Why Turtleduck Press?
In this boom-time of do-it-yourself publishing, quality often suffers. The Turtleduck Press logo assures the reader that the work in question has gone through the approval process of TDP. Our members are staking their own careers on the quality TDP as a group releases.
Why Turtleduck?
Why not?
The turtleduck is a remarkable creature. With its adaptability and strength, as well as its beauty, it is an apt mascot for this alliance. The turtleduck survives where other waterfowl cannot. Turtleduck Press will thrive in areas traditional publishing cannot go.
Why DIY publishing?
The members of Turtleduck Press love traditional publishing! The awesome book-loving people of traditional publishing have produced many of our very favorite books.
Sadly, no one is giving those awesome book-lovers money to publish the works they think are the best out there. A traditional publishing company must aim for profit. They must select books they expect to sell, and sell well.
Excellence is not exclusive to works with huge commercial appeal.
Turtleduck Press exists to offer alternatives. Poetry, novellas, oddball mixes of genre–these are works outside the boundaries of the potential blockbuster, but still worthy of attention. These are the works only TDP can bring to you.
How did TDP come about?
The catalyst for TDP was a “good” rejection from the traditional publishing world. The author’s “dream” agent kept a submission for a year, wavering, but in the end decided she did not love the work enough to fight the battle royal it would take to get the story of a gay martial artist in a space opera published. On the heels of another rejection “solely for market reasons,” it was too much for the author. Having followed J.A. Konrath and Michael Stackpole’s successes in do-it-yourself publishing, she decided to try it.
When the author announced to her friends her intention to DIY-publish the novel, it was a spark to tinder. Many of us had joked that when we won the lottery, we would found a publishing company to bring the great stories we loved but no one else knew to the world. With the growing market in ebooks and DIY-publishing, we realized we did not need a company–an alliance would serve us as well.
Ideas and turtleducks were tossed about. (No turtleducks were harmed in these discussions.) Decisions were made, officers elected, plans planned. Life, as it will, winnowed out those not ready to commit, as well as those, temporarily or not, having too many other commitments. Works were selected and a schedule plotted. Calls for aid from the not-graphically-challenged produced a logo.
Turtleduck Press was born.