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duckprintspress · 1 year

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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.

Hey anon!

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. :D

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. :D 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.)

#unforth replies #faq #publishing #writing advice #weekly blog post

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caruliaa · 1 year

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staff still hasn't given me polls, what should i do?

🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪 their moms 69%

🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪 their dads 31%

grace image os i get to look at her

#edit: edited the og post to what i want but to set the record straight i edited to the post to be mathematically correct right after the #first person pointed it out which was like ten mins after i posted the og post. now fuck offf !!!!! the rest of the tags r from the og post #for some reason i feel very immature making your mom jokes about tumblr staff. which i shldnt !!#bc they suck nd they still havent given me polls. but i ig i feel imature bc it a your mom joke 😭 but still i tihnk its kinda funny #EDIT: edited the post to what i want bc yall were getting annoying . but to set the record straight i edited to post to be mathematically #also its *mum* not mom okay i am NOT !! an american . but if i say mum everyone will j be like 'omg british' like i dont know i am #anyway. i want polls please. give me the rigght to force my mutuals chose between the most inane things #also i tihnk it wld b cool for the cs weekly blog. like w each episode #i cld do a poll of like. out of five stars what do u think of this ep #and it wld b a cool thing of which eps r ppls faves #also i cld have like. whose ur fave in team red whos ur fave in acme etc #id prob just have to go with vile faculty bc theres more than 10 ppl in vile. and ppl wld kill me if i didnt include nel the ell or whoever #it wld b fun !!!#oh btw csweekly thats i thing i want to start. prob on uhhh the 11th of feb ill post abt it more but its basically #a tag/blog for watching cs one ep a time watching one ep every saturday #ya !! :3 #flappy rambles #inaccessible #ask to tag #(<- idk. just in case)

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cat-doodle · 2 years

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No I won't provide context for today's doodle.

I missed my blog update last week because I was tired and lazy from travel, plus all the other stuff knocking me out lately. I almost didn't even think of making this one, honestly. But there's kinda stuff to tell, I guess.

I hit a pretty nice benchmark for myself recently that I determined would be the point when I'd start making myself a fursuit. And... I wasn't exactly prepared to start that, so who knows when I'll actually start, but that would be a fun project to pursue, so I'm gonna try to get it to happen.

Unfortunately, the other projects still aren't really happening, I've only drawn one Inktober prompt, still haven't gotten much in the way of planning for NaNoWriMo. And on top of that, I'm still having trouble with my ankle, but I can work on it at least (and that might be part of the trouble).

Still just tired all the time, but... hitting benchmarks means I can meet my goals, right?

#weekly blog post #oct 2022 #maow

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poorly-drawn-mdzs · 1 month

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I started reading Dungeon Meshi last week, became instantly charmed and captivated, and blitzed through the entire manga in 4 days (and changed my profile picture about it). With that in mind, I would just like to say...

I love your dungeon meshi art so so much

CHILCHUCK!!!!!!!!

Thank you kindly! I love Dungeon Meshi a lot, so I'm happy to see so many people get into it for the first time.

CHILCHUCK!!!

#ask #dungeon meshi #chilchuck tims #I feel like chilchuck was overlooked in the pre-anime fandom a lot (which sucked as an OG chilchuck fan).#So I am thrilled by how much love he has been getting. He is a great character and so much fun to draw.#Great comedic straight man while also having some really hard hitting emotional moments.#I think he needs a union mandated vacation after this dungeon expedition -and a drink with an umbrella in it.#Veering off topic for a moment:#I started drawing this at the same time as the Dragon comic (I had chilchuck brainrot)#and since then two of my dungeon meshi comics have hit over 10k notes. Which is bonkers!#A year ago I was getting hyped over a post reaching past 100 notes...I never thought I'd be here. Thank you for all the love and support.#I may have started as a MDZS blog but drawing for Dungeon Meshi has had a huge impact on me *and* my art.#This Chilled Chuck is thus a mini celebration for a incredible milestone B*)#I'll keep my weekly dungeon meshi posts going until the season ends so please keep looking forwards to it!

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kinnbig · 10 months

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KP Anniversary

KinnPorsche the Series + faceless shots per episode

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coyoteclan · 3 months

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Big TW for pet loss

Hey, clangen tumblr and those who just enjoy the silly cats on this blog. I know it's been a little bit of time since my last update, but unfortunately during the past few months, I have been caring for my closest friend, Comet.

She's been my best friend for 15 whole years, and on February 9th of 2024, I'm sad to say that she has passed. I won't lie when I say that this is one of the hardest posts I've ever made, but I want to continue this blog in her honor. Normally, I have a terrible habit of just letting projects like this slip by me and gather dust; however Comet was meant to play an integral part within the blog to immortalize her, and I refuse to let something meant just for her to go to waste.

I want to thank you all first of all for being such an amazing community. I've genuinely had so much joy come of this blog, and it pains me that I let it go stagnant for as long as I have. There are 568 of you now, which is so extremely wild to me; but I hope that from now on, you can all love Comet as much as I did, even if as a memory.

I hope to return to posting content both here and on my main, @mxssacre , but for now I still need time to grieve and come to terms with the loss of someone that was so incredibly intertwined with everything I've done since I was 9 years old.

Thank you for everything Comet, my heart, my soul, my love.

More of my favorite photos of her beneath the cut.

It's hard to choose favorites out of the thousands of photos I've taken of her over the years, but I hope these do her justice to show what an amazing being she was. I hope you're hunting your toy mice in the stars, Comet.

#Yeah this is a not so great post I'm sorry #I won't lie to y'all I've been sobbing my eyes out for the past week but it's helping me come to terms to write about her #I wanted to draw something for her in order to post this but ngl I just can't right now #I will be okay for the record. it's just an extremely difficult adjustment for me and I really do love this community #Seriously though. I've seen the hundreds of notifications I get from this blog weekly. I cannot thank you enough for the love I've felt #tw animal death #tw pet death #tw pet loss #I'm not sure exactly how to tag this but I hope the warning at the beginning helps #I literally finished writing a memorial for her before writing this post so clearly I'm a little in my feels lmao #I tried finding some of her sillier photos to add but there are so many. I might post more on my main later when I try figuring out-#-my memorial tattoo #hug your cats extra tight for me ❤

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jjoyboii · 1 month

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Dragon Ball / ドラゴンボール

By: Akira Toriyama

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paulgadzikowski · 6 months

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#jekyll and hyde weekly #strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #cartoon reply #posts from the old blog

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speakergame · 1 year

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April Update - 4/25/23

hello and happy Tuesday!

sorry for my sudden radio silence this month! Things™ continued to happen for a while longer, and I just needed to focus on getting my real life back to a reasonable facsimile of normal.

however! One of the things I did while taking this unplanned break (well, partial break, because I never actually stopped working) was that I took some time to write! Since all my work on Speaker, as well as Partially Stars and Idle Hands when I find time/need something slightly different to stare at, is coding, coding, coding, it's been months since I've actually gotten to write anything.

So I wrote some fanfic, and I wrote some later Speaker scenes, and I wrote some brainstorming ideas for another project I might make in the far distant future. And it's amazing how much that's helped get me motivated again! I think all this coding has worn me down a bit, but actually getting to put some words on paper for a change has helped me find my inspiration again! 💙

I'm hopeful that this will be the push I need to finally finish this code and get back to the writing part of writing a novel. I hadn't realized how much I missed it.

In May we'll be returning to our regularly scheduled bi-weekly updates, and if I'm really lucky *knock on wood* we'll be returning to our normal game-update schedule soon too!

Also, in personal news, tomorrow's my birthday 💙 I will be celebrating it by getting a tattoo! I'm very excited about that 😁

I think that's all I've got for this month! Enjoy the spring (or fall, for my southern hemisphere friends) weather, and I'll see you in May! 💙💙💙

#speaker game #weekly update #(it's the shards of narsil before anyone asks :3 I'll probably be posting a picture on my main blog when it's done)#today is the last day I can use my favorite monty python meme about my age 😔 rip

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buzzingroyalty · 13 days

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fuck you this applejack modelo shit is so fucking annoying get a life

i understand you may be new to tumblr or social media in general but here are a few handy buttons that might help you in this situation

#fellas is it spam to post smth twice a week #i bet you hated fingers in his ass sunday or any other extremely common weekly gimmick post on this site #i tag it for a reason relax and use the tools at your disposal #ask #ryan i used ur blog as an example and almost blocked you but crisis averted

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hypo-critic-al · 1 year

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take a shot everytime i draw this sad tortured pathetic man with lighting bolt behind him.

#i hope you like this pathetic soggy bag of potatoes <3 #victor frankenstein #frankenstein #frankenstein or the modern prometheus #mary shelley’s frankenstein #gothic literature #gothic lit #goth lit #frankenstein weekly #mad scientist #do i post art once in two month?#yes #do i call my blog an art blog despite that?#also yes #that’s why my name is as it is #artists on tumblr

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duckprintspress · 2 years

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Round Table: What Software Do You Find Helpful for Your Writing Process?

We asked our authors what software helps them write - and got a range of answers!

Contributors: Adrian Harley, B. T. Fish, D. V. Morse, not-gwaenchanha, theirprofoundbond, Tris Lawrence, unforth

Discord

Tris Lawrence: Lately Discord is becoming critical because that's how I'm making notes for my series bible with a combination of private folders and channels to split out information

(B. T. Fish +1, unforth +1)

Evernote

not-gwaenchanha: I use Evernote for all the ideas, makes them easy to sort. One notebook (or even a notebook stack) per WIP. It lets you interlink notes, use tags to sort stuff. It also has a webclipper browser extension which lets you copy websites or parts of them straight into the notebook which is super helpful for research. Free version can be used on two devices.

Image from the Evernote website...they didn't have anything writing-related, apologies.

Google Suite (G Docs, G Sheets, G Keep)

Hermit: Gdoc for me because my writing tends to happen on my couch/at the coffee shop and thus on my phone a lot (I am totally the person who brings a wireless mechanical keyboard to the coffee shop). I also make use of Google Keep for research notes. And a notebook with some frixion pens.

D. V. Morse: At the moment, I'm tracking things in Google Sheets, which is great (except there's a lot of functionality from Trello that I'm missing).

not-gwaenchanha: I use gDocs to write, mainly because I don't have to worry I'll lose everything if technology decides it hates me, but it also allows me to write from my phone and easily share with my beta. Google keep is where all the "darlings" go when I kill them a.k.a scraps of text that are good but don't fit. It's got a nice integration with google docs, you can send stuff there straight from the doc from the context menu and then move all the scraps into one "scraps" doc

(unforth +1, theirprofoundbond +1, Adrian Harley +1)

Microsoft Word

Adrian Harley: I have been using the same laptop since 2012, and when the hard drive gave out in 2020, my independent computer repair shop was kind enough to reinstall the 2010 versions of Microsoft Office so I didn't have to pay a subscription for them. It's what I'm used to. The "styles" function lets me find chapters easily, and it's easy for me to leave comments for myself when I see an issue and don't want to resolve it right at that moment. I think the free Microsoft Word, whatever they're calling it, has those basic features too, though I'm not positive.

(unforth +1)

Miro (formerly RealTimeBoard)

not-gwaenchanha: it’s an endless white board. Great for visual plotting. You can put in sticky notes, tables etc. I also like to upload images to it to make a private moodboard for the story.

Image is from the Miro website.

Notes App (IOS, Android)

Adrian Harley: I prefer to use the Notes app on the go. It's just as easy as Google Drive, it doesn't freak out if I'm not connected to the internet, and I have to copy and paste the text from any portable software to my document record of choice anyway.

(B. T. Fish +1, unforth +1)

Notion

theirprofoundbond: There is a desktop version and an app, with syncing between both. You can use it for writing but I prefer Google Docs for that. Instead, I've built myself a wiki, basically. My "Writing HQ" contains: current editing projects; word count table to track my daily word counts; gallery of my WIPs, which is pretty and motivating, and each "card" contains metadata and promotional info for each project; calendar for my posting schedule; and a gallery of completed work. Notion is incredibly customizeable with great documentation to help you get your head around all the possibilities. It'd be a great home for a worldbuilding bible, too, I think!

(B. T. Fish +1)

Scrivener

unforth: I use Scrivener for organizing my notes and research, its flashcard system is great for that.

Tris Lawrence: I live and die by a combination of Scrivener and Sprinting. Scrivener was the first piece of software I found that works the way my brain works, from the scrap documents to writing in the margins to index cards, and being able to organize it roughly but have it export pretty when I need it.

D. V. Morse: The main software I use is Scrivener, right up until it's time for critique/beta reading. Then everything goes into GDocs. I've experimented with mind-mapping apps with variable results.

Adrian Harley: Scrivener was incredibly helpful for my novella when I decided to turn it into a novel. It let me keep track of different drafts by chapter, so I could note which versions my writing group had already looked at. It also was easy to add in the "flashback" narrative that I've interspersed throughout the book.

Image from the Scrivener website.

SmartEdit Writer (formerly Atomic Scribbler)

B. T. Fish: It's a free word processor that has all the functions of Scrivener that I need and none of the confusing extras, is default dark mode, tracks my word count by scene and by entire project, and allows me to document and organize my writing projects from one-shots to novel length works. I use Discord for collaboration and have occasionally used Notion to organize writing prompts and story bible information, but most of that I also keep in Smart Edit, so it ends up being a bit redundant.

Image from the SmartEdit Writer website.

Spotify and Pandora:

not-gwaenchanha: because music helps my brain switch into the writing mode

unforth: I definitely use Pandora, music helps a lot

(theirprofoundbond +1)

Sprinto

Tris Lawrence: I cannot survive without a timer somewhere, because that's how I can force myself to focus in 20-30 minute spaces.

StayFocusd

unforth: it's an extension that shuts off internet access for a specified amount of time, and it helped me not get distracted by All The Social Media. (I don’t use Chrome anymore, but when I did…)

@/porcupine-girl chimed in from the comments to mention that Leechblock is a similar extension for Firefox!

Trello

D. V. Morse: I've always loved Trello for organizing workflow and really need to get on that again.

Tris Lawrence’s Word Tracking Spreadsheet

Adrian Harley: I have also tried a bunch of different software to track word count, because Number Go Up makes my brain happy. Can I recommend Tris's spreadsheet? That got me through a few months.

Tris Lawrence: I am slightly laughing that I didn't call out my own tracking spreadsheet. Probably because I've been SO focused on notes lately that I haven't gotten new words in uhhhh months. But obviously, yes, when writing I live and die by that as well! I love my charts. I loved the charts on the old NaNo site and wanted them year round. I wanted to be able to set goals and see how I was doing. I wanted to do comparisons. I wanted to see writing across weeks, months, and years, and it helped me learn that zero days and fluctuation were OKAY.

Image from Tris's 2022 spreadsheet blog post

What is your favorite software to use to help you write? We'd love to hear from you!

Have a question for us? Drop us an ask anytime!

Love what we do? Consider supporting us on Patreon or ko-fi.

Note that none of these comments should be interpreted as Duck Prints Press endorsing these products.

#duck prints press #writing advice #writing resources #our authors #weekly blog post

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