Five years ago, we launched Interlude Press with the release of Melissa Graves’ erotic-vampire romance/political-thriller Bleeding Heart and 24 hours of live author chats on a YouTube channel that we haven’t used since.
On that first day, we were a scrappy company of three, working with a group of fan fiction authors to try to produce romantic fiction that didn’t look or feel like other books already on the market.
We knew from that first day that it was nowhere close to what we wanted to become.
We wanted to represent multiple points-of-view and identities, to bring great YA fiction to readers, to include titles that weren’t exclusively romantic—without turning our back on our roots.
We also didn’t want to copy anyone else’s success. We wanted to build a company that had an identity that was authentically and indisputably its own, with an eclectic collection appealing to a range of tastes. And we wanted to construct that company methodically, with a foundation built to last.
Since then, Interlude Press and Duet Books authors have won awards and landed on both bestseller and annual best-of lists. Our books and authors have been featured in publications from The New York Times to O Magazine. Our print orders have grown from their print-on-demand origins to offset runs delivered to a warehouse by big rig. We’ve donated thousands of dollars to programs and nonprofits benefiting LGBTQIA causes.
We’re still a scrappy little company of three owners that owe a deep debt of gratitude to authors, editors, artists, bloggers, reviewers, trade journals, and everyone who has purchased, read, and talked up our books.
And we’re still piecing the puzzle together. Five years is an important benchmark for any small company, a time to reassess goals and decide what’s next.
And after more than a year of research, what’s next is audio, bringing books to a speaker, headphone, or ear bud near you.
We’ll soon be announcing details of a Kickstarter campaign to help launch our audiobook line, starting with some of our most in-demand titles. Audio done well can be costly, and we can’t produce our entire collection at once, but with your help, we can build a great new way to experience IP and Duet books.
We know—it took us long enough.
Thanks to each of you for reading, and here’s to a future of great books on your shelves, e-readers, and audio devices!
—The IP Team
