BIG thanks to the fine people at @greenlightbklyn.bsky.social for not only allowing these Jerks into their store, but featuring them prominently! (@saralippmann.bsky.social and @jerrybrennan.bsky.social are most pleased.) Go see them--the jerks and the non-jerks--and maybe take home one of each.

Big ups to @saralippmann.bsky.social for ending up on this @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social list of the most-anticipated books of 2026! (And big thanks to @mbwelch.bsky.social and team for the coverage!) chireviewofbooks.com/2026/01/06/o...

Big ups to @saralippmann.bsky.social for ending up on this @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social list of the most-anticipated books of 2026! (And big thanks to @mbwelch.bsky.social and team for the coverage!) chireviewofbooks.com/2026/01/06/o...

Among my other fun publisher quirks: when I get a batch of @tortoisebooks.bsky.social that's misprinted juuuuuust enough to not be saleable, but not enough to not be an amazing read, I get a credit from the printer and then disburse them at Little Free Library boxes in West Ridge and Rogers Park.

December sales are in, and our lifetime total is now 38,766 books sold. Goal for 2026: see how quickly we can get to 40,000. (And 50,000.)

OK, folks...calling it. All of these, plus a solid number of @tortoisebooks.bsky.social submissions, some of which will be on YOUR lists in 2026, God willing. Some faves: Working, Studs Terkel Jernigan, David Gates The Country Girls, Edna O'Brien The Kid Stays In The Picture, Robert Evans

We were getting all set to hustle up votes for the @chicagoreader.com and their Best Of 2025 feature and...they don't have a Best Small Press category this year? They probably didn't want to make all the other presses feel bad by making them compete with us...

psssssssst this jawn (out in May) @tortoisebooks.bsky.social is now up on edelweiss if anyone wants a free early look www.edelweiss.plus?sku=19651992...

really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense

Stop expecting answers from books. Instead just say to yourself “This will keep me company while I live the question.”

Spotted at the Center For Fiction. JERKS is in these places...you're in these places...PEOPLE, DO WE HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU?

Super big thanks to all who came out to Hopleaf for Nestor Fest...it was the best event we've had there yet! (And thanks again to Hopleaf for being such awesome hosts!)

Hanging with @the-boss-gomez.bsky.social at his book release party along with @tortoisebooks.bsky.social Buy his book here tortoisebooks.com/store/rescue... #booksky #ImmigrationStories #books #80MinutesAroundTheWorld

Look. You could get all your Christmas shopping done in one fell swoop tomorrow. But only if you like cool books. Just go to Nestor Fest at Hopleaf from 3-5 and catch an awesome reading from Nestor Gomez. (And Brooke Randel as well!) I'm just saying, it's an option. Just spitballing here.

Folks, Nestor Fest is THIS SATURDAY from 3-5 at Hopleaf! (5148 N Clark.) It's the launch event for the incomparable Nestor "The Boss" Gomez and RESCUED ME/ME RESCATÓ; we'll also have readings from Stephanie Martinez and Jitesh Jaggi and our very own Brooke Randel. Be there!

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The JERKS store called and they're running out of YOU! tortoisebooks.com/store/jerks

We saw you from across the tennis court and we really like your vibe (complimentary). Seriously, folks...check it out!

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It is Small Business Saturday and we are a small business so once you read these words you are legally obligated to go to www.tortoisebooks.com and buy some books. Sorry! We don't make the rules!

THE JERKS HAVE ESCAPED CONTAINMENT. I REPEAT: THE JERKS HAVE ESCAPED CONTAINMENT. (Big thanks to Three Lives Bookstore for giving customers a chance to apprehend them in the wild! And to the esteemed @saralippmann.bsky.social herself for forwarding this photo.)

**Puts on headphones.** **Starts blasting Iggy and the Stooges' "Search and Destroy"** **ELIMINATES ALL DOUBLE SPACES IN THE MANUSCRIPT WITH A RECKLESS FURY** That's how it's done, folks. That's all there is to it.

One of the underappreciated joys of editing a new manuscript is pressing Ctrl+h and replacing double spaces with single spaces throughout the document in one fell swoop.

A reminder that seven years ago almost to the day, the CIA determined that Mohammed Bin Salman ordered the killing of @washingtonpost.com journalist Jamal Khashoggi. I hired and worked with Jamal for a year. www.washingtonpost.com/world/nation...

Save the date: Saturday, December 6th is NESTOR FEST! The official launch party for Rescued Me/Me Rescató by the inimitable Nestor Gomez, plus a shopping event for all your holiday needs. (As long as your holiday needs involve buying great books.) 3:00 to 5:00 at Hopleaf...5148 N. Clark...be there!

Stop writing a movie when you're writing a book! Solid entry in the @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social Substack canon... rebeccamakkai.substack.com/p/youre-writ...

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...and we got trade ARCs for the new Joe Peterson book today! Never a dull moment in the indie biz.

FIVE @storystudiochicago.bsky.social Novel in a Year classes are open for applications right now, but move quickly—those apps are due 11/14! Here are your options🧵

So thrilled we have a cover for @saralippmann.bsky.social and HIDDEN RIVER! It's an incredible Philadelphia novel about Cass, whose best friend invites her to her wedding--even though her father had groomed Cass from a young age. Writers including DAVID GATES are singing its praises...check it out!

Now we would never ever ever wish anyone a Happy Marine Corps Birthday...buuuut we will happily announce that we signed an agreement today to publish @nkweidman.bsky.social and his awesome Marine Corps recruiting memoir, THIRTY-SIX FIGHTING HOLES, and it's scheduled to come out one year from today!

Book delivery!! ❤️❤️❤️ @tortoisebooks.bsky.social @boondock60mm.bsky.social #litfic

37,000 books total...woohoo! (Actually 37,043, but who's counting? Oh yeah, we're counting.) #indie #publishing

RESCUED ME/ME RESCATƠ by Nestor "The Boss" Gomez is nearing launch! We got our signed preorder copies Tuesday, got them signed Wednesday, and are packing them up to ship tomorrow...never a slow day in indie publishing. (Super grateful to Andrés Colmenares for the lovely cover work!)

"...a story of substance and style, power and passion" by "one of the city’s most interesting and increasingly powerful writers." Super grateful to Rick Kogan for this writeup of Bill Hillmann and his new book WHITE FLIGHT! www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/21/b...

Super useful, tbh. (And no, that wasn't sarcasm, Average Reader!)

"The book business may be centred in New York, but the logic is pure Las Vegas." An excellent piece by @tajjaisen.bsky.social that perfectly captures the ethos we're trying to avoid.

Your occasional reminder that Ursula K. Le Guin and Philip K. Dick were in the same year in the same high school, liked each other’s writing, but never met in person.

I know people are pretending it’s not or like it makes you weak or something, but kindness is punk as fuck.

"On the last episode of his show before he was killed," Kirk told "his audience, falsely, that “one in 22 Black men will be a murderer in their lifetime” and that “by age of 23, half of all Black males have been arrested and not enough of them have been arrested.”

fifteen years in and I’m still mad at anyone who described Inception as mindbending. “wow this flour is so spicy!” that’s how you sounded

Absolutely awesome email we received from an Oklahoma bookseller about ALL TRAP NO BAIT. We are conquering the country, one state at a time! (Starting in the middle.)

Absolutely awesome email we received from an Oklahoma bookseller about ALL TRAP NO BAIT. We are conquering the country, one state at a time! (Starting in the middle.)

The people cry out with a voice that is often still confused but is becoming ever louder and clearer: death to the tyranny of the release date

Still catching our breath after the feeding frenzy of Printers Row Lit Fest! It's awesome when you have to throw out a huge amount of packing material because so many of the books--almost 200!--that were in boxes in your basement are now on bookshelves all over Chicagoland. #indiepublisher

Just wondering how many folks in the Pentagon are cool with the fact that the enemy is no longer Russia or China but non-Trumpy Americans.

if I were one of Rodney Dangerfield's rivals, I simply would have shown him the appropriate amount of respect, thereby undermining his entire act

An awesome novel you blurbed for @tortoisebooks.bsky.social = a good mail day

Super big thanks to everyone who came out to Printers Row...this was not only our largest sales day ever, we almost caught up to our largest Lit Fest weekend total! And if you missed it...we'll be back tomorrow! (The Small Press Tent, Tent GG, on Dearborn just a few slots north of Polk.)

Look, AA is cool and all, but have you ever tried...GG?