Category: Original Art

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Small Business Saturday SALE on duckprintspress.com!

A text graphic over a watercolor-esque background of light rainbow shades. The text reads: This Saturday, November 25th, celebrate Small Business Saturday. Below this text is the American Express 'Shop Small' logo, then the word at, then the Duck Prints Press Logo that reads Duck Prints Press, is edged on the left and bottom by duck prints in rainbow shades, has the Press duck mascot Dux standing on the right, and includes the Press slogan 'We Print Diversity' at the bottom. Additional text below this reads: Newsletter Subscribers will receive a Coupon for 25% off their entire purchase made on November 25th!

This Saturday, November 25th, is Small Business Saturday! Looking to shop small this holiday season? Check out Duck Prints Press, the fan-created independent small press that publishes the (usually extremely queer) original work of fanauthors and fanartists. We’ve got great gifts for the queer book lover in your life, including anthologies, short stories, merchandise, and more. And, of course, we’ve got lots of adorable merch featuring our adorable Dux mascot, too!

What have we got? Well, what are you looking for?? We have…

A graphic over a background of rainbow colors in watercolor splotches. Text at the top reads: Now available at duckprintspress.com/shop. Below this is an array if items with accompany labels: "art prints" with two examples, "Print books" with DPP anthologies "He Bears the Cape of Stars," "She Wears the Midnight Crown," and "And Seek (Not) to Alter Me," "Shirts" with three examples, two of which are t-shirts and one of which is a hoodie, "Stickers and Magnets" with a citrus slice with rainbow segments and a Dux with a mustache, devil horns, devil tail, and trident, and "Enamel Pins" with an owl, raccoon, crow, fox, moose, and wolf pin, and also a woman in a crown and a man in a cape. At the bottom of the graphic, text reads "...and MORE!"

BEST YET?

All newsletter subscribers will receive a coupon good for 25% off their ENTIRE PURCHASE made this weekend! So if you’re not a subscriber yet, there’s no time like the present!

And while you’re at it, make sure you follow us on the social media platform(s) of your choice! Also, come read with us on our Book Lover’s Discord Server. Want to support indie queer publishing all year round? Back us on Patreon and get awesome rewards!

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Progress on Fulfillment for Duck Prints Press Crowdfunding Campaigns

We’ve got three crowdfunding campaigns currently in the midst of fulfillment, and we wanted to take a moment to post about our progress on each of them!

Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers

Our most recent campaign on Kickstarter, to fund Aim For The Heart, ended on July 15th, 2023. After some print challenges revealed in the proof copy of the book, we had to make some fairly extensive tweaks to the manuscript, and getting that completely set has taken a fair amount of time. But we’re there now – the book is done and printed, and we’re just doing some final preparation on the e-book and backer data in anticipation of packing and shipping everyone’s orders this weekend, November 18th and 19th!

Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley

We were 100% on track to fulfill Many Drops Make a Stream orders within the next week or so…and then the enamel pins arrived, after 6 or so weeks in production, with an error that makes them undistributable (the poor tiger part of Droplet has no stripes on her back and hind legs!). Everything else for this campaign is ready to go, and the pin manufacturer has been very receptive to our issue and is rushing replacements for us, but we’re still at least a few weeks from having them even if they’re expedited – manufacturing enamel-ware takes time, and they have to ship from China.

That said, because we have everything else, we will be doing some distribution shortly: namely, for people who also backed Aim For The Heart, if we can save them shipping money by combining their orders, we will do so and refund the difference in shipping cost – combining the book shipping for these individuals, and then forwarding them their pins separately, will be a big savings for them.

For everyone else, we will prepare everything we can, and as soon as we have the pins we will distribute everything. If it looks like we will not have the pins before the December holidays start, we will send out everything BUT the pins, and send out pin orders alone subsequently. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we make sure that y’all get items of the quality and accuracy that you deserve!

To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh

All of the merchandise for To Drive the Hundred Miles has arrived, and it looks great. We’re almost done repackaging it and preparing it for distribution. The proof of the book arrived last week, and we’ve reviewed it and made a few necessary tweaks; we re-submitted those files to the printer yesterday, and are awaiting their confirmation so we can sign off on production of the full print run. Once it’s in the print queue, our best guess is that it’ll be roughly two weeks before it arrives at our door. At that time, we’ll be able to get everyone’s pre-orders turned around pretty quickly.

Thank you everyone for your orders with us! We’re excited to bring all three of these large projects to a close, and get amazing books into all of your hands!

And keep your eyes open, because there’s more to come – the re-release of A. L. Heard’s Hockey Bois, revised and reprinted, will open for pre-orders on December 1st, and our next Kickstarter campaign for the anthology Aether Beyond the Binary will be launching on December 26th. We also expect to run a Kickstarter campaign in February for Tris Lawrence’s Twinned trilogy, and we’ve got more in the pipeline after that! So make sure you follow us on social media, subscribe to our newsletters, back us on Patreon for sneak peeks and backer-exclusive extras, and leave us reviews on Goodreads or Storygraph!

Want one or more of these books, and/or the merchandise that goes with them, but missed out on the campaigns? Don’t despair – the books and leftover merch will become available during this coming winter! So be on the look out!

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Merchandise Release Day!!

A graphic over a background of rainbow colors in watercolor splotches. At the top, there's the Duck Prints Press logo and rainbow duck prints, and beside that a header reads "Merchandise Mass Release Day! Now available at duckprintspress.com/shop." Below this is an array if items with accompany labels: "art prints" with two examples, "Print books" with DPP anthologies "He Bears the Cape of Stars," "She Wears the Midnight Crown," and "And Seek (Not) to Alter Me," "Shirts" with three examples, two of which are t-shirts and one of which is a hoodie, "Stickers and Magnets" with a citrus slice with rainbow segments and a Dux with a mustache, devil horns, devil tail, and trident, and "Enamel Pins" with an owl, raccoon, crow, fox, moose, and wolf pin, and also a woman in a crown and a man in a cape. At the bottom of the graphic, text reads "...and MORE!"

Have you wanted Duck Prints Press logo merchandise? Have you missed one of our past campaigns and want to get some of the items? Have you been eying Patreon extras we’ve made and wanted to get your own? Have you wished you could get one of our past anthologies IN PRINT? Well, then – YOUR TIME HAS COME!

Today, Duck Prints Press is celebrating Merchandise Mass Release Day! We’ve gathered up leftovers from past campaigns, seconds and lightly damaged merch, and forged a relationship with Printify to provide print-on-demand shirts and other merchandise we can’t, for various reasons, keep in stock. The result is THIRTY-ONE new merchandise items available in the Duck Prints Press store!

Offerings include:

Print Books (Lightly Damaged Seconds):

Art Prints:

Enamel Pins:

Stickers and Magnets:

Clothing:

Kitchenwares:

Stationary:

Or, want some a grab bag of lightly damaged seconds? We’ve got that now – get your Seconds Grab Bag to get two random stickers, one random enamel pin, and one other item (such as a key chain, patch, or bookmark!)

And all of this is in ADDITION to the other great merchandise we already offer!

So come on over to our webstore and get your dux on! Literally! With clothes and merch from Duck Prints Press!

Want to get the same great stuff, just – cheaper? Every backer on Patreon gets a coupon that can be used on their purchases from duckprintspress.com! Come support Duck Prints Press monthly AND get great discounts on awesome merch. Winning!

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Meet the “To Drive the Hundred Miles” Merchandise!

To Drive the Hundred Miles, Alec J. Marsh’s queer holiday novella, is a fantastic book – and, during the pre-order campaign, we share some gorgeous merchandise that this book inspired!

You can get:

  • a spell jar recipe two-sided postcard (4 in x 6 in/10.25 cm x 15.25 cm). The front features tarot-inspired artwork by Aceriee (Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter). The back features the recipe for a prosperity spell jar—just like the one Will makes for Bea, to such good effect, during the book! (Printed by PrintKeg.)
  • a circular sticker (3 in/7.5 cm diameter) with a beautiful skyscape mimicking the shades of the trans pride flag and a mountain skyline reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest. Artwork by Jagoda Zirebiec (ArtStation | Tumblr | Twitter). (Printed by Vograce.)
  • a deer antler pendant (1.5 in/3.75 cm diameter). This oval pendant features the cover’s deer antler motif cut out of a disc of lovely walnut wood, evoking the horned god and the wildness of the forest. (Made by the Press’s own E. Conway). It comes with a 19 in (48.25 cm) brown suede lobster-clasp necklace.

This is IN ADDITION to buying the book as either an e-book or trade paperback book – in fact, you can pick and choose and of our five campaign offerings, and get exactly what you want!

So come read about the campaign, and order your merch (and books!) now – this campaign ends OCTOBER 20TH!

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“Many Drops Make a Stream” Fulfillment Progress

Since the pre-order period for Many Drops Make a Stream ended on September 30th, we’ve been hard at work preparing to fulfill everyone’s orders! To keep y’all in the loop, here’s a status update.

  1. Our final total raised is $5,102.82! We hit our second stretch-goal, so all backers who purchased packages will receive a bookmark and an Eye of Sacarus pendant!
  2. All 25% off coupons have been distributed. They’re good until September 30th 2024, so don’t hesitate to wander back in six or eight months and do some shopping!
  3. The base payment to Adrian Harley has been sent.
  4. The manuscript formatting has been paid for.
  5. The book has been formatted, the cover finished and the print order has been placed!
  6. The art print has been ordered from Papermart, and they’ve arrived! (Reveal!)
  7. The enamel pin has been ordered from Alchemy, and the proof has been approved.
  8. The die-cut sticker has been ordered from Vograce, the proof has been approved, and the stickers have shipped.
  9. The bookmark has been ordered from UPrinting, and the proof has been approved, and the bookmark has shipped. (I wouldn’t be surprised if it arrives today!)
  10. The Patreon-exclusive coasters and the wooden pendant have been ordered from E. Conway, and are in production.
  11. Funds to cover shipping have been transferred to our shipping software.

Granted, it’s early days, but so far we’re on track for December fulfillment!

Full Cover!

Art Print Unboxing!

@duckprintspress

merch unboxing/reveal! art print of the cover of MANY DROPS MAKE A STREAM by @Adrian Harley #wlwbooks #NiUnPeloMás #unboxing #artprint

♬ Musik Tiktok – Dj unodhowhow
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There’s No Time Like the Present to Back the Duck Prints Press Patreon!

There’s no time like the present to back the Duck Prints Press Patreon!

Why should you back Duck Prints Press?

  • support a queer-owned indie press, founded by fandom creators for fandom creators looking to publish their original work!
  • help a great, transparent, ethical small business that helps usually queer, often disabled, creators publish queer stories and art!
  • AND you get awesome stuff in exchange!

Wait, I’ll get stuff?

You will get so much stuff!!!

  • a free short story every month!
  • exclusive teasers and previews!
  • behind-the-scenes access via our Patreon blog and Discord!
  • voting rights to influence future anthology themes!
  • a discount in our webstore!
  • and that’s JUST THE MINIMUM LEVEL! You get all that for ONLY $3 PER MONTH. Higher levels get EVEN MORE!

Why is now a great time?

  • we will no longer be releasing new short stories to our website! So backing on Patreon will be the only way to get them!
  • as a result, we just changed how many stories our backers get!
    • $3/month backers now get one short story per month
    • $5/month backers now get two short stories per month
    • $7/month backers now a minimum of four short stories per month
    • $10/month backers now a minimum of five short stories per month
    • $25/month backers now a minimum of six short stories per month
  • when you back, you also get instant access to every single backer-reward story we’ve ever released! As of right now, that’s 30 free stories for backers at the $3/month, $5/month, and $7/month level, and 59 free stories for backers at the $10/month and $25/month level! That’s a LOT of stories!!!
  • Did you just buy Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley? People who back us on Patreon will get an exclusive epilogue when we fulfill the pre-order campaign! And, if you back us at the $10/month or $25/month level before October 15th, you can still get our Patreon-exclusive bonus reward (it’s a totally awesome engraved wooden coaster)! We’ll add the extra retroactively to your order, even though pre-orders are now closed!
  • Did you just buy To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh? Patrons at the $10/month and $25/month level who back the campaign (which runs until October 20th!) will also get a bonus extra: a snowflake ornament!
  • and I mean, isn’t it always a good time to support a queer indie press?

So come on over to our Patreon, help us grow our Press, and get lots of awesome stuff for yourself!

Who We Are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher owned and operated by @unforth. We work with fan creators to publish their original art and stories. We are particularly dedicated to publishing works featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Love what we do but aren’t up for backing right now? That’s okay! Sign up for our monthly newsletter and get previews, behind-the-scenes information, coupons, and more!

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Pre-Orders for “To Drive the Hundred Miles” by Alec J. Marsh NOW OPEN!

You can now pre-order the queer holiday novella To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh!

Serendipity, WA is filled with Christmas cheer, beautiful mountain views, and trans man Will’s feminist Wiccan family. Home for the holidays, he avoids their clumsy attempts at support by hiding in the local coffee shop and flirting with Bea, a friend from high school.

The beautiful landscapes can’t make up for the the realities of being queer in a small town, and Bea wants out. Will grabs for a prosperity spell, and finds a new way to connect to the magic he’s become estranged from. New romance and optimism get them through the holidays, ready to face their next problems.

Author Alec J. Marsh describes his novel To Drive the Hundred Miles as a Hallmark movie made queer. With a trans male protagonist and an immersive first-person point of view, this novella will draw you in and hold your attention from start to finish. Join Will as he struggles with his family’s acceptance of him, and as he struggles with his own acceptance of the potentially bright future offered to him by the cute barista Bea. Ringing in the season with lows and highs, a whole lot of coffee and pancakes, and a modest dollop of spicy f/m content, you won’t want to miss your chance to get this touching book—now as a gorgeous trade paperback for the first time ever!

Want a free preview of the story? We’ve got that! Download the first chapter as a pdf!

What can you get?

Want it all? Get a Bundle!

Learn about the book, the author, the campaign, the budget, and fulfillment timeline, and more, by visiting the campaign pre-order page NOW!

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September Created Works Round-Up: 4 New Works by Our Contributors

Duck Prints Press’s monthly “created works round-ups” are our opportunity to spotlight some of the amazing work that people working with us have done that ISN’T linked to their work with Duck Prints Press. We include fanworks, outside publications, and anything else that creators feel like sharing with y’all. Inclusion is voluntary and includes anything that they decided “hey, I want to put this on the created work’s round-up!”

Check out what they’ve shared with us this month…

Untitled Artwork by Zel Howland

art || original work || no ships || teen & up || no major warnings apply || complete

TUMBLR

spark eater, spark eater, you’ve met your match by Cedar McCafferty-Svec

fiction || idw transformers (2005) || m/m || brainstorm/perceptor || explicit || graphic depictions of violence, major character death || 16,167 || complete

summary: They couldn’t save everyone. The medical team and scientists from “Team Rodimus” failed, and their crew stayed Spark Eaters. Brainstorm, angry and bereft, decides that enough is enough, and he’s going to fix it. He’s going to do it right this time.

Brainstorm isn’t going to lose Perceptor like this.

other tags: temporary major character death, Happy Ending, graphic depictions of gore, Sticky Sexual Interfacing (Transformers), Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Slow Burn, Time Travel, Case Fic Esque, spark eaters, Blood, time loops, Exhaustion, Love You’d Go to the End of the Universe For, Brainstorm Will Not Let Perceptor Die Like This, Brainstorm Gets to be a BAMF for 1 (one) Moment in Time, Canon Typical Violence

TUMBLR – AO3

etched into skin by Shadaras

fiction || the untamed || m/m || jin guangyao/nie huaisang || explicit || creator choses not to use warnings || 2,700 || complete

summary: This is not the first time Nie Huaisang has spread Jin Guangyao out on his bed.

other tags: Trans Man Jin Guangyao, Nonbinary Trans Man Nie Huaisang, Bondage, Knifeplay, Dom/sub, Fisting, Face-Sitting

AO3

Spider Lily by Shadaras

fiction || the untamed || f/m || nie huaisang/jiang yanli || teen & up || creator choses not to use warnings || 1,000 || complete

summary: Nie Huaisang marries Jiang Yanli’s ghost. It changes nothing. (It changes everything.)

other tags: Double Drabble Sequence, Ghost Marriage, Angst, Revenge, Canon-Typical Death

AO3

Show creators some love and check out what they’ve made and shared with us!

Who We Are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher. We work with fan creators to publish their original work. We are particularly dedicated to publishing stories and art featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Love what we do? 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 what’s coming down the pipeline, get exclusive teasers, and claim free stories? Back us on Patreon monthly!

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Pre-Orders Now Open for “Many Drops Make a Stream” by Adrian Harley!

Pre-orders for Adrian Harley’s debut sapphic fantasy novel Many Drops Make a Stream are now open!

A memory-stealing cult.
The ever-watchful City of Eyes.
Making small talk.
Join Droplet as she faces all these horrors and more…

Vigilante shapeshifter Droplet has trained her entire life to take down those with more power than scruples, but she still makes mistakes. When a rescue mission goes wrong, a memory-stealing cult of blood mages escapes with kidnapped captives in tow. To save them, Droplet reluctantly teams up with the outgoing, tenacious Azera. Droplet knows better than to trust a human—she made that mistake once, and that person’s betrayal scattered her community across the known world—and she can tell Azera is hiding secrets behind her sunny smile. But if they can’t learn to work together, even Droplet’s own memories could be lost.

Many Drops Make a Stream, Adrian Harley’s debut novel, is the stand-alone first book in a series of related fantasy-mystery-heists featuring the shapeshifter Droplet and the friends and found family who work alongside her to fight the corrupt powers-that-be. Many Drops Make a Stream is rated general (adult) audiences and features shapeshifting shenanigans, a nascent f/f quarrelers-to-lovers pre-relationship, a wonderful extended cast of family and pseudo-family, necromancy and blood magic and spellwork (oh my!), and one (1) very angry goose.

For this campaign, we’re offering:

Better yet, you can get a discount by picking one of three bundles:

You can learn all about the book, the author, the campaign, and our offerings by visiting the pre-order page NOW!

Want a chance to win a trade paperback copy of Many Drops Make a Stream? Help us spread the word about this campaign by liking and signal boosting our posts on any of our platforms that including “sharing” functionality (such as Tumblr, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Facebook), and you can get up to 4 entries per platform where you share!*

Campaign backers will also get bonuses based on the number of signal boosts our posts receive! All the social media links for sharing are on the linked pre-order page, so help us tell the world about the awesome book, and who knows – you might win a copy! (But only if we fund, ’cause we can’t afford to print the book if we don’t fund, so help us make sure people who want to buy The Awesome learn that The Awesome exists!)

*sweepstakes rules and conditions
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Meet the Merch! Check Out the “Many Drops Make a Stream” Extras

It wouldn’t be a Duck Prints Press pre-order campaign if we weren’t offering some absolutely awesome extras to go with your book purchase! When we open pre-orders for Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley TOMORROW, we’ll also be offering some merchandise – and you’ll be able to choose to buy a package that includes merch, or you can mix-and-match to get exactly what you want, or you can get just the book, if merch is just really not your thing. (You can preview the campaign deets here).

Wondering who Droplet is and why there are so many animals? This is a good moment for a refresher on the Many Drops Make a Stream blurb!

A memory-stealing cult.
The ever-watchful City of Eyes.
Making small talk.
Join Droplet as she faces all these horrors and more…

Vigilante shapeshifter Droplet has trained her entire life to take down those with more power than scruples, but she still makes mistakes. When a rescue mission goes wrong, a memory-stealing cult of blood mages escapes with kidnapped captives in tow. To save them, Droplet reluctantly teams up with the outgoing, tenacious Azera. Droplet knows better than to trust a human—she made that mistake once, and that person’s betrayal scattered her community across the known world—and she can tell Azera is hiding secrets behind her sunny smile. But if they can’t learn to work together, even Droplet’s own memories could be lost.

Shapeshift main character? A chance to show off lots of fun animal forms? Heck YES that’s the direction we went when planning out the extras!

So what have we got for you?

An enamel pin of Droplet mid-transformation from a tiger to her signature goose form, 2 in x 2 in/5 cm x 5 cm, with glitter in the background color, featuring art by Aceriee (Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter). (Manufactured by Alchemy.)

Goose!Dux, the Droplet books’ custom Dux, as a die-cut sticker approximately 3 in x 3 in/7.5 cm x 7.5 cm. Designed by Alessa Riel. (Printed by Vograce.) “Goose” is Droplet’s favorite form (for good reason!) so when Dux got decked out for this book, of course we designed a Dux-goose.

An art print of the front cover (8 in x 10 in/20.25 cm x 25.5 cm), featuring Roui Cris’s (Tumblr | Twitter | Artstation) gorgeous artwork of Droplet and Azera flying over Sacarus, the City of Eyes. (Printed by PrintKeg.)

Patreon-exclusive extra: a wooden coaster (4 in./10.25 cm circular) engraved with art TO BE REVEALED. (it. might be a goose. just sayin’. there’s a Theme.) The artwork is by Aceriee, and the coasters will be manufactured by E. Conway, who also works with DPP as an editor.

How do you get the Patreon-exclusive extra? Easy! You just have to do two things: 1. Back our Patreon at the $10/month or $25/month level; and 2. Support this campaign by buying at least one of the pre-order offerings.

We’ve also got some merch-related stretch goals – depending how much money the campaign raises, we may also make a bookmark featuring the front cover artwork, an engraved wooden pendant with the Eye of Sacarus (that’s the eye motif featured on the cover!), and a wooden key chain featuring Goose!Droplet. We really hope we’ll be able to make some of this merch, too.

There is only ONE MORE DAY until this pre-order campaign launches on the Duck Prints Press website. Are you excited? Cause we’re hella excited. <3

(btw, in case you’ve been wondering when tomorrow, I expect to make the shop listings live sometime in the AM, EDT, and to make all the related updates to the Pre-Order Page and announcements on our social media shortly thereafter. Also, hi, I’m Claire Houck/unforth, the book’s editor and owner of the Press. I’m handling our marketing for this pre-order campaign! Nice to meet ya. 😀 )