and Michael put their love to the test with a summer apart…


It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, written by Robie H. Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley

When young people have questions about sex, real answers can be hard to find. Providing accurate, unbiased answers to nearly every imaginable question, from conception and puberty to birth control and AIDS, It’s Perfectly Normal offers young people the information they need—now more than ever—to make responsible decisions and to stay healthy.


What are YOU reading this Banned Book Week?

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Celebrate National Comic Book Day with Our Favorite Queer Comics!

I asked the Duck Prints Press contributors to name their favorite comics, manga, manhua, graphic novels, and the like, with queer rep…and it turns out, as a group, we really, REALLY love visual stories. So here, to join us in celebrating National Comic Book Day, have 42, yes, over forty, of our very queer favorites!

  1. Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed
  2. My Master is a Naga by darkchibishadow
  3. Nimona by ND Stevenson
  4. Always Human by Ari North
  5. On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
  6. The Tea Dragon Society by K. O’Neill
  7. Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O’Malley
  8. Fake by Sanami Matoh
  9. Only the Ring Finger Knows by Satoru Kannagi; art by Hotaru Odagiri
  10. Heaven Official’s Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu; art by Starember
  11. Global University Entrance Examination by Mu Su Li; art by E Zi
  12. Antidote by Wu Zhe; art by Cha Cha
  13. Fall in Mistaken Love by Hao Le Shen Wen Hua; art by Ba Keng
  14. A Moonlit Spring River by Bai Chuan Studio; art by Zhao Puling
  15. Wandering Son by Takako Shimura
  16. Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout by Yu Tsurusaki; art by Shin Ikezawa
  17. Moriarty the Patriot by Ryosuke Takeuchi; art by Hikaru Miyoshi
  18. Love Me for Who I Am by Kata Konayama
  19. I Want to Be a Wall by Shirono Honami
  20. Lumberjanes by Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Gus Allen, and ND Stevenson
  21. Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu
  22. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
  23. Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
  24. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
  25. My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Kabi Nagata
  26. Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnic; art by Taki Soma, Valentine De Landro, and Robert Wilson IV
  27. Fine: A Comic about Gender by Rhea Ewing
  28. Fence by C. S. Pacat; art by Johanna the Mad
  29. Patience and Esther: An Edwardian Romance by Sarah Winifred Searle
  30. My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame
  31. Given by Natsuki Kizu
  32. 10 Dance by Inoue Satoh
  33. Our Dreams at Dusk by Yuhki Kamatani
  34. Boys Run the Riot by Keito Gaku
  35. Bloom Into You by Nakatani Nio
  36. The Crimson Spell by Ayano Yamane
  37. Black Wade: The Wild Side of Love by Franze; art by Andärle
  38. The Wicked and the Divine by Kieron Gillen; art by Jamie McKelvie
  39. Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen; art by Jamie McKelvie
  40. Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins by Matthew Mercer, Matthew Colville, and Jody Houser; art by Olivia Samson
  41. The Adventure Zone by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, and Travis McElroy; art by Carey Pietsch
  42. The Old Guard by Greg Rucka; art by Leandro Fernández

We LOVE Graphic Stories! Do you? How about queer ones? Tell us your favorites, we’re always looking for recs!

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Celebrate Romance Month, and Romance All Year, with 25 Queer Books!

August has been romance month, and we’ve used the time to gather a list of our 25 favorite romantic queer stories! These may not be books you’d literally find shelved in the romance section, but they’re tales, in whatever genre, that feature strong romantic plots or subplots, and that people in the Press felt were appropriate for this list. The stories were suggested by Adrian Harley, Alessa Riel, boneturtle, D. V. Morse, ilgaksu, Nina Waters (unforth), ramblingandpie, Shadaras, Tris Lawrence (tryslora), and an anonymous contributor. Now that August is coming to a close, we wanted to share the list with you, and keep the romance going as the seasons turn and the days pass.

Read on…

25 Queer Books for Romance Month

  1. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
  2. The Magpie Lord by K. J. Charles
  3. Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
  4. After Our Divorce, I Still Wore Your Jacket by Bu Wen San Jiu
  5. You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
  6. The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
  7. More Me with You by Alex Bertie
  8. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
  9. Silent Reading by priest
  10. Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
  11. The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
  12. The Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone
  13. Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks
  14. The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
  15. The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard
  16. Mr. Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life by Cyan Wings
  17. Black or White by Sachimo
  18. Like Real People Do by E. L. Massey
  19. Golden Stage by Cang Wu Bin Bai
  20. Heaven Official’s Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
  21. Those Years in Quest of Honor Mine by Man Man He Qi Duo
  22. Your Distance by Gong Zi You
  23. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
  24. Global University Entrance Examination by Mu Su Li
  25. A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

What are YOUR favorite queer stories with romantic plots or subplots? Tell us in the comments! We’d love to hear your recs!

Who We Are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. We help fancreators publish their original (mostly queer) work! Want to always hear the latest? Sign up for our monthly newsletter!

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Celebrate the End of May by Meeting Us!!

The US is celebrating Memorial Day this weekend, and all around the northern hemisphere, we’re enjoying the warming weather and the end of a lovely May!

And what better way to enjoy the end of the month than getting your book on?

For only the second time ever, people involved with Duck Prints Press – the independent press founded by fandom folks to publish the original work of fancreators, with an emphasis on works featuring LGBTQIA+ characters – will be attending cons and book events to (officially and unofficially) share more information about the Press!

Interested in learning more by meeting folks involved with the Press? Well, if you’re going to either of these events this weekend, you can!

The Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye, Wales, UK

Rachael L. Young, Press staff editor, will be attending The Hay Festival today, tomorrow, and Sunday! We have no official presence at the Festival, but you’ll know Rachael by her awesome Press swag, including several of our books, our pins, our bookmarks, and this amazing Dux tote bag she got custom printed! If you see her, stop by and say hi – and don’t forget to grab one of our business cards before you leave!

Photo credit: Rachael L. Young; used with permission.

Balticon, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Author Tris Lawrence is attending Balticon tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday, where she’ll be promoting her own work and her work with the Press, including participating in multiple panels and doing a reading from her novel Commit to the Kick. She’s also got several of our anthologies for you to take a look at, a pile of business cards, the last unsold print copies of the first print run of Commit to the Kick (we’ve got a reprint in the works, though…) and the debut of our first-ever entirely free Duck Prints Press zine, assembled by author and editor Alec J. Marsh!

Photo credit: Tris Lawrence; used with permissions.

Want to meet Tris? Here’s her panel schedule:

  • Sunday 11:30am – Spear Carriers and Background Characters
  • Sunday 2:30pm – Works I Wasn’t Ready to Write
  • Sunday 4:00pm – How to succeed as an ND (NeuroDiverse) creative
  • Sunday 5:30pm – Reading (with Elektra Hammond)
  • Monday 11:30am – Small press or self-publish?

If you’re going to either of these events, we really hope to meet you there!

Not able to attend either of these events? You’ll have other chances! We’re still fleshing out our 2023 convention schedule, but we know for sure we’ll have people – and tables! – at these events:

NordCon, Hamburg, Germany – June 2nd – 4th: Alessa Riel and possibly other German Press folks will be attending NordCon! We’ll have a table there, along with cards, stickers, and some other fun freebies.

FlameCon, New York City, New York, USA – August 12th – 13th: we might be attending FlameCon! We are on the waitlist for a small table, and if we’re able to get a table, we’ll be there with bells on (possibly literally). If not, we’ll skip this year, but we’re definitely going to try to make it next year!

FandomFest, Schenectady, New York, USA – August 26th – 27th: I (Nina Waters/unforth), Tris Lawrence, Catherine E. Green, Shea Sullivan, Willa Blythe, Nova Mason, and possibly other Press authors and contributors will be attending this convention, local to where the Press is based! We’ll have a vending table with merch and books for sale, and we’ll also be hosting a panel about transitioning from writing fanfiction to original fiction. We’ll post more about that, including scheduling, once the con organizers formally announce the schedule.

Albacon, Albany, New York, USA – September 8th – 10th: Tris Lawrence and I will be at Albacon in Albany, and we’ll be vending too! We don’t yet know about panels and readings, but we’re definitely looking to get involved. When the event is closer, we’ll absolutely be sharing more information.

We’re looking to expand our con attendance in the future, so be on the look out! And if you know a local con you think would suit us, do let us know!

What about y’all – attending any fun cons or book-related events this summer?

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Ten of Our Favorite Poems

April was National Poetry Month, and to celebrate we asked authors involved with Duck Prints Press to talk about their favorite (ideally queer) poems! For the poems in the public domain, we then recorded them and shared them on Instagram and/or Tiktok!

Join us, and get your poem on, with these ten lovely pieces!

To a Stranger by Walt Whitman (read by Nina Waters)

@duckprintspress

It’s National Poetry Month and we at Duck Prints Press are celebrating! Here’s Claire with one of her favorite poems, To a Stranger by Walt Whitman #booktok #queer #poetry #waltwhitman #duckprintspress

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

(Instagram Link)

At a Dinner Party by Amy Levy (read by Maggie Page)

@duckprintspress

Celebrate National Poetry Month with At a Dinner Party by Amy Levy, read by Maggie Page! #booktok #poetry #queer #amylevy #duckprintspress

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

(Instagram Link)

Halfway Down by A. A. Milne (read by Tris Lawrence)

@duckprintspress

Today for National Poetry Month, we have Tris Lawrence reading Halfway Down by AA Milne! #booktok #poetry #queer #aamilne #duckprintspress

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

(Instagram Link)

Because I Liked You Better by A. E. Housman (read by Maggie Page)

Bored: At A London Music by Horatio Brown (read by Maggie Page)

@duckprintspress

Are you feeling bored? Liven things up with some our favorite queer poets! This poem is Bored: at a London Music by Horatio Brown, read by Maggie Page #booktok #queer #poetry #horatiobrown #duckprintspress

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

(Instagram Link)

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (read by Tris Lawrence)

@duckprintspress

Today for National Poetry Month we have The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, read by Tris Lawrence #booktok #poetry #robertfrost #duckprintspress

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

(Instagram Link)

Endymion by Oscar Wilde (read by Nina Waters)

@duckprintspress

Claire here again to share another favorite poem. This time, Endymion by Oscar Wilde! #booktok #poetry #queer #duckprintspress

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

(Instagram Link)

The Chariot by Emily Dickinson (read by Tris Lawrence)

Love Stronger than Death by Agnes Mary Frances Robinson (read by Maggie Page)

Apologia by Oscar Wilde (read by Maggie Page)

Honorable Mention: We couldn’t include “Stop All the Clocks” by W. H. Auden or “I Know a Man” by Robert Creeley because they’re not in the public domain, but they absolutely would have been included if we could have.

What are YOUR favorite queer historical poems and/or poets? Tell us in the replies!

(if you send something our way that’s in the public domain, maybe we’ll record it!)

Who We Are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fan creators publishing their original works. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Want to always hear the latest? Sign up for our monthly newsletter! Want to support the Press, read about us behind-the-scenes, learn what’s coming down the pipeline, get exclusive teasers, and claim free stories? Back us on Patreon monthly!

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Celebrate National Haiku Day with Duck Prints Press!

To celebrate National Haiku Day (today, April 17, 2023!) we invited Press contributors to write haiku! Ultimately, three people wrote 10 poems. Enjoy…

Forget-me-nots bloom,
a happy riot of blue
sweeping through the green.

by theirprofoundbond

Noise unrelenting,
then nighttime blankets the house
and, at last, quiet.

by Nina Waters

Lacelike white blossoms
are bursting from the plum tree:
fragrant fireworks.

by theirprofoundbond

Rain falls on my skin,
Lingers on my lips – your kiss…
Regret tastes of spring.

by Tris Lawrence

Working together,
a pair of sleek black jackdaws
build a brand new nest.

by theirprofoundbond

I fell one spring morn
I drowned and breathed you in so
I could live anew.

by Tris Lawrence

Little slime on my ranch,
please eat more cubberies
and make many plorts.

by Nina Waters

The robin sings like
a lovely jewel brought to life,
flitting through the trees.

by theirprofoundbond

Finally after
I read seven hundred pages
these morons have kissed.

by Nina Waters

Some simple magic:
A frost-sparkled spider’s web
glitters at sunrise.

by theirprofoundbond

Happy National Haiku Day, Everyone. We’d love to read your haiku, too – drop one in the comments, if you’re so inclined!

Who We Are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fan creators publishing their original works. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Want to always hear the latest? Sign up for our monthly newsletter! Want to support the Press, read about us behind-the-scenes, learn what’s coming down the pipeline, get exclusive teasers, and claim free stories? Back us on Patreon monthly!

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Celebrate Small Press Month with Duck Prints Press

March was National Small Press Month, and Duck Prints Press celebrated by collecting 12 questions from press contributors, recording the answers, and posting them on Tiktok and Instagram! Curious about the Q&A? This post includes a link to all the videos, and transcripts of each one for those who aren’t inclined to watch a mess of recordings. Read on, and learn the answers to…

Introduction

Transcription: Howdy everyone, I’m Claire. I go by Nina Waters and unforth, and I’m the owner of Duck Prints Press, and I am very very very very much not accustomed to being a talking head in a Tiktok video, so I hope that this will be okay and that everything is awesome. So we are here at Duck Prints Press celebrating Small Press Month, and for that we had a bunch of our folks suggest questions that they might like me to answer and so over the next couple weeks (I expect) we’ll be answering those. So now you know what the basic idea is, and I hope you enjoy the answers.

What inspired you to start your own press?

@duckprintspress

Unforth is back answering the first question we got: What inspired you to start your own press? #smallpress #smallpressmonth #publishing #booktok #duckprintspress

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

Transcription: Hey folks, it’s unforth again from Duck Prints Press and here answering some questions about the press for Small Press Month. The first question that we got was “what inspired you to start your own press?” There were definitely a lot of factors that went into it, but I would say that the sort of most immediate big one is that when I started writing fanfiction I found that I was surrounded by all these really really amazingly skilled writers and many of them dreamed of being involved in publishing and didn’t really know where to start, how to get involved, who to talk to, blah blah blah, all that stuff, and I had just enough connections in publishing to think I had some idea of what I was doing and some qualifications for filling that space. And then it took 7 years to actually do it, so yeah it was a pretty big job. But here we are!

What distinguishes Duck Prints Press from other small presses?

@duckprintspress

Claire is back answering our second question: What distinguishes Duck Prints Press from other small presses? #booktok #smallpress #smallpressmonth #publishing #queer #duckprintspress

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

Transcription: Hello again, here’s unforth/Claire/Nina, depends on what you want to call me I guess. Unforth is online, Claire is my actual name, Nina is my pen name. Once again here to talk about Duck Prints Press as part of our feature for Small Press Month, and our second question is “what distinguishes Duck Prints Press from other small presses?” Answering this well would require knowing a lot more about other small presses than I actually do, but I would say a lot of it’s different because of – well, for several reasons. We are much less top-down, in that we have a much more collaborative process for basically everything we do. We’re also much less of a black box,  which is to say that it’s not like “send in submission, get answer back, that’s all you ever really know.” We try to be really really transparent and open about our process, what we’re doing, our timelines, our reasons for picking some people and not others, all of that jazz. We also are different in that we focus very strongly on LGBTQIA+ and queer stories and characters. I try not to say writers and creators and authors also because I’m not here to out anybody, but many of us are queer. I’m queer, hi! Yeah, that’s just a few of the ways, there’s way more, but I’m trying not to turn this into video essays. Have a good one, guys.

What is the best thing and what is the hardest thing about running a small press?

@duckprintspress

Claire is back, talking about the best and hardest things about running a #smallpress #booktok #smallpressmonth #publishing #duckprintspress

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

Transcription: Hi! Unforth here again for Small Press Week – Month – with Duck Prints Press, and we are answering questions we got from our contributors about the Press, and I am the owner/founder/manager/almost everything. “What is the best thing and what is the hardest thing about running a small press?” The best thing is the people. That one is really easy. I have met so many amazing creators who I would never have gotten to know otherwise, and everybody is just brilliant, talented, skilled, wonderful, y’all are amazing. I do this for you, and I do it for all of us, and I want to see us all succeed and be awesome and show everybody that a press modeled like this can work. You guys make it worth it every single day. The hardest thing is all of the not-fun parts. You know, everybody’s going to enjoy different parts of running a business. I find fiscal stuff to be challenging and a drag and it takes forever. I spent 3 hours doing our taxes last week. Don’t even get me started on collecting sales tax. It would bore you to tears, and it bores me to tears and I have to do it anyway. And marketing. Marketing takes so much time and so much work for so little reward that’s visible immediately. Like, the reward’s coming. It goes – little by little we get there, but it’s – man, it feels like you take baby steps for months to get, like, 5 feet closer to where you want to be. So I would say, the parts I find hardest are the actually “being a business” parts.

A word of advice to people wanting to start their own press.

@duckprintspress

Claire with a message for anyone with hopes of starting their own press #booktok #smallpress #smallpressmonth #publishing #duckprintspress

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

Transcription: Hi hi, unforth here again from Duck Prints Press, filming some questions – sorry, filming some answers to questions we got from people involved in the press about how Duck Prints Press came to be as part of our features for Small Press Month. And our next question is, oh – it’s, well. “A word of advice to people wanting to start their own press.” One word: don’t. No, I’m kidding. It’s way more work than I ever thought it would be, but perhaps more importantly, you’ve got to be ready to be a jack of all trades. You’ve got to be ready to think that you can learn anything you need to learn, because you’re gonna have to. I know more about tax law than I ever would have imagined myself capable of learning because there’s never enough money to hire all the professionals you need who are experts and there’s never enough resources to recruit the people who have that information so you need to figure it out yourself, or at least that’s what my situation has been. Maybe if you have a lot more starting capital than I do you’ll be in a better position in that regard. Just, don’t be afraid of it, but be ready to learn all kinds of things you thought you’d never learn. And also if you think you’re gonna have time for your own writing, haha good luck with that. I hope you have a better time of it than I’ve had.

What is the best way for people to support small presses? 

@duckprintspress

What is the best way for people to support small presses like Duck Prints Press? One word! #booktok #smallpressmonth #smallpress #publishing #duckprintspress

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Transcription: Hi! It’s unforth/Claire/Nina Waters here again. I’m the owner and founder of Duck Prints Press, a small press that focuses on working with fanfiction authors to publish their original work, and we are answering questions we got from our contributors about things about the press as part of Small Press Week. And the next question is – “what is the best way for people to support small presses like Duck Prints Press?” Money. The answer is money. I can’t imagine this is a surprise. I mean – this is best way, mind you, I’m not saying only way. But I mean – there is never enough sales. It would be, you know, back our Patreon, support us on ko-fi, buy our books, review our books on Storygraph, Goodreads, our website, any place else you can think of. Your personal blogs. I don’t know – anywhere. Instagram. Tiktok, hi! But I know money is in short supply for basically everybody. If you’re looking at this and going “well, duh, money, but how can I do that?” That’s fine. Signal boost us. Talking about us. I mean, even just literally, just hitting a reblog/retweet/share button really, really, really helps. Because even if you don’t have money, when the posts spread through social media if they find – if they spread through 100 people and one of those people has money, then we make a sale. And that helps us, because in the end, this can only be a passion project for us, and we need to make money if we’re really going to succeed and show people that we can do this. And I think and know and believe that we can. And so help us out!

Why do small presses matter?

@duckprintspress

Back again answering questions for #smallpressmonth ! This time Claire is explaining why small presses matter #booktok #smallpress #publishing #duckprintspress

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Transcription: Hi, it’s unforth/Claire again, here for another Small Press Month update from Duck Prints Press, and I just realized – I decided to do all of these on a day I’m wearing a ducky shirt. I didn’t plan that or anything, just worked out. I only own one ducky shirt – it’s not even like there’s a lot of them. And our next questions is, “In your opinion, why do small presses matter?” Small presses matter because traditional publication – trad pub – is really obsessed with marketing and success and corporation stuff and making huge profits, and they don’t have time for small voices and taking risks and margin – you know – marginalized people and publishing stories stories that they don’t think will succeed. And they’re wrong. I think those stories absolutely can succeed, but also, you know, there needs to be somebody out there taking those chances and that’s what small presses do. And a lot of small press don’t succeed, but even when we fail, stories have still been published, they’ve still been out there, the stories have still gotten told. So even when we fail fiscally, we’ve still succeeded in the core goal, which is to tell these stories to as wide an audience as possible. And that’s why small presses matter.

What are the common misconceptions about small presses, either internal or external?

@duckprintspress

Today Claire’s talking about a big misconception in the small press industry #booktok #smallpress #smallpressmonth #publishing #duckprintspress

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Transcription: Hey hey, unforth here again with another of Duck Prints Press’s Q and A session answers to questions from our contributors that we’re doing for Small Press Month. And the next one is the first one that I’m sort of like “I don’t have any idea what I’m gonna say.” “What are common misconceptions about small presses, either internal or external?” I can answer internal I guess. I think people have a – well, maybe external too – I think people have a much inflated idea of our earnings and sales. They’re – they’re very low. Hi, I’m the owner. I’ve been running this for over 2 years and I have never taken a paycheck. One of these days I need to get paid. That would be nice. But I think there’s this idea that “if you build it they will come,” which is to say that if you write the book and put it out there, then people are going to magically appear to buy it. And that’s really, really not the case. It is so much work to get books into people’s hands or onto their devices as the case may be. In terms of other misconceptions from an external standpoint, I have no idea. You know, everybody comes to a job from a direction when they start a business. There’s gonna be things that they knew ahead of time and things that they didn’t. I came to this with a lot of experience in writing and editing and things like running web pages and organizing fandom events and things like that. I have no press experience. I haven’t worked for other presses. I am not traditionally published. I know some people in the industry, that’s about the closest that I get. And so what their point of view might be, I could not begin to tell you. But you know, we manage.

What are your biggest non-monetary victories?

@duckprintspress

Claire here to talk about some of our biggest non monetary victories! #booktok #smallpress #smallpressmonth #publishing #duckprintspress

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Transcription: Unforth from Duck Prints Press here again answering questions we got from our contributors about Small Press Month and what running a small press is like. So our next question is, “what are your biggest non-monetary victories?” I guess it sort of depends what you consider a victory. I really appreciate the buy-in we’ve gotten from fandoms that know about us. Every time we get a lot of reblogs and a lot of boosts, it feels good because these are our people. We are fans. That’s the whole point is that we’re fans doing this in the hopes that we can get other fans involved as readers and writers and artists and graphic designers and website people and like every single person is a fan. The only person involved who isn’t a fan is my – is the lawyer I hire. And for all I know he is a fan, I haven’t asked. It’s really none of my business. It’s also – it always feels good when somebody big notices us, so, you know, the owner of another small press backed our first Kickstarter. I don’t care about the money – it’s cool that this person noticed, that’s what I was excited about. Cecilia Tan reblogged – sorry, retweeted us. A few other, you know, people who you’re like “hey, I know that name! I know who they are!” saw that we existed, and that feels good. I also feel like it’s essential. So yeah, I would say that most of our biggest non-monetary ones have been, like, “senpai noticed me” moments, haha. But you know, we’re getting there. I feel like I keep ending them with things like that so let me trying tying this off a little bit more intelligently. I think that in order to succeed ultimately, we need that kind of attention on us, and so every time it happens, it feels like a small victory because I figure – I think I read somewhere, and this might be total nonsense, that you need to, like, see a word at least 20 times before you actually know it. Like, before you can remember it, spell it, use it correctly in context, blah blah blah. And so I tend to perhaps inappropriately use that as my metric for, like, what it takes to succeed. Which is to say that, any given person is going to need to see Duck Prints Press and know we exist at least 20 times before that actually means something to them and they maybe think of us when they go, “Hey what am I going to read next? What book should I buy?” So, you know, that those – when those big people see us, that’s a lot of people’s one time finding out that we exist, so that means a lot. And somehow this has ended up the longest video. Funny how that works out.

What are the core ideas behind Duck Prints Press?

@duckprintspress

What is Duck Prints Press’s mission? Claire here to talk about the core idea behind DPP #booktok #smallpress #smallpressmonth #publishing #queer #duckprintspress

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Transcription: Hey hey! Unforth here yet again with another of our Q&A questions from Small Press Month. We asked people on our Discord if they had questions about running a small press that would work well for videos during Small Press Month and these were the results. And I’m sorry I keep swiveling my chair, I’m trying to find an angle where the snow falling outside doesn’t reflect horribly off of my glasses. That’s why this keeps happening. Anyway, the next question is: “What are the core ideas behind Duck Prints Press?” The core idea behind Duck Prints Press is to work with people in fandom communities – fan authors, fan artists, etc. – to help them to bring their original work from concept to fruition. You know – we love it when those people publish with us, but we do actually offer consulting, so if those people don’t want to publish with us, they can just have us edit and then publish it someplace else, and that would be fine too. The core of it is helping people create, encouraging people to create, and helping all – helping individuals succeed by helping all of us succeed. Because many of us have individual followings for our fan works, and I think that if we – I really believe, and it’s one of the core tenants of the press – that if we pool all of that together, we can help all of us to get to where we want to be in terms of – as writers, as artists, as creators, you know, as published people. So, yeah, that’s the core idea. That comes with a heavy queer/LGBTQIA+ flavor. Nobody has to be queer, no story has to be queer, but the general gist is all very, very not straight or cis, or you know any combination thereof. We’re not that picky. We’re not outing anybody “own voices” style here. Helping fan creators to get more attention for their original work and lifting all – lifting each other up to do it. That’s our core idea.

What would you do differently if you had to start over?

@duckprintspress

What would you do differently if you had to start over? Claire talks about the possible ways Duck Prints Press could’ve been changed #booktok #smallpress #smallpressmonth #publishing #duckprintspress

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Transcription: Unforth from Duck Prints Press here again answering questions for Small Press Week – Small Press Month. I keep making that mistake. Small Press Month about Duck Prints Press, the fan-oriented small press that works to help fan creators publish their original works. And our next question is: “What would you do differently if you had to start all over?” That is a really good question. Because if I’m honest, I don’t think we screwed anything up all that bad. And the things that got most messed up were kind of outside of our control to some extent. Like a lot of our year-2 plans just got delayed and put on hiatus because I ended up needing back surgery. I would do that differently. I would not try to run a business that was only 7 or 8 months old while suffering from increasingly severe spinal stenosis. That sucked. Don’t do that. In terms of things that I could control… I don’t know if it would have gone better because it’s really impossible to say, but doing a model where we had a lot more starting capital would have been very different and potentially could have gone a lot better. I think of Big Bang Press, which tried to do something very similar to us. They launched with a Kickstarter that raised $55,000, and what happened after that is best left to various fan wank webpages. But when I think about, sort of, what I could have done differently if we had started with $55,000, that would have been really different and I think potentially really helpful. We could have gotten a lot more input from professional than we’ve been able to really afford so far – like, by that I mean a CPA, a lawyer. Like, obviously we’ve spoken to those people, but I have to always try to keep it brief and do as much myself as possible because there’s just not enough money to go around. But if I’d had – if we’d gone a direction where instead of , sort of, shoestringing it from the beginning and trying to build from small to big, if we’d instead gone a “let’s collect investors and make this work from the – you know – build everything at once with a big starting investment” – I wonder how sustainable that would have been once the initial investment ran out? But it certainly would have made a lot of things different early on, and a lot of those things could have been easier. So, yeah, I know the reasons I didn’t do it that way, so I can’t actually say for sure I would do it differently or do it that way if I had to start over. But I do think that it’s a very different approach that could have had a very different outcome and might be interesting if we had a multiverse that we could test hypotheses in. 

Where do you see Duck Prints Press in 5 years?

@duckprintspress

Where will Duck Prints Press be in five years? Find out Claire’s plan so far! #booktok #smallpress #smallpressmonth #publishing #duckprintspress

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Transcription: Unforth here! I also go by Claire, which is my real name, and Nina, which is my pen name – Nina Waters. And I am the owner of Duck Prints Press, and I am here answering questions from our Discord…Discord members, that’s a good word…Discord members about the press as part of a celebration for Small Press Month. And our next question is, “Where do you see Duck Prints Press in 5 years?” And I’ll own, I actually usually don’t project out quite that far. By the time I go to 5 years, it feels a little too pipe-dreamy and I tend to look at more like one to two years as more like my goal. Like, I’m in planning for 2024 right now in March of 2023. But I would say, 5 years, I’d love to see us breaking even consistently and making enough of a profit. I’d love to see our Patreon bringing in about a thousand dollars a month, which would be a bit – a little over double what we’ve got now, we’re about $400. And when I say Patreon, and I mean Patreon and ko-fi combined, I always short-hand it. I’d love to us having a really steady stream of novels coming out, like, maybe 10 novels a year, as well as 4 anthologies and all the short stories, novellas, and novelettes. I would definitely like to see our books on some bookshelves. I think that that’s achievable and probably – I mean, honestly, I think all of this is achievable, or most of this is achievable in a shorter time frame than five years. Like, I think I can probably have books on bookshelves sometime in 2024 – bookstore bookshelves, I mean. And I also – I think I’d love to see a pretty solid cadre of artists and authors who are working with us consistently. I’d love to be doing several major art projects a year, so like – tarot decks, art books, card books – I feel like there’s a lot of other really obviously stuff and my brain is just totally blank right now. But you get the idea. So not just author projects, but also projects that are sort of the artist equivalent of a novel as it were. And…yeah. I’d just really like to see us keep growing and keep doing what we’re doing. I think we’re on a good track.

How do small presses in general (and Duck Prints Press specifically) differ from tradpub?

@duckprintspress

How do small presses and Duck Prints Press differ from traditional publication presses? It turns out there lots of ways we’re different! #booktok #smallpress #smallpressmonth #publishing #duckprintspress

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Transcription: Unforth here again from Duck Prints Press, answering questions about the press for Small Press Month. I’m going to try filming this one with my right hand holding the camera, which for some reason seems much harder. And this is our last question for small press – Small Press Month. How is one 3-word phrase something bumbling in so many of these videos? The world will never know. “How do small presses in general, or Duck Prints Press in particular, differ from traditional public – tradpub – traditional publication presses?” I mean, certainly size. I mean, those places that have entire departments to do things that I do all of myself or do all of, do most of with the support or 2 or 3 other people. I mean, we’re almost up to having an editing department. We’ve got 12 or 13 people now helping with editing. But, I mean, we still only have on lead editor, like for things like anthologies, it’s still – I’m still the last say. Nobody else has yet been able to step up and be a lead editor, though I’m looking forward to that as something we might do maybe next year. Things like, I mean, selection process, transparency, I mean obviously we’re not a public company, we’re not traded. We don’t have investors. We don’t have stockholders. Things like that. So, yeah, I mean, it’s honestly it’s so different that it’s hard to say how different all of it is. I would say this is not about presses in general, I think we’re pretty atypical in how we handle these things even among presses – small presses, I should say. I’m not trying to exceptionalize us, like, I’m sure there are other places doing things similar to what we’re doing. But I certainly don’t know what they are, so I can’t like shout them out like “hey that place does what we’re doing!” Yeah, it’s sort of different on every level. In ways, like, we don’t work through agents at all. We don’t take unsolicited manuscripts ever. Our recruitment strategies are totally different. Our marketing strategies are totally different. You know, we’re – we really came at this as fans, first, and we looked at kind of what – what makes a fan thing succeed, whether that this is a new fanwork, or a zine, or a pay-for-production campaign, whatever it is. What are the things we’ve seen and been involved in that have worked that have done that. We tried to emulate that because we’re fans and we expect our audience to be fans, so we decided to take an approach using methods that are tried-and-true in fandom, and applying them to our original work. And, yeah, from bottom to top, that is just totally different than what trad pub does.

Outro

@duckprintspress

One last message from Claire as we wrap up Small Press Month. We hope you all enjoyed these as much as we did! Do you have any additional questions? Drop them here! #booktok #smallpress #smallpressmonth #publishing #duckprintspress

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Transcription: Hey hey, so one last time here with unforth. That’s me. My real name is Claire, my pen name is Nina Waters. I am the owner and founder of Duck Prints Press, which is a small press that works with fan authors and fan artists and fan creators to publish and share our original work. We’ve been celebrating Small Press Month all through March, answering a whole mess of questions that we got from our Discord members. We hope that you’ve found these interviews interesting. I’ve honestly never done anything like this before. I have no idea if I’m doing a good job. But I hope you’ve enjoyed them. They’ve been interesting questions to think about and to answer, and I look forward to sort of opening up dialogues about any of these topics. If you’ve seen anything, heard anything, read anything in any of our posts on this topic that got you thinking, we would love to hear more about that. So, probably you know – I expect I’m gonna use this last video in a master post that links to all the others, check them out! We answered a bunch of questions about why we exists, what we do, who we work with, how we’re different, and we’d love you to get more involved. So don’t be a stranger, okay? And yeah, that’s again, I’m Claire/unforth, this has been all about Duck Prints Press, duckprintspress.com, in case that wasn’t really obvious, and um. Yeah. I hope you have a great day. And in conclusion, you guys – you guys want to see the snow? It’s been snowing the whole time I did this. It’s really pretty outside, take a look. Hopefully you’re not just seeing, like, tons of bug wire right now cause I can’t really see how good a view you’re getting, but yeah it’s really snowy outside of my office right now. Hopefully that wasn’t just, like, 10 seconds of just like glaring white light. If it was, I’m really sorry. Have a good one, everyone. Bye!


Thanks for joining us for Small Press Month, y’all, and if you’ve got any questions we didn’t answer, we encourage you to check out our FAQ, comment on this post, or drop us an ask on Tumblr!