Reviews are essential for showing prospective readers that we’re publishing awesome books that they want to buy and read. We’re looking to recruit an active group of people who post reviews of our work, and to do that we need your help! For the first time, we’re offering Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of one of our projects: Aether Beyond the Binary, our most recent anthology, featuring 17 stories of characters outside the gender binary exploring modern-esque aetherpunk worlds.

How it works: You see this post. You think, oh, I love reading! I love leaving reviews! I want to join the Duck Prints Press Reviewer Program! Then, you go and read the rules for our Reviewer Program. And, if everything there sounds like something you can do, you fill out the form, and – we’ll be in touch! Even better: this program isn’t only for Aether Beyond the Binary, and isn’t only for “advance” titles. Our reviewers are encouraged to claim titles that are currently released, too, to help build up a robust collection of reviews of Duck Prints Press titles!

Requirements:

You must be over 18 years old.
You must be prepared to post reviews on Goodreads and/or Storygraph.
You must also post the review on the appropriate listing on the Duck Prints Press webstore (for advance titles, you’ll have to wait ’til we list them there).
Upon acceptance to the program, you must join the Duck Prints Press Book Lover’s Server.
Reviews must be at least 100 words long must and engage with the actual content of the work being reviewed.
Reviews must be left within 6 months of claiming a title, or you will be removed from the program.

What isn’t Required:

That the reviews be positive. Reviews are for readers. We require that reviews be honest to your own experience of the work, not that they be glowing.
That you post the reviews to social media. Doing so is definitely a bonus, but you don’t have to.
That you associate yourself publicly with the review-leaving (beyond using a valid Goodreads and/or Storygraph account). As in, you don’t have to say, “I, (your name here), reviewed this book” or link your book website accounts with your existing social media presence or anything like that, nor do we request any demographic information beyond confirmation of your age.
That you purchase anything. Absolutely no purchase necessary!

What You Get:

A e-book copy (ePub and/or PDF) of the work you’re reviewing. We do not provide physical ARCs.
After you post your first review, you’ll get a coupon for 10% off a purchase from the Duck Prints Press webstore!
For every ten reviews you post, you can claim a freebie sticker from among our sticker offerings, if you want. (You’ll have to provide a snail mail address to get this, of course.)
A community of fun book-lovers to hang out with! (You can get that even without joining the ARC program, though – our Book Lover’s Discord is open to everyone.)

We’re accepting applicants for claiming Aether Beyond the Binary ARCs through April 10th, 2024. On the 11th, we’ll randomly select 25 of applicants to receive ARC copies of Aether Beyond the Binary. Everyone else will still be entirely welcome in the program and invited to start with a different, back-catalog book or story to review. We’ll make another pool of Aether Beyond the Binary ARCs available in May.

So… those are the basics. Interested? Go read the full rules, then apply to be a Duck Prints Press ARC reader TODAY!

#signal boost #duck prints press #ARC #advance readers copy

hermit-writes reblogged

jhoomwrites

Anonymous asked:

Yo. I'm not sure if this is the place for this, but here we are. I recently read your book (actually pre-ordered it, but just got to it), and I'd like to tell you it was amazing! It hit a particular spot that I'm very fond of, with the boys and the hockey and the everything else. I read it in a day and a half; your narrative flow was so smooth that I couldn't escape even if I wanted to. Your characters felt authentic, and acted believable the whole time. I'm definitely going to pick up your next few! Also, I know that there are places to leave reviews that help authors, so where can I leave one for you?

jhoomwrites answered:

GIF by eriiiiiik

thank you anon??? this completely made my day, and i really appreciate you taking the time not only to read my words but let me know that you enjoyed them <33

re: reviews - honestly anywhere. amazon, goodreads, storygraph, a post on tumblr, twitter, instagram, bluesky, a DM to a buddy who might later pick up the book and read it... anywhere a kind word is said about an author's work is appreciated

duckprintspress

psst... review links...

Reviews help authors and small presses out so so so much, so if you (anon) or anyone are up for taking a few minutes to leave a review for Hockey Bois or any of our other titles, just - a huge THANK YOU.

#signal boost #duck prints press #hockey bois

hermit-writes reblogged

duckprintspress

Now Available: Hockey Bois by A. L. Heard

Our successful crowdfunding campaign for Hockey Bois by A. L. Heard has been fulfilled, backers have their awesome rewards, and that means now, even if you missed the December pre-order window, now you can get your copy of this fun contemporary hockey slow-burn mlm novel!

Nick Porter has always loved hockey. Ever since he can remember, it’s been his favorite thing in the world. It’s too bad he never learned to play, he’d tell himself, but it was too late to do it now. Adults don’t just magically learn to skate and join a hockey team. That’d be ridiculous.

Except maybe they do? On a whim, he decides to sign up for an adult beginner’s class. He learns to skate, joins a team, and meets a really hot teammate… and it’s pretty much a disaster from there on out.

Available in…

e-book from our website, major retailers, and through the library e-book app of your choice!
trade paperback from our website and major retailers, and you can request it from your library or bookstore of choice!
hard cover is only available through our website, and only while supplies last. We have about a dozen copies left and will not be printing more so if you want the hard cover, get it while you can!

Want even more? Don’t miss the merchandise!

chibi Nick and Brady magnets (sold as a set – and sorry, despite the image suggesting otherwise, the Brady magnet is not holographic)
two-sided bookmark
chibi Brady skating sticker (holographic!)
chibi Nick skating sticker
chibi Nick and Brady holding hands
Nick and Brady clinking beer bottles; and
the front cover artwork (very limited supplies left on this one!)

And that’s not all! Can’t get enough and Nick and Brady? We have short stories by A. L. Heard for that!

Brady Jensen vs. Haunted House: a “what if” alternate take on if these characters went to high school together!

Brambles, Pollen, and Other Natural Disasters: a sexy “what if” college setting version, with sex pollen!

Snowbound and Love Sick: another sexy alternate take, this time snowed-in together in a cabin – what could possibly go wrong?

And you can get EVEN MORE on A. L. Heard’s ko-fi!

Come on over to the Duck Prints Press Webstore and Get Your Copies Now!

#signal boost #duck prints press #hockey bois #A.L. Heard #I did the typesetting!

hermit-writes

[Mirror from Pillowfort's Fanfiction community]

Opening Lines

Guidelines: Share the first lines of 3 of your projects and see if there's a pattern! (And if your story is posted anywhere, share the link too!)

The first time she’d been to Venice she’d been as Emily Prentiss: as a child filled with anger and resentment at her unfair life. And it had been unfair, just not in only the ways she’d known then. The second time she’d been Lauren Reynolds and it had been a visit of fine dining, fine wines, glamour, and listening to deals through parted doors and ancient plaster as she had willed her breathing to stop. Both of those women are dead. She doesn’t know, yet, who she is this time.

Nobody’s somebody - Criminal Minds/MCU fusion - Explicit - Emily Prentiss/Bucky Barnes

The images sped up, floating and twinkling like the misfiring of lights on a gaudy Christmas tree. Sam snatched one, freezing the frame as the others continued to tick by, carefully labelling it and setting the snippet aside. Video surveillance was tedious and only ever made bearable via proper documentation. As it was, Sam was stretched as wide as he could get, smoke tendrils creeping into low-security systems until he had a dozen eyes unblinking over a sector of the city. Two of the windows flickered and went black, having run out of recorded data. Sam closed them and pulled himself back, looking for new viewpoints. The smoke recoiled and swirled back into his body like a slow exhale being run in reverse

Chase the Morning - Shadowrun/Supernatural/Altered Carbon fusion - Mature - Gen (with background Destiel)

It ends bad and it ends bloody. Most of the grit and viscera isn’t theirs, soaking through clothes and squelching underfoot. It doesn’t matter. It never matters. Until it does. Until the smoke clears and they are picking their way through dust and debris. The bastards had rigged the whole place to blow, some primitive set-up with unstable homebrewed dynamite, and they’d been doing this since before black powder made its way out of China, they knew primitive…

From Here, I Can Pretend - The Old Guard - Teen and Up - Joe/Nicky

#picking the works to quote was the hard part #I love scene setting as opening lines #my writing

hermit-writes reblogged

transformativeworks

beefstrugglenoff

I love you dead punctuation marks.

beefstrugglenoff

hermit-writes reblogged

cloudburst-ink

allthingswhumpyandangsty

have you ever read a fanfic so good that you wanted to write a fanfic about that fanfic, but was too shy / too intimidated to ask for the author’s permission and too afraid that your writing wouldn’t be half as good as theirs and that it would be an insult to their work that was basically a literal masterpiece, so you just sat there fantasizing about their work and how beautiful it was and how you wished you could just eat it and how you wished canon could write your blorbos half as good as this writer did and how you just wanted to cry because you just loved that fic so much????

onyxedskies

reblog if you are always ok with someone writing fanfic of your fanfic

#tag me in it #and i can even ahow up with reams of notes #and worldbuidling details #and all the stuff i had to cut for pacing #but lives on in the left behind wasteland of my brain

hermit-writes reblogged

adrianharley

libraryjournal

Library of Congress and StoryCorps Partner on COVID-19 Oral History Archive

On January 22, the Library of Congress (LOC) announced the launch of the COVID-19 Archive Activation website, an online tool created in coll

Library Journal

“I can’t emphasize enough how everyone's COVID-19 experience is valuable,” AFC Director Nicole Saylor said. “It’s worth preserving. It doesn’t matter your zip code, your community, whether you contracted it. Everyone has a story.”

Hard to believe it has been almost four years since the pandemic shutdown.

shrewreadings

YOU ALL NEED TO DO THIS.

to my knowledge, we have NO oral history of the Spanish Flu. We probably have some oral history of Polio, but of the mass outbreaks of measles and mumps? Nope, because they happened -all the time,- you know, the way COVID will.

We don’t have a mass oral history from the beginning AIDS pandemic. Recording technology was a lot bulkier, a lot harder to access (especially if you were in ‘80s or early ‘90s sub Saharan Africa, or the Warsaw Pact), and for decades, no one wanted to talk about it.

For about 20 years, you found out you had AIDS because you were actively dying.

Universal gloves didn’t use to be a thing in medicine. Condom access used to be a lot harder.

It would have been nice if universal masks in medicine came out of this plague - and it might yet still. If we sit down now, interview a friend, and talk about what scared us and still does about COVID, we may still yet save ourselves from our laziest and most selfish instincts.

hermit-writes

I was part of a project along those lines, essays about life in the confinement and children drawing of that same period.

Hope and Resilience in the Time of COVID https://a.co/d/4XgK5bO

hermit-writes

Hermit Prints — Hockey Bois

This project was for the novel Hockey Bois by A.L. Heard, published by Duck Prints Press.

Nick Porter has always loved hockey. Ever since he can remember, it’s been his favorite thing in the world. It’s too bad he never learned to play, he’d tell himself, but it was too late to do it now. Adults don’t just magically learn to skate and join a hockey team. That’d be ridiculous. Except maybe they do? On a whim, he decides to sign up for an adult beginner’s class. He learns to skate, joins a team, and meets a really hot teammate… and it’s pretty much a disaster from there on out.

This is available in both hard covers and trade paperback, in the 6×9 format.

If you’d be interested in getting your story typeset and ready to print, please visit my commissions page.

You can purchase the hardcover, paperback, and e-book from Duck Print Press. The trade paperback should also be available to order at your local bookstore, and the e-book available in libraries!

#typesetting #hermit prints #commissions open #independant press #duck prints press #Hockey Bois #A.L. Heard

hermit-writes

Hermit Prints — Aphelion (The City of a Billion Stolen Souls

This project was for the book Aphelion: The City Of A Billion Stolen Souls by S.E. Crane. The cover art is by Martina Belli.

This is in the 6×9 format, with cream paper and matte cover options. The manuscript has 178,349 words and the final books has 531 pages.

It is currently available in paperback or free online via Campfire.

If you’d be interested in getting your story typeset and ready to print, please visit my commissions page.

In a world where tech runs off the concept of one’s soul and where dragons steady cosmic scales, heroes are shaped in the shadow of an ancient grudge. Horizon’s Crown was an Earther triumph; a stage at the frontier of the settled systems, a city of hope and dreams and infinite potential. Now, under the watchful eye of its orbital island, it straddles the line between dead and dying; a city of nightmares and endless sorrow. Varrett Vild Vickers belongs into a pilot’s chair. He’s meant to dodge asteroids, to race dragons, not chase credits so he can pay rent while HC’s major demographic clicks its teeth at him and tries to eat his face off. But it’s fine. Really. He copes. Or that’s what he tells himself, all the way until a woman falls from the sky and turns his already upside-down life very sharply sideways. Armed with nothing but her worst-kept secret and a ledger of lies, Sophya Soulwright tricks her way into Horizon’s Crown, looking for not only her sister, but for redemption and a meaning to a life she’s never held dear. What she finds instead is a city trying its hardest to live, and a man who courts death every step of the way. He’s infuriating. Tireless. And after a glitch binds their souls together, stuck with her.

Book front and spine

Book interior (printed)

Book interior (screen)

#hermit prints #typesetting #commissions open #Aphelion #S.E. Crane #Novel #self publishing

hermit-writes reblogged

caparrucia

clumsyclifford

questions for fic writers

a collection of questions i, as a writer, would love to be asked !!!

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits?

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics?

4. What detail in [insert fic] are you really proud of?

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now!

6. What’s one fact about the universe of [insert fic] that you didn’t get a chance to mention in the fic itself?

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

9. How do you find new fic to read?

10. How do you decide what to write?

11. Are you partial to a certain character/pairing or are you more equal-opportunity? If you are partial to any character/pairing, why do you think that is?

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore?

14. Are there any tropes you would only read if written by a trusted friend or writer?

15. What’s your favorite AU that you’ve written?

16. What’s an AU you would love to read (or have read and loved)?

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

18. If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it involve?

19. If you wrote a spin-off of [insert fic], what would it involve?

20. If you wrote a prequel to [insert fic], what would it involve?

21. If you wrote a “missing scene” in [insert fic], what would it be?

22. Who is your favorite character in [insert fic] and why?

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

24. Are there any easter eggs in [insert fic], and if so, what are they?

25. What other websites or resources do you use most often when you write?

26. Would you rather write a fic that had no dialogue or one that was only dialogue?

27. How long did it take to write [insert fic]? Describe the process.

28. Does anyone read your fics before you post them? If so, who?

29. What songs would be (or are) on a playlist for [insert fic]? Explain your choices if you want!

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

31. What’s your ideal fic length to write?

32. What’s your ideal fic length to read?

33. If you write chaptered fics, what’s your ideal chapter length to write? Is it different from your ideal chapter length to read?

34. What aspects of your writing are inspired by/taken from your real life?

35. What aspects of your writing are completely unlike your real life?

36. Do you visualize what you read/write?

37. Promote one of your own “deep cut” fics (an underrated one, or one that never got as much traction as you think it deserves!). What do you like about it?

38. Did any of your fics get surprisingly popular (whatever that means to you)? Which ones? Why do you think they were so successful?

39. Is any aspect of your writing process inspired by other writers or people? If so, who?

40. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

41. Link a fic that made you think, “Wow, I want to write like that.”

42. Have you ever received a comment that particularly stood out to you for whatever reason?

43. If you take/write prompts: what’s your favorite prompt fic that you’ve written?

44. If you take/write prompts: do you prefer dialogue or scenario/narrative prompts?

45. What’s something you’ve improved on since you started writing fic?

46. Do you prefer writing on your phone or on a computer (or something else)? Do you think where you write affects the way you write?

47. If [insert fic] was a pair of shoes, what kind would it be? Describe the shoes.

48. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it!

50. Answer any question of your choice, or talk about anything you want to talk about!

hermit-writes reblogged

yawpyawp

SO WE KNOW HOW I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO DRAW A BUCKYNAT CULT DEPROGRAMMER COMIC

and i never DID, because i am not a good writer and cannot form cohesive long-form plots

but the GLORIOUS @hermit-writes wrote THIS AMAZING FIC CALLED “TRELLIS” inspired by my original post

SO NOW THAT THERE IS A COHESIVE PLOT, I STARTED STORYBOARDING THE COMIC!

i love that we’ve stumbled into a collab lol!

just like how Trellis isn’t exactly what’s outlined in my original post, the comic will probably be closely based on the fic but I’ll take some liberties. FUBAR will probably (definitely) make an appearance

the cult compound is gonna be veeeery tightly based on the FLDS’s YFZ ranch

hermit-writes

Tumblr being a functional webbed site just pinged me again on this post and I squeed over the thumbnails all over again.

hermit-writes

Hermit Prints — To Drive the Hundred Miles

This project was for the novella To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh, published by @duckprintspress.

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.

This is in the digest format, with white paper and matte cover options. The final books had 94 pages. The cover treatment is by Pallas Perillous.

If you’d be interested in getting your story typeset and ready to print, please visit my commissions page.

You can purchase the print and ebook versions from Duck Print Press, as well as related merchandises.

The novella along with related merch (wood carved pendant, sticker, spell jar recipe card)

Front cover of the novella

Sample interior page

Closer look at the pendant, sticker, and card

#typesetting #duck prints press #independant press #novella #to drive the hundred miles #alec j marsh

hermit-writes

Hermit Prints - Many Drops Make a Stream

This project was for the novel Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley, published by @duckprintspress

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.

This is in the digest format, with white paper and matte cover options. The final books had 206 pages. The cover art is by @rcrisdraws.

If you’d be interested in getting your story typeset and ready to print, please visit my commissions page.

You can purchase the print and ebook versions from Duck Print Press (as well as related merch items)

Art print of the cover, book, sticker, bookmark, enamel pin

Book front

Book Spine

Sample interior page

Bookmark, sticker, wood carved pendant, enamel pin

#hermit prints #typesetting #duck print press #independant press #adrian harley #many drops make a stream