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Get to Know Dux!

The one, the only, the original Dux, Darcy Paige Paddlesworth III. Mascot for the Duck Prints Press general imprint. Darcy is available as a key chain! They’re also on our logo die-cut sticker.

Anywhere you go on the Duck Prints Press website, you’ll see our lovable mascot. But just seeing them doesn’t give you the low-down on this very important member of the Duck Prints Press community. Read on and learn all about them!

All Duck Prints Press ducks are called Dux. They use they/them pronouns and are non-binary or have no gender (they haven’t made which clear yet).

Dux came to be when, early in the development of the Duck Prints Press logo, we faced the important question: who had left those rainbow duck prints? Thus, Dux was born. They have been delighting us with their fabulous presence, their kindness, their mischief, and their joy in life ever since.

Whether our mascot is one Dux who likes to dress up in different ways, or many different Dux who all have a different schtick, is an open question. We don’t questions Dux’s self-presentation, and we assume Dux will tell us if and when they’re ready to do so.

The feathers of the Dux come in all colors, as do their beaks and eyes. They are a creative species who love to express themselves in many different ways, by trying out all kinds of hobbies and by dressing up.

DPP’s mascot Dux is named Darcy Paige Paddlesworth III. Their name was selected by our Patreons as part of an event we ran after reaching an early milestone. All other Dux have so far remained anonymous, though we have descriptions we use to differentiate them.

Dux dresses up for all of our anthology crowdfunding campaigns, and is often featured on extras we make for our monthly backers on Patreon and ko-fi, too! Take a minute and get to know all the Dux now!


Desire!Dux. Mascot for Duxxx Prints Press, our erotica imprint.

Desire!Dux is available as a die-cut sticker.


Barista!Dux, one of two Dux developed for the release of our anthology Add Magic to Taste. Originally released as part of an early fund-raising campaign during which people could pre-order barista!Dux stickers.

Barista!Dux is available as a die-cut sticker.

Barista!Dux and Mage!Dux share pride of place on this mug.


Mage!Dux, one of two Dux developed for the release of our anthology Add Magic to Taste. They are the Add Magic to Taste campaign mascot.

Mage!Dux is available as a die-cut magnet and as a die-cut sticker.

Barista!Dux and Mage!Dux share pride of place on this mug.


Bard!Dux, one of the two Dux developed for the release of our anthology And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Shakepeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” They are the And Seek (Not) to Alter Me campaign mascot.

Bard!Dux is available as a die-cut sticker.


Artist!Dux, one of the two Dux developed for the release of our anthology And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Shakepeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” They were ultimately used to make a monthly-backer-exclusive sticker.


Stars!Dux, one of the two Dux developed for the release of our paired anthologies He Bears the Cape of Stars and She Wears the Midnight Crown. They are the mascot for He Bears the Cape of Stars.

We’ll be listing a Stars!Dux stickers for sale on our website on March 15th, 2023.


Midnight!Dux, one of the two Dux developed for the release of our paired anthologies He Bears the Cape of Stars and She Wears the Midnight Crown. They are the mascot for She Wears the Midnight Crown.

We’ll be listing a Midnight!Dux stickers for sale on our website on March 15th, 2023.


Bowtie!Dux. They look very dapper in their bowtie. A sticker of them was made for the Add Magic to Taste campaign.

Bowtie!Dux is available as a die-cut sticker.


Pride!Dux. We haven’t used this Dux yet for anything, but sometimes a Dux has just gotta spread their wings and show some Pride.


Devil!Dux. Look, sometimes, Dux just needs to get their evil on.


Heart Eyes!Dux. This is an emoji on our Discord servers, a perfect way to show our Duxy excitement. We have a number of other Dux emojis, but if you want to see those, you’ll need to get in on one of our servers.

Heart Eyes!Dux is available as a die-cut sticker.


We love Dux, and we hope you do to! We look forward to sharing more Dux with y’all in the future!

Who we are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fanfiction authors navigate the complex process of bringing their original works from first draft to print, culminating in publishing their work under our imprint. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Love what we do? Want to make sure you don’t miss the announcement for future giveaways? Sign up for our monthly newsletter and get previews, behind-the-scenes information, coupons, and more!

Want to support the Press, read about us behind-the-scenes, learn about what’s coming down the pipeline, get exclusive teasers, and claim free stories? Back us on Patreon or ko-fi monthly!

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Reminder: Back Us on Patreon or ko-fi, Get Free Stuff!

There are only three days left to back us on Patreon or ko-fi and get a freebie – or help promote/boost our posts about the giveaway and get entries to win a print copy of Add Magic to Taste! Need a refresher on the giveaway? This is your moment!

Duck Prints Press, the Indie Press owned by @unforth, founded by fancreators to help fanartists and fanfiction writers publish their original creations, with an emphasis on works featuring LGBTQIA+ characters, needs YOU!

To help us maximize the amount of money we can pay to creators as royalties, we rely on our Patreon and ko-fi to help pay our overhead costs. In exchange for this support, we offer a bunch of cool rewards for people who choose to back us, with levels ranging from $3 to $25/month. All backer levels include access to our Discord, behind-the-scenes blog posts, voting rights on polls that decide anthology and monthly story themes, and at least one free short story per month. At higher levels, backers get exclusive merchandise, bonus stories, free selections from our book catalog, extras for supporting our crowdfunding campaigns, and more!

Become a backer of Duck Prints Press, and you get your choice of one of three two backer-exclusive extras previously only available to Patreon and ko-fi backers who also backed our crowdfunding campaigns! We have limited supplies of these extras, and we’ll send them out on a first-come, first-serve basis; once we’re out, we’re out, and we’ll never be producing more of any of these! (We’re OUT of the DPP magnets.) Or, if none of these are to your taste, you’re welcome to pick any one merch item priced $5 or less from the Merchandise section of our website. There, we’ve got bookmarks, stickers, key chains, magnets, and more! Also, all current backers will get to pick one freebie, too, as a big THANK YOU for their support thus far.

Don’t want to be a backer but want to help us spread the word? Well, have we got a giveaway for you! To encourage people to share this post, we’re offering a free copy of our first print anthology Add Magic to Taste, which features 20 sweet, fluffy, queer stories set at magical coffee shops, tea houses, and bakeries. There are only six mint, print copies of this book left, and they’re not for sale—this is the rare chance to get one for yourself!

Want help a small, fan-run independent business get more support, and maybe win something awesome for your efforts? Then enter the giveaway! You get one entry for liking this post, and one entry per reblog for up to three reblogs! We’ll also give entries for sharing our posts on other platforms (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) with the same limits (one entry per like, up to three entries for sharing/retweeting/etc.). (Note: we will NOT give entries for people making their own posts. We love when people make their own posts, but they’re too difficult for us to track for giveaway purposes).

Stuff for us, stuff for you—couldn’t be better! Don’t miss your chance: this event ends January 31st, 2023!

Want to enter?

You can get entries by liking or commenting on THIS POST, and/or you can reblog, retweet, share, or otherwise boost our posts on other platforms!

TL:DR: Duck Prints Press is a small-but-growing indie press working with fancreators. Become a backer on Patreon or ko-fi during January, 2023, and get all the backer rewards associated with the backer level you select PLUS a freebie worth up to $5. Help spread the word, get entries to win a fabulous print anthology available nowhere else!

Get involved NOW!

(For all legalese related to this promotional event and giveaway, go to this link! Make sure you check it out.)

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Answered Ask: Catering to Fanfic writers vs. Other Writers

On Book Publishers Day (Monday, January 16th), we asked our followers across all our platforms if they had any questions for us as book publishers, and we got one anonymous ask on Tumblr! This week’s blog feature is our response to that question.

What’s the difference between catering to fanfic writers and to other kinds of writers? Or is there not much of a difference? Happy Book Publishers Day BTW.

Ah, I’m so excited that you decided to send in a question for Book Publishers Day! I delayed answering for a few days so I could really think about the answer, and now here we are. 😀

Tentatively, I’d say that there’s not a huge difference between catering to fanfic writers and catering to other kinds of writers, but there are a few. I’d say the biggest differences aren’t specifically in “how we cater to authors” so much as “how we’ve envisioned and structured the whole Press differently because of our collective roots in fandom.” Here’s some of the biggest differences that strike us, starting with those that are more narrowly about catering to the different types of writers, then getting a bit more general.

Privacy/safety concerns. While of course everyone worries about their privacy and maintaining data security is critical when dealing with contractors, employees, etc., it’s something we especially emphasize when working with fanfic writers for two primary reasons. First, a lot of fanfic writers don’t want people who know them in meatspace to become aware that they write fanfic, given the stigma against it in some communities. Second, a lot of fanfic writers are queer and they aren’t necessarily out in all their circles. Thus, we put a lot of extra effort into ensuring that people who work with us can keep their “fandom self” separate from their “meatspace self,” if they want to. I’d estimate roughly half of our authors opt to keep their various “selves” completely separate, and we work to be very public about the steps we take to protect our authors and the guarantees we have in place that we won’t “out” anyone in anyway – that we’ll do everything in our power to protect them.

Publishing education. While plenty of the authors we’ve worked with have been interested in publishing for a while, and a noticeable minority have published their original work with other Presses, a lot of our authors have always seen publishing their original stories as more of a “someday” and aren’t familiar with the processes of what happens after the stories are written. So, we put a lot of effort into process-related transparency and answering questions to ensure that writers know what to expect. For example, we make blank versions of all our contracts public so that people who are considering working with us have plenty of time to read them, research standard contracts, and decide for themselves if they think our terms are favorable. We want people to know what they’re getting into and to feel comfortable before they commit, and to feel comfortable walking away if that’s better for them.

Unconventional publishing models. That said, we’re also rather outside the mold for publishers, because only a few of the folks in our upper echelons have a background in more traditional publishing and/or medium/small Press publishing. I, the owner, have flirted at the edges of the more mainstream publishing industry but while I know a lot of people in trad pub and indy pub, I haven’t worked in it myself nor have I been traditionally published. Thus, we definitely have had a learning curve ourselves, and it also a lot of our internal structure and approaches are specifically, explicitly designed around fandom models instead of around more standard Press models. For example, we wholesale adopted a zine approach to anthology production and publishing – we select creators and give them freedom to create within the parameters of the anthology theme, then help them with editing, instead of asking for completed stories that we sift through and pick our favorites. For another example, our approaches to tagging and cataloging stories and our interest in breaking out of industry-standard rigidly defined genres are also deeply rooted in our experiences as fans and fancreators in fandom spaces. Basically, in the same way that we approach writers who are fanwriters first, original writers second, we ourselves were all fandom people first, publishers second. and our methodologies grew out of our experiences as forum moderators, fandom event creators and runners, zine editors, etc.

Community spaces. Again, because we’re looking at more of a fandom-based model transplanted onto a publishing milieu, we’re very oriented on building a community and relationships. Our Discord is quite active, and we talk about our lives, about our projects, help each other out with research and betaing, etc. To be honest, I don’t know if that’s different from other Presses, but I at least strongly suspect it’s well outside what trad pub does.

Transparency. In the end, we view Duck Prints Press as a collaboration, as something we’re growing together with writers, editors, artists, graphic designers, etc., where all of us have been active in fandoms first. Toward that end, general transparency about our decision making, processes, and plans is important to us, and we work hard to make sure that people involved in the Press know what’s going on. We hold monthly meetings to which everyone involved in the Press is invited (our next one is this Tuesday!) where we talk candidly, openly, and honestly about our progress on current projects, any set backs we’ve encountered, and how we’re doing fiscally. In the same way that, if I’m involved in a zine, I’d expect the people running it to talk about the money earned, where profits are going, if there’s been an issue with production, if someone’s life going haywire has introduced delays, etc. That’s the level of openness we aim for.

Education. This is an area where we’re still expanding, but we’ve so far offered two classes to people involved in the Press on grammar and editing stuff. The idea is, a lot of people who write fanfic aren’t “trained” authors, and we often don’t know the rules, just “what sounds right.” And, that’s fine, that’s why we have editors! But if people want to learn more, we’re striving to provide more opportunities for that. Related, we’re extremely, and atypically, transparent about our selection processes for people who apply to anthologies. We are not and will never be a black box where submission stories come in and acceptance and rejection letters go out. Not only do we use a rating rubric that’s available publicly, we also share completed rubrics with authors upon request. We want people who are interested in learning and improving to see our notes and to have the chance to ask questions. We want to support people who are aiming to improve. And, flipside, we don’t automatically send those rubrics out to applicants because we wholeheartedly subscribe to the fandom-standard attitude that concrit is only helpful when it’s asked for. If someone doesn’t want more information, doesn’t want to improve (because improvement NEVER has to be one’s goal as a writer, especially for fanwriters doing fic for fun!), we don’t force that feedback on anyone! So, so many of our structures are based on fandom models, are grounded in fandom ethos.

Relaxed restrictions. All of the people who run the business are queer (I’m aroace genderfluid, myself), and most us are neurodivergent (my diagnoses are ADHD and clinical depression), and some of us are disabled (my wife, for example, is an ambulatory wheelchair user, though she’s not heavily involved in the management team…right now she’s anonymizing the submissions to Aether Beyond the Binary), and many of us are parents (I have two kids, aged almost 5 and almost 7). I’ve been active in online fandoms for more than 20 years, and the people in my fandom circles have overwhelming shared the above characteristics. Most are queer. Most are neurodivergent. Many struggle with health issues and disability. Many are parents, have multiple jobs, are caring for parents, are supporting their partners, are facing a multitude of meatspace challenges that make working in a traditional publication model difficult or impossible. In a lot of publishing, things like really struggling with deadlines, or having to navigate the potential for unexpected health flareups, or juggling multiple jobs, or working around a child’s schedule, would be dealbreakers – the deadline is the deadline, meet it or get out. That’s…so not us. We strive to create an environment with the flexibility to meet people where they are, where having life go sideways (cause let’s be real, life always goes sideways sooner or later) doesn’t disqualify someone from breaking into the industry. As long creators communicate with us about their hurdles, we are very free about giving extensions, making exceptions, tweaking schedules, etc. We don’t want anyone hurting themselves just for a story. Yes, it can make management more challenging at times, but we always look to grant the same grace that we hope to be given when our own lives get complicated. (2022 has been a huge example of this, as my health issues resulted in my needing surgery last February and it completely disrupted all our project timelines for the year – we’ve really only just caught up in the last month or so).

Setting expectations. We aim to set realistic expectations with authors who write with us. My own sense of other models is that most publishers promise success without necessarily delving into things like “but you’ll have to handle all your own marketing” or “this is how many copies you can honestly expect to sell.” Authors can often be in for a rude awakening once they’re in the door and contracted and would be hard-pressed to back out. We’re very small, and we operate on a shoe-string budget (I have been operating Duck Prints Press for just over two years and we’ve never yet earned enough for me to take a paycheck, and we’re in the red for both of our first two years, though our 2022 numbers are a significant improvement over 2021 and we have every reason to hope we’ll keep growing). We can’t afford a lot of advertising, can’t be the only source of marketing, can’t promise that people will sell lots of copies (full disclosure re: what that means, our average short story sells under 10 copies during the first week it’s released). We can’t promise anyone a livable paycheck. What we offer instead is community, support, creative freedom, understanding, and the chance to be part of a fan-run business that is slowly but surely growing, and growing amazingly. No editor will ever say “you have to change xyz so your story will sell.” No editor will ever say, “we just don’t want that story.” We want to publish what our writers want to publish, and we want to work all together to help grow all our audiences. And that means, for people involved right now while we’re this young, we can’t promise much, but we can promise one wonderful thing: that the future looks bright.

This went a bit beyond “working with fanfiction writers versus trad pub writers” and more into “ways we approach things differently than a more mainstream Press,” but I think that does tie into how the approach is different. We’re not viewing the Press as The Owner And Managers Who Are Always Above and the writers as The Content Creators And Cash Cows. All of us in the management team are also fandom people, fanwriters, fanartists, etc. It’s not two distinct groups, it’s one big group of more-or-less equals (yes, there’s still a hierarchy, there has to be some, but it’s not super top-down and there’s lots of opportunities for people to share their skills up the not-really-a-ladder) with the doors thrown wide open to welcome in more folks.

And that, I think, is the crux of the difference of how we cater to fanfic authors compared to what we might do differently if we were working with a more mainstream set of authors. While we do maintain certain editorial standards and we obviously don’t accept everyone who applies, we still try to cast a wide net, to opt for inclusion over exclusion, to try to make allowances, to make space for people at different levels, with different experiences, with different life challenges, etc. In the end, I’d love everyone who ever applies to work with us to end up as part of the Press, because if people want to work with us, we want to work with them! There’s no way to just bring in everyone at once, and some people need to hone their skills more before they’ll be ready to meet the writing standards we aim for, but it’s nothing that can’t be learned. And, if people want to learn it, we want to help them learn it.

We’re a publisher, yes, but we’re also a community of fanwriters who all dream of being published, helping each other to make that dream a reality.

This was probably a ton more answer than was really necessary, but here we are. 😀 Thanks for asking, anon, and I hope you found the answer informative!

(I’m @unforth, by the way, it occurs to me a lot of people may not realize that.)

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Book Publishers Day

A lesser known but important celebration, Book Publishers Day is one of our favorite holidays at Duck Prints Press. Join us on the exciting journey of LGBTQIA+ storytelling and pick a new adventure from our store. On this special day we’re happy to share a bit of our secrets, too! What would you like to know about publishing but were always afraid to ask?

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Back Us on Patreon or ko-fi, Get Free Stuff!

Duck Prints Press, the Indie Press owned by @unforth, founded by fancreators to help fanartists and fanfiction writers publish their original creations, with an emphasis on works featuring LGBTQIA+ characters, needs YOU!

To help us maximize the amount of money we can pay to creators as royalties, we rely on our Patreon and ko-fi to help pay our overhead costs. As things stand, we need to bring in about $750 a month to pay our baseline monthly expenses…and right now our crowdfunding plus monthly sales only bring in about half that. We have been, and will continue, operating at a deficit as long as necessary to get off the ground, but I’m sure it’s no surprise that if we had more money, we’d be able to do more—initiate more projects, support more authors, work with more artists, pay higher royalties, and more!

In exchange for this support, we offer a bunch of cool rewards for people who choose to back us, with levels ranging from $3 to $25/month. All backer levels include access to our Discord, behind-the-scenes blog posts, voting rights on polls that decide anthology and monthly story themes, and at least one free short story per month. At higher levels, backers get exclusive merchandise, bonus stories, free selections from our book catalog, extras for supporting our crowdfunding campaigns, and more!

We can reach our goals, and you can get lots of excellent stuff, by backing the Press on Patreon or ko-fi now! AND you’ll get your choice of a freebie if you back during the month of January!

Become a backer of Duck Prints Press, and you get your choice of one of three backer-exclusive extras previously only available to Patreon and ko-fi backers who also backed our crowdfunding campaigns! We have limited supplies of these extras, and we’ll send them out on a first-come, first-serve basis; once we’re out, we’re out, and we’ll never be producing more of any of these! Or, if none of these are to your taste, you’re welcome to pick any one merch item priced $5 or less from the Merchandise section of our website. There, we’ve got bookmarks, stickers, key chains, magnets, and more! Also, all current backers will get to pick one freebie, too, as a big THANK YOU for their support thus far.

Don’t want to be a backer but want to help us spread the word? Well, have we got a giveaway for you! To encourage people to share this post, we’re offering a free copy of our first print anthology Add Magic to Taste, which features 20 sweet, fluffy, queer stories set at magical coffee shops, tea houses, and bakeries. There are only six mint, print copies of this book left, and they’re not for sale—this is the rare chance to get one for yourself!

Want help a small, fan-run independent business get more support, and maybe win something awesome for your efforts? Then enter the giveaway! You get one entry for liking this post, and one entry per reblog for up to three reblogs! We’ll also give entries for sharing our posts on other platforms (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) with the same limits (one entry per like, up to three entries for sharing/retweeting/etc.). (Note: we will NOT give entries for people making their own posts. We love when people make their own posts, but they’re too difficult for us to track for giveaway purposes).

TL:DR: Duck Prints Press is a small-but-growing indie press working with fancreators. Become a backer on Patreon or ko-fi during January, 2023, and get all the backer rewards associated with the backer level you select PLUS a freebie worth up to $5. Help spread the word, get entries to win a fabulous print anthology available nowhere else!

Stuff for us, stuff for you—couldn’t be better! Don’t miss your chance: this event ends January 31st, 2023!

(And don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list so you can always hear about our latest projects, merchandise releases, crowdfunding campaigns, publications, coupons, and more!)

Thanks in advance, everyone. 😀

(For all legalese related to this promotional event and giveaway, go to this link! Make sure you check it out.)

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New Duck Prints Press Social Media Presences: Mastodon and Cohost!

DPP Header and Slogan

With how events at Twitter are unfolding, and the attention that their decline has brought to new platforms, Duck Prints Press has created two new social media accounts, on the Mastodon server The Petting Zoo and cohost! We’re not very active yet on either, but starting within the next week or two we expect to at minimum begin cross-posting our weekly blog features to both platforms. We’re looking at other platforms such as Hive (still down after a server-breach) as well; we’re well aware that cohost and Hive in particular aren’t quite ready for the influx of new users they’ve gotten, and we’re monitoring them and taking extra care with our information there.

Duck Prints Press on Mastodon: https://pettingzoo.co/@duckprintspress

Duck Prints Press on cohost!: https://cohost.org/duckprintspress

These accounts are, of course, in addition to our existing social media accounts! We cross-post posts about our publications and our weekly informational blog posts across all platforms; the main difference in content on each is what we reblog/retweet/share from outside sources. And of course, the form our posts takes depend on the platform – Instagram is image-heavy, Twitter is short posts and links, etc.

WordPress: https://duckprintspress.com/index.php/neve-blog/

Tumblr: https://duckprintspress.tumblr.com/

Pillowfort: https://www.pillowfort.social/duckprintspress

Twitter: https://twitter.com/duckprintspress

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duckprintspress/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/duckprintspress

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/71237377/

Dreamwidth: https://duckprintspress.dreamwidth.org/

Patreon (no backing necessary for many posts!): https://www.patreon.com/duckprintspress?fan_landing=true

ko-fi (no backing necessary for many posts!): https://ko-fi.com/duckprintspress

We also have accounts on Archive of Our Own, Goodreads, Kickstarter, and Redbubble, but those don’t function as social media.

Lastly, if you want to make sure you always hear the latest from Duck Prints Press, sent straight to your e-mail, make sure you sign up for one or more of our mailing lists!

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How to Navigate the Duck Prints Press Trello

Did you know we use a Trello for task management and it is completely transparent and publicly accessible?

Well, now you know!

The Duck Prints Press Trello is here.

When we first released it, we got an ask about how to use it; below is a Trello tutorial for those unfamiliar with how to use it, focused specifically on our boards and how they’re organized!

While we’re still hammering out the details on how best to organize the Trello for utility both for us as we organize things and to the public – in particular, I’ll need to tweak how it’s set up if we’re going to effectively use the built-in calendar functionality – here’s how it’s set up now.

Note: all screen caps were taken on September 17th, 2022, and do not reflect the exact current organization or the current project status of the items shown in the captures.

LISTS:

The highest level of organization on a Trello Board is the lists. We’ve currently got a whole bunch of different lists.

At a Glance: this is the “overview” lists. It includes all of our current projects, and all of our regular/general management. Those are organized on Cards – more on that next.

Task Implementation Check Lists: we were having trouble sometimes remembering everything that needed to be done for certain “big” tasks we do regularly (such as publishing a story on our website) so we’ve begun to create guide lists to help us remember every process step that needs to be done. This also helps as we grow and more tasks are delegated.

Merchandise: lists all the merchandise we’ve currently got in production/in process, and what their current status is. (it does NOT include merch produced for past campaigns/activities)

After those two, we have a whole bunch of lists that all serve the same function: they indicate what stage of editing we’ve completed for each of a number of stories we’re currently working on.

  • Developmental – Writing in Progress: first draft isn’t done
  • Developmental – Draft Completed: first draft is done, waiting for an editor
  • Concept Editing – First Pass Completed: a concept-edit run has been returned to the author and is pending their review
  • Concept Editing – Second Pass Completed: a second concept-edit run has been returned to the author and is pending their review.
  • Copy – First Edits Completed: a SPAG edit run has been returned to the author and is pending their review.
  • Copy – Second Pass Completed: a second SPAG edit run has been returned to the author and is pending their review.
  • Copy – Final Edits Completed: a final/clean-up SPAG edit run has been returned to the author and is pending their review.
  • Final Edits Approved, Contract Sent and Pending Signature: the author has approved the final edit run and has been sent their contract.
  • Story Completed, Contract Signed, Author Paid, Preliminary Formatting Done: what it says on the tin
  • Typesetting – First Pass: the typesetter has done the first run on formatting the story for print.
  • Typesetting Completed: what it says on the tin.

Not every story needs every one of these steps, and sometimes stories need more concept or SPAG runs than this, but we thought this division reflected the process stories go through most often. All task cards feature the author’s chosen pen name and the current working title of the story, if it has one.

Completed Project Lists: the next lists feature information on our completed projects, and can function as a (difficult to navigate and poorly organized but existent!) list of what’s available in our shop. It’s divided into four categories, reflecting the four places where our projects usually “end up” when they’re completed. (A fifth end point is “in an anthology,” and then that anthology, rather than the individual title, will be on this list when it’s completed).

  • Main Imprint: Available For Purchase on Our Website – stories published under the Duck Prints Press imprint that are currently listed in our webstore.
  • Erotica Imprint: Available For Purchase on Our Website – stories published under the Duxxx Prints Press imprint that are currently listed in our webstore.
  • Merchandise for Sale on Our Website – what it says on the tin. 😀
  • Monthly Backer Reward Stories – completed stories that have been posted for our Patreon and ko-fi backers.

Long-Term Ideas, Lists, Information We May Need Someday: the last of our lists is what it says on the tin. We keep track of ideas for future anthologies, potential merch, things we’ve thought of and gone “we can’t do that now but maybe someday…” etc., and we just toss it all there so that the ideas don’t get lost.

CARDS:

Every List is composed of Cards. Each Card reflects one category of “thing that needs to be done.” There are a lot of ways to actually set up lists and cards (and we may change ours in the future) but currently, we’ve chosen the following approach:

Cards for all our main projects/overarching “areas” in which we’re working. These are on the At a Glance List.

Cards for all currently in-progress Merchandise, on the Merchandise list.

Cards for all stories we have in-progress at the moment, on the appropriate Lists for their current status.

Cards for some over-arching categories of “things for not now,” on the Long-Term Ideas list.

All the Cards on At a Glance have the same basic structure. If you click on the Card, you’ll be able to see sub-tasks/checklists related to the items on that list. For example, here’s the Recurring Tasks Card:

This is one of the most complex of the Cards, as it includes all the activities we engage in daily, weekly, monthly, and annually to keep the business running smoothly. Other “management” related Cards on this list include two related to our weekly management meetings and monthly all-server meetings, and the General Task Card, which lists a whole slew of background activities that we’ve been working on and/or intend to do (divided into separate checklists for each category, cause there are just so many).

Then, below the the general Cards the cards for specific projects. Here’s the one for He Bears the Cape of Stars and She Wears the Midnight Crown.

This, and the other specific project Cards, list all the tasks we currently know of/have thought of that need to be done for the given project. The checklists give a quick idea of what the task is, and indicates the current status of that task. A few also have dates attached to them, though not most cause we don’t tend to treat deadlines as that “hard” internally – we prefer to maintain flexibility considering how many people are involved in these projects and how complex all our lives are and how the world just, ya know, is right now.

As we complete tasks, we move them into the Comments section at the bottom of the Card. Because we only recently implemented this public system (previously, we worked from a private Trello that looked a lot like this but was just a bit messier and not designed to be viewed by outsiders, like, we used a lot of shorthand, that kind of thing) it doesn’t include tasks completed before we implemented this system, but we’ve been doing our best to keep on top of it since we opened the public Trello. For example, here’s the completed tasks for our upcoming anthology that we expect to open recruitment for on October 1st:

So, I think that’s the basic?

If there’s something more specific that anyone trying to use the Trello is finding confusing, I’m happy to expand this tutorial – I tend to figure that if one person has a question and actually tells me they have a question, there are at least a half-dozen other people who had the same question and decided for whatever reason not to ask. We’re committed to transparency, and the Trello is one of the biggest facets of that, so ensuring it’s navigable for newcomers is really important to us. It’s hard to create a public-facing system that maintains a certain degree of confidentiality and still serves our needs for managing the business, and also just – we’ve got a lot going on basically all the time (and more and more as we grow), so there’s a lot that has to go on there, which means by necessity it’s complicated. I do worry that if it’s really complex, it’ll serve to create obscurity instead of transparency, but…well, we’re doing our best, and we’ll keep doing our best, and we hope that when questions/issues/concerns/delays/etc. do arise, people will continue to be as patient with us as they have been! <3


Want to know more?

  • You can see our up-to-date (and used daily!) Trello here.
  • You can learn more about the Press in general, where we started, and where we’re going, here.
  • All our completed projects are available in our webstore.
  • Anyone who wants more information about “behind the scenes,” your best bet is to back us on Patreon or ko-fi – that’s where we post all the juicy details as we work every day to bring more amazing stories to y’all!
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The Duck Prints Press Style Guide

Do you love the nuts and bolts of writing? Have you always been confused by the difference between a hyphen, an en dash, and an em dash? Do you want an easy-to-use, free resource to help you improve your technical skills related to spelling and grammar?

We are here to help!

After months of work, we’ve polished the Duck Prints Press style guide until it shone and shared it publicly on our website!

This valuable resource includes a ton of information, and we’re expanding it regularly. While it’s especially relevant to people working with us (especially our growing editor staff!), it can also be of general use to the authorly public. That said, though, always make sure that when you submit to a publisher you focus on their style guide, because no two publishers are going to resolve these issues in exactly the same way. And when we say “issues,” we mean “all those areas where the major style guides (we use the Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition) don’t offer unambiguous answers,” such as:

  • Oxford commas (we use them)
  • How to handle capitalization around certain punctuation choices, especially in dialogue (…it depends on the circumstance)
  • Which interrobang to use (?! or !?)
  • When to spell out numbers versus when to use numerals (…it’s complicated)
  • Incorporating words that use accents and/or special characters (we always use special characters unless the author suggests we not)
  • Spacing around ellipses and em dashes (…again, it’s complicated)

…and many other incredibly tiny, fiddly editor things that 9 out of 10 readers won’t notice but that that tenth reader has very strong opinions about.

Ultimately, putting a clean, professional-looking manuscript out to the reading public requires that an editorial staff make decisions on all these kinds of issues and many others. It doesn’t so much matter which direction the staff goes (there’s not a huge difference between putting regular spaces versus thin spaces versus hair spaces around em dashes); what matters is that whatever choices are made, they’re implemented consistently. To ensure that consistency, we’ve written and now use this internal, Press-specific style guide.

And now, if you want, you can use that style guide too!

Happy writing, and feel free to let us know if you’ve got questions we haven’t addressed in the guide. Fiddly editory spelling and grammar is our jam!


Want to learn more? Some related posts!


Have a question? Drop us an ask on Tumblr!

Love what we do? Become a monthly backer of our Patreon and ko-fi to get lots of behind-the-scenes content, exclusive access, bonus extras, free stories, and more!

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“And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing'” – Now Available in Our Webstore!

Did you miss our crowdfunding campaign for And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”? Was there merch you wanted that you didn’t get? Have you been eagerly awaiting it’s arrival in our webstore (haven’t we all been?)? Well YOUR TIME HAS COME!

In And Seek (Not) to Alter Me, 16 authors and 16 artists have come together to create an exquisite, full-color collection of artwork and stories inspired by William Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing. We encouraged contributors to stretch their imaginations, think outside the box, and put their own unique—and queer—twists on Benedick, Beatrice, Hero, Claudio, Don Pedro, and the whole gang! In true Shakespearean fashion, our creators utilize gender, sexuality, romanticism, and a host of costume changes to tell unique artworks and stories—some featuring original characters, some characters from the play—that show Shakespeare’s work in a whole new light.

And now, you can get your very own e-book copy from our webstore! Only $9.99 for 16 phenomenal stories and 20 gorgeous art pieces!

We’ve also listed four merchandise items from the original crowdfunding campaign that we have extras of – if you want ‘um, you’d better grab ‘um, because once these extras are sold out, we will never be making more!

Art Prints of the Front Cover

(featuring the gorgeous artwork by Gio Guimarães in all it’s colorful, queer glory!)


Art Prints of the Back Cover

(featuring even more of Gio Guimarães‘s wonderful work!)


“Taming My Wild Heart to thy Loving Hand” Bookmark

(with artwork by Alicia Matheson and the signatures of our contributors!)


Bard Dux Sticker

(created by Alessa Riel)


Don’t Miss Out! Visit Our Store Today!

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Do You Tiktok?

Well, now we do too! We’ve actually had the account for ages, and we’ve batted around a lot of ideas for how to use it without implementing any of them, but now we’ve posted our first video there. Long-term, we hope to post there regularly; at the moment, if you use Tiktok and want to give us a follow, expect intermittent posts: unboxings, asks answered, slice-of-life, book gushing, readings, and of course ducks (always ducks!), that kind of thing.

Our account is here!

And our first video? Why, here of course! It’s a video of me (Nina Waters, the Press owner!) unboxing the patches for the crowdfunding campaign for She Wears the Midnight Crown and He Bears the Cape of Stars. The merch was produced by Alchemy, featuring artwork by Reship KMN (Tumblr | Twitter).

@duckprintspress

Duck Prints Press Unboxes: Patches for “He Bears the Cape of Stars” and “She Wears the Midnight Crown.” Art by Reshipkmn, Manufactured by Alchemy.

♬ original sound – duckprintspress

Have something you’d like to see a member of the Press talk about in a video? Let us know and we’ll see what we can do to make it happen!

We’ll also be cross-posting videos on Instagram and YouTube, so even if you don’t have Tiktok, don’t worry – you’ve got options to make sure you don’t miss out!

Oh, and here’s a pic of the patches – they’re so beautiful and sturdy! I can’t wait to send them out to everyone.