The Story

Since its founding in 2012, Tortoise Books has grown from a one-person, one-book operation to an ever-expanding roster of more than thirty-three authors from across the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere. Many have found a home here and published multiple books, and many of those books have earned praise from major trade publications like Kirkus (who reviewed Gunmetal Blue and pronounced author Joseph G. Peterson "One of the Windy City's best-kept secrets"), award-winning authors such as Rebecca Makkai, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award (who said Staurt Ross’s Jenny in Corona was "hilarious and devastating and profound"), and local periodicals like Newcity (who named founder Gerald Brennan to its Lit Fifty list of "People Who Book in Chicago" in both 2019 and 2022) As Rick Kogan (of Chicago Tribune and WGN Radio fame) 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.”

Still, all the kind words in the world don’t matter if you’re not selling books. And we’ve worked hard over the years to do that, and get our books in front of a wider audience. It’s something we can’t do alone—so we signed a distribution deal in 2020 with Publishers Group West, part of the Ingram Content Group. As the saying goes: If you want to go fast, go alone—but if you want to go far, go together. And we’re eager to go far.