Welcome to Tortoise Books
Remember the fable of the tortoise and the hare? We all learned as kids that slow and steady wins in the end. But the publishing industry’s dominated by the hares. You’ve seen them: fast-reading, fast-selling books with a big name on the front. They loom large on the doorway displays one month and are relegated to the bargain bin thereafter—unloved, unremembered, and easily replaced by next month’s Next Big Thing. (Hare today, gone tomorrow, you might say.)
We’re looking to change that.
Tortoise Books focuses on quality, not quantity. Or more accurately, we know quality will bring quantity down the road, in the slow and steady race to win discerning readers. We’re a small, independent publisher that’s using the best attributes of the old industry (extensive editing, heavy pre-publication publicity work, and a financial structure where we’re invested in the future success of our authors) plus the best attributes of publish-on-demand (the ability to get something good out there without regard to whether or not someone thinks it has a market, or whether it fits into some multinational conglomerate’s busy schedule) to build a brand readers will trust.
read our books and see why Rick Kogan of Chicago Tribune and WGN Radio recently called us “one of the best, most provocative, and rewarding publishing houses in the entire country” AND SAID “If you see Tortoise Books—and I’m telling you this as a consumer—you know you’re going to get something good, interesting, or provocative to read.”
We are currently accepting a limited number of submissions via the luxury submission and critique process. Free submissions will be available intermittently; please check this page periodically or follow us on Twitter @TortoiseBooks for updates.
Featured Titles
Play, Rewind by John Vurro
A lovely tale about a video store clerk in the dying days of VHS who’s stuck caring for a mother with dementia—and longing for a life that seems forever out of reach.
“When you reach the last page, you’ll want to rewind it and play it again.”
— Katherine Dykstra, author of What Happened to Paula
Afterward by Bristol Vaudrin
A darkly comedic debut novel about a young woman dealing with an unspeakable tragedy, and meeting every challenge with a certain amount of…well, not grace. Maybe more like bitchiness, truth be told.
“A powerful meditation on grief that isn't afraid to make you laugh amid the pain.”
— Christian TeBordo, author of Ghost Engine and The Apology
Also Here by Brooke Randel
An artfully composed intergenerational Holocaust memoir—about one woman's harrowing survival, and another's struggle to excavate the story from under the sands of time, and her grandma's illiteracy.
“Randel puts her illiterate grandmother’s recollections of surviving the Holocaust on the page in this powerful debut. By turns horrific and surprisingly sweet, this will linger in readers’ minds.”
— Publishers Weekly