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…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
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
The Old Neighborhood by Bill Hillmann
This revised second edition of Bill Hillmann’s modern classic features a new introduction by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh. It’s a perfect primer for a great book that deserves a place alongside the likes of Nelson Algren and James T. Farrell on the top shelf of Chicago literature.
“A raucous but soulful account of growing up on the mean streets of Chicago, and the choices kids are forced to make on a daily basis. This cool, incendiary rites-of-passage novel is the real deal.” — Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting
The Adventures of Cancer Bitch by S. L. Wisenberg
S. L. Wisenberg, known for writing that is “seriously funny,” proves in this acerbic chronicle that a cancer diary can be at once hilarious, rageful, and feminist.
“Wisenberg brings her serious writing chops to bear in unflinching observations on breast cancer, cancer research, and teaching.” —Library Journal