As any of our followers surely have seen many, many times at this point, we ran a giveaway in January to help promote the benefits of backing us on Patreon or ko-fi monthly. The promotional event was a wonderful success – we gained 19 backers and almost $100/month in funding! On Wednesday, after the event ended, we compiled all the entries across our Tumblr, Twitter, WordPress, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Dreamwidth (we have other platforms, but those are the ones that we included in the event). We got 608 entries!
We messaged wanderingcas right away (and are sharing that she’s the winner with her permission), heard back just as quickly, and yesterday we put her copy of Add Magic to Taste in the mail!
CONGRATULATIONS to the winner, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who entered by liking, reblogging, sharing, retweeting, or otherwise boosting our post, and an enormous WELCOME to all our new backers and followers.
Feel free to drop us a note any time! We’re happy to chat, answer questions, discuss writing, talk about publishing, or just say hi!
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.)
The author MusicFren decided to post a fic they originally wrote for the Duck Prints Press Patreon to AO3, so now anyone can read it! This is a super cute story about two runaway pets becoming friends. You should check it out, and shower MusicFren in kudos.
Title: Downhill into Unfamiliar Territory
Author: MusicFren
Summary: A cat and a snake meet while on the run from their owners, and despite their differences, help each other come to terms with their upbringing.
Teaser:
“And get your dirty paws off of my tail!”
The small gray cat mews apologetically as she clambers off of the snake’s tail, slipping like a newborn taking her first steps in the world. She lands heavy in the tall grass, fur shimmering as it becomes damp with morning dew. With a shake, she sends droplets flying in all directions, a cascade of rainbows against the morning mist. Tongue flickering irritably, Sylvian shuts his eyes against the unwelcome barrage.
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.)
Did you know that every month, all backers on our Patreon and ko-fi get a free fluff story of up to 2,500 words? We just posted this month’s story yesterday…
Title: Crowded Table
Author: Nickel J. Keep
Genre: Modern, Fluff
Rating: General Audiences
Relationships: f/f, f/m, found family, friends to lovers, m/m, polyamory
Character Features: anxiety, shy, trans male
Tags: getting together, meeting the family, mutual pining, past tense, transphobia (past) (implied), pov third person limited
Teaser:
August stood outside, staring at the door in front of him. He was at the correct address, he was sure of it, but being there didn’t feel right. He could hear the laughter coming from the inside, the joyful sound filling his tired bones with warmth.
But he didn’t deserve it. The camaraderie and friendship on the other side of the door were things he was told he could never have.
Want to read more? You’ll need to be come a backer! We have levels starting at $3/month, all with free stories and other fabulous perks!
Do you love A. L. Heard’s work? Have you read Hockey Bois and can’t get enough of Brady and Nick? Well, this month’s fluff story – free to all our monthly backers on Patreon and Ko-fi – is a Hockey Bois high school AU straight from the source!
Title: Brady Jensen vs. Haunted Houses
Author: A. L. Heard
Genre: Modern
Rating: General Audiences
Relationship: M/M
Character Features: character feature: athlete, character feature: high school student, profession: hockey player
Tags: alternate universe, fanworks, first kiss, friends to lovers, halloween, past tense, pov third person limited, setting: high school, setting: haunted house, setting: sports
This work is an alternate universe take on the characters in A. L. Heard’s stand-alone novel Hockey Bois, which is currently available on Amazon and will be available on the Duck Prints Press website in the next few months.
Teaser:
“Don’t give me that look,” Gail teased. “Just because your crush texts me and not you doesn’t mean you should be jealous.”
Brady offered her a constipated smile and let her pull him through the crowd. He didn’t argue with her, and he was thankful she’d misunderstood his unease. Yes, he was a little jealous about the Nick thing. Brady’s crush on Nick was well known to their teammates even though Nick (thankfully) remained unaware. Over the years they’d played together on the ice, Brady had never worked up the courage to ask him out.
But no, that wasn’t why his hands were clammy and butterflies danced in his belly. The unfortunate truth was… Brady didn’t like haunted houses.
This story is a free bonus to all our monthly backers, no matter their backing level – and our monthly backers get a new short story every month! And, if you back now, you can also get access to all nineteen short, fluff stories we’ve posted for our backers since our Patreon and ko-fi started!
We are so excited to finally be sharing the first title from Duxxx Prints Press, our erotica imprint! You already knew we print diversity – but did you know we print (or, in this case, digitize) desire, too? Our first title is a short story by the amazing Aria D. Leren.
Title: Heated Desperation
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Erotica, Modern
Rating: Explicit
Relationship: mlm
Teaser:
Desperation and not a small amount of panic had Soren pounding on the door of Quinn’s apartment at ten-thirty in the evening. He was sweating under the softest pair of pants he owned, and his shirt felt like it was slowly strangling him. The plans that he’d had for Quinn to come over to his house the next morning was gone, replaced by the need to have the alpha wrap his arms around him and never let go.
There was no answer at the door.
Soren growled and knocked louder. Any nosey neighbor who poked their head out would be able to smell, in seconds, exactly what was wrong, but he could worry about that when he wasn’t crawling out of his skin. He raised his fist to knock again, his other hand adjusting the strap of the bag of essentials he’d brought with him, when the door finally, blessedly, opened.
“Soren?”
*
You know you gotta read it! This title will be released on our website on July 25th, 2022, and will cost 99 cents for 4,000-or-so words of steamy A/B/O mlm heat smut! Make sure you follow us so you’ll be among the first to know!
Want to make sure you don’t miss your chance to get this new title? Sign up for our erotica mailing list!
Want to read it RIGHT NOW, FOR FREE? Back our Patreon or ko-fi at the $10 or $25 level, and it (and more than a dozen other erotica stories written for our backers) are yours!
The crowdfunding campaign for our anthologies She Wears the Midnight Crown and He Bears the Cape of Stars has ended, and we’re funded!
A huge, HUGE thank you to everyone who helped spread the word, all the authors and other contributors, and of course to everyone who backed!! We couldn’t have done it without you.
Wondering what comes next? Well…
…we finish editing!
…we order merch!
…we fulfill all our orders!
…we publish the e-book versions on our website!
…and we keep working on publishing more queer books, queer anthologies, queer art, and more!!
(Missed the chance to back the campaign? Well, the books will be available on our website as e-books in – probably – November or December. And, you can always support us monthly – and get lots of awesome perks for doing so! – by backing us on Patreon or ko-fi! Backers get sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes access, exclusive stories, a say in determining themes for future anthologies, and more.)
We’re entering the home stretch on Duck Prints Press’s third crowdfunding campaign. She Wears the Midnight Crown and He Bears the Cape of Stars are anthologies of wlw and mlm stories that share a common theme: masquerades, the queerer and more unusual the better! The 18 stories in each anthology – 36 stories total if you get both books! – are set in many different times and places and genres, and feature diverse queer and genderqueer characters…and every story has a happy ending!
First you’re hearing about it? You can learn everything you could want to know by checking out our campaign page, visiting our website, and/or reading the updates we’ve posted throughout the last month!
Also – did you know? Patreon and ko-fi backers at the $10 and $25 level who also back the Seed & Spark campaign will get a campaign-exclusive bonus (on top of all the other awesome benefits our monthly backers receive, like free stories, access to our Discord and backer blog, and more!)! So, consider becoming a regular Duck Prints Press supporter; be an even more awesome person, and get even more awesome stuff!
After July 15th, 4 PM Eastern Time, you won’t be able to get these books in-print again – so back now to make sure you don’t miss out!
Our Bookmarks, one aligned with She Wears the Midnight Crown, the other with He Bears the Cape of Stars, feature the lovely artwork of Pippin Peacock.
Bookmark for She Wears the Midnight Crown.
Bookmark for He Bears the Cape of Stars.
With printing by UPrinting, who have also printed the campaign bookmarks for Add Magic to Taste and And Seek (Not) to Alter Me, our first two anthologies, we know that this merch will be gorgeous in high-gloss on quality, thick cardstock. The back of the She Wears the Midnight Crown bookmark will feature the signatures of the authors who contributed to that book; likewise, contributors to He Bears the Cape of Stars provided their signatures so we could share them on the back of that bookmark!
The bookmarks are each 2 in x 7.25 in (5 cm x 18.5 cm) and will have rounded corners, a 3/16 in hole at the top center, and gold tassels!
Enamel Pins
We’ve once again contracted Miss Aceriee to create artwork for our enamel pins, and the results are simply stunning. (In fact, Miss Aceriee produced so many lovely ideas that we had trouble picking – more on that later!). Miss Aceriee took our inspiration and ran with it, creating a design for two pins that are each lovely as stand-alone pieces, and even more amazing when paired!
Enamel pin designs aligned with She Wears the Midnight Crown (left) and He Bears the Cape of Stars (right).
For manufacturing purposes, we will be working with Alchemy for the third time – the pins they made for each of our previous campaigns have turned out fantastically. These pins will each be approximately 2 in x 1 in (5 cm x 2.5 cm), with two back-prongs to help ensure they attach securely. The metalwork is gold, with matching butterfly pin backers. The enamel work will be soft enamel with a clear epoxy coating, and one color (the dark green-blue) on each will have glitter to make it extra sparkly.
Bonus: Backer-Exclusive Reward!
We had so much trouble deciding which of Miss Aceriee’s designs to use as the campaign pins that we decided, first, to have a third/fourth pin offered as a stretch goal (if we hit $26,000 in funding, everyone who backed the campaign at level 5+ will receive one or both pins as extras!), and second, that we’d make the same design we chose for that into a die-cut sticker for some of our monthly backers. People who back Duck Prints Press monthly on Patreon or ko-fi at the $10 or $25 level, AND who back our crowdfunding campaigns, always get an exclusive extra. This time, it’ll be this design in one of these four colorways:
Want to know which of the four will become the sticker? So do we! Our backers can vote on their favorite for the next week, and their wish will be our command – and, if we reach the $26,000 stretch goal, the colors of their choice will also be made into two pins – the sun/crown mask and the star/beard mask, lovely as stand-alone, amazing as an interlocking pair!
So, if you’re a backer, go vote, and if you’re not a backer yet – no time like the present to become one!
(Also, just sayin’ – it’s also the last 24 hours to have a say in the theme of our next Queer Fanworks Inspired By… anthology on Patreon or ko-fi – that poll is open to ALL our backers; the sticker poll is only open to backers at the $10 and $25 levels, since they’re the only folks who receive the exclusive campaign extra.)
