Phase One of Duck Island Publishing 🦆🏝️
Or: How Two Goofy Island Music Lovers Accidentally Started a Publishing House
If you told us a year ago that we’d be running a tiny publishing house from Hawaii while juggling children’s books, poetry collections, branding, social media, print specs, and enough Amazon upload errors to spiritually age us 47 years… we probably would’ve laughed at you.
And then immediately started brainstorming anyway.
Duck Island Publishing started the way a lot of meaningful things do: accidentally, creatively, chaotically, and fueled almost entirely by enthusiasm.
At first, it was just ideas. Music. Stories. Conversations. Late nights talking about the kinds of books we wished existed and the kinds of creative lives we wanted to build for ourselves.
Somewhere along the way, those conversations became real.
Now somehow we have:
- a publishing house
- two active book brands
- two published books
- several future projects
- and approximately 14,000 browser tabs open at all times.
And honestly? We couldn’t be happier.
The Beginning of D.R. WhaleTail 🦈
The children’s book side of Duck Island Publishing started with something incredibly simple: a silly song.
That song eventually became Watch Out, Mr. Hammerhead!
At the time, we had no idea how complicated making a children’s book actually was. Truly. We thought, “How hard could it be?”
Very hard, apparently.
Neither of us came into this as professional illustrators, so a huge part of this process became learning how to draw, learning digital illustration software, learning page layout, learning print formatting, and learning how to somehow transform a goofy shark song into a real book kids would actually want to read.
The first versions looked… rough.
Like, lovingly rough.
There were so many edits. Then more edits. Then edits after the edits. Then edits after we thought we were finally done. Then another dozen edits specifically because different upload platforms wanted completely different formatting specs.
At one point, we genuinely thought the children’s book was going to defeat us through sheer PDF formatting alone.
And yet somehow, after all the trial and error, Watch Out, Mr. Hammerhead! exists in the real world now.
That still feels surreal.
The Beginning of D. Nicole Poetry 🌊
At the same time, we launched the poetry side of Duck Island Publishing under D. Nicole Poetry with Love Feels Sounds.
Compared to the children’s book, the poetry collection was technically simpler to format… emotionally, not so much.
Poetry is such a vulnerable thing to put into the world.
Love Feels Sounds became a collection about grief, healing, love, rebuilding yourself, and learning how to exist honestly in your own emotions again. It’s deeply personal, and seeing people connect with it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of this entire process.
The poetry book is currently published through Amazon KDP, while Watch Out, Mr. Hammerhead! is not.
Which leads us to…
Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, and the Great Publishing Software Struggle™
We knew publishing wouldn’t be easy.
We did not know it would involve this much yelling at our computers.
Trying to navigate Amazon KDP and IngramSpark as a tiny independent publisher has honestly been one of the most frustrating parts of the process so far.
The customer service experience on both platforms feels somewhere between “figure it out yourself” and “good luck, brave traveler.”
And the software? Not exactly beginner-friendly.
Especially for children’s books.
We quickly discovered there are surprisingly limited options when it comes to:
- children’s book sizes
- glossy internal pages
- premium print quality
- affordable short-run printing
The glossy pages were especially important to us because Watch Out, Mr. Hammerhead! is colorful, playful, and meant to feel bright and fun in kids’ hands.
We didn’t want to compromise on that.
Unfortunately, finding affordable small-batch printers willing to do high-quality glossy interior pages without forcing us to price the book astronomically high has been… difficult.
Very difficult.
Especially from Hawaii.
Running a publishing house from an island sometimes feels like running creative hard mode.
Shipping alone deserves its own therapy session.
Wearing Every Hat All At Once 🎩
One thing we’ve learned very quickly is that when you run a tiny publishing house with 1–2 people, you are not just “the publisher.”
You are:
- the writer
- illustrator
- editor
- formatter
- marketer
- customer service department
- social media manager
- photographer
- website designer
- branding team
- shipping department
- PR coordinator
- accountant
- event planner
- and occasionally emotional support for your own printer.
And because Duck Island Publishing includes multiple brands, the marketing alone becomes its own balancing act.
D.R. WhaleTail has a playful, colorful, ocean-inspired identity for children and families.
D. Nicole Poetry is softer, more emotional, intimate, reflective.
Then Duck Island Publishing itself has to exist above both as the umbrella brand tying everything together.
That’s three separate brand voices being managed simultaneously by two sleep-deprived creative people fueled primarily by coffee and stubbornness.
Staying Authentic in a Very Cookie-Cutter Internet
One of the biggest things we promised ourselves from the beginning was that we wanted Duck Island Publishing to feel real.
Not overly polished.
Not corporate.
Not manufactured.
The internet right now can feel incredibly copy-and-paste sometimes, especially in creative spaces.
Everyone is chasing algorithms. Trends. “Perfect” branding.
And while we absolutely care about growing this business, we also desperately want to protect the personality behind it.
We want people to feel like there are actual humans here.
Goofy island-dwelling music lovers making books because we genuinely love storytelling.
So far, we’re really proud of how authentic the brand still feels.
That matters to us.
What Comes Next 🦆
Right now, we’re still very much in Phase One of Duck Island Publishing.
Phase One has been:
- learning
- experimenting
- surviving upload platforms
- launching our first books
- building the brand
- making mistakes
- figuring things out as we go
But Phase Two is already starting to take shape.
The biggest goals are:
- printing Watch Out, Mr. Hammerhead! locally with glossy interior pages
- setting up our own checkout system through our website
- relying less on Amazon and third-party platforms
- keeping more control over the customer experience
- expanding outreach, PR, and collaborations
We’re also planning to begin using Kobo Writing Life for future digital releases.
And the future projects list is… honestly kind of wild already.
Currently in development:
- a deluxe edition of Watch Out, Mr. Hammerhead! with activity pages
- 3 more children’s books
- at least 3 more poetry collections
- 2 fiction books
- and potentially projects from creators outside Duck Island Publishing as well
Then eventually comes Phase Three:
✨ merchandise ✨
Because apparently we enjoy giving ourselves more work.
Endless Ideas, Endless Gratitude 💛
The most surprising part of all of this has been the warmth.
The support.
The encouragement.
Seeing people on the island connect with the books and the brand has meant more to us than we can properly explain.
And every week, the reach grows a little more.
That’s such a beautiful thing.
We still have so much to learn. So much to improve. So many ideas we want to bring to life.
But this little island we built is growing.
And we’re incredibly grateful that all of you are growing with us.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for supporting indie creators.
Thank you for believing in tiny islands with big imaginations.
We can’t wait to keep creating.
— Darian & Roland
Duck Island Publishing 🦆🏝️