2020 has been an extremely tough year for everyone living on Planet Earth, emotionally, politically, societally and medically. Covid-19 ravaged humankind, taking many lives and damaging many others, creating an open gap for the shadowy ghoul of Right Wing politics to slide in. The only good thing to come out of the pandemic was that these Populist creatures are gradually being exposed as the failures they really are (here’s looking at you, Trump). In the meantime, we all went crazy while stuck in quarantine and social distancing at home. Families were separated, babies were born without getting to meet their grandparents, old folks died alone in care homes and the closest some of us came to a hug was saying ‘I love you’ through a webcam. In the background, people argued over wearing masks, teenagers attended illegal raves, business powerhouses collapsed under the strain and women marched for their reproductive rights.
At times, it has felt like we are really living in a Horror story. Perhaps the prologue for a tragic apocalyptic dystopia. Despite everything, there has still been good in the world. The media doesn’t scream about it, because they prefer to report on death and destruction, but in the midst of what, at times, has felt like the end of the world, human beings came together in a reminder that there is good in all of us, and when things get really tough, we manage re-forge that sense of community.
Gurt Dog Press began its life around the same time that our three triplets were born, the same month that Covid began to spread around the world. Yes, it’s been a tough year for the Gurt Dog team and it’s been a steep learning curve getting the press off the ground, but it’s been well worth it. Without the trust and the work of our authors, people who gave us the chance to show what we could do even though we were a tiny company with barely any publications, we wouldn’t be where we are now. We’re already outgrowing the small space we’ve occupied this last year; 2021 will be the time for us to expand further.
This coming year, we’ve already got an exciting roster of upcoming books by fantastic authors waiting for release, and we can’t wait to bring them out into the world! We’ve got plans to attend conventions to promote our books, we’ve got 2021’s Pride event that we will be a part of (2020’s event was very small, but we still attended with our book stall!), and Nem is preparing to expand our book distribution through other channels, perhaps with the opportunity for some fancy special editions. We hope to further upgrade our website, and provide new ways to purchase books through it. We hope to hold competitions, giveaways, anthology projects and more…
We pride ourselves on being somewhat unconventional, and as a family business from the very start, it feels natural to welcome our authors as both friends and colleagues. We’ve enjoyed working with you, through every stage of the publishing process, right up to promoting your work on social media and reading all the 5 star reviews from readers who picked up your novels and thoroughly enjoyed them. There’s nothing better than seeing our authors overjoyed by the final product, getting to hold a hard copy of their work that they’ve poured sweat, blood and tears into, and seeing their audience respond with praise. We want every book we release to be special, so along with that sweat, blood and tears, we add our own heart and soul, and we work tirelessly to make your release the best it can be.
Thankyou to everyone who bought copies of our books, to everyone who left positive reviews, and to everyone who retweeted, reposted, liked, commented and supported our authors this year. Thankyou to everyone on #bookstagram who photographed our books and put them out for everyone to see. Thankyou to everyone who reviewed our ARCs with honesty and kindness. With every gesture, you enabled us to bring LGBTQ+ speculative fiction to a world that might not have seen it otherwise.
And lastly, thankyou to everyone that has worked with us this year; we look forward to making more friends and reading exciting, new stories in 2021!
Gurt Dog Press 