Publishing Services Terms

Effective date: October 12, 2026

Who we are

MTN Duck Press is an independent publishing imprint of Hardball HQ LLC, registered as a trade name (DBA) in the State of Ohio.

Services we may provide

Depending on the project and the written agreement, our services may include editing, formatting and interior layout, cover work, ISBN and metadata setup, and uploading and distribution through print-on-demand and ebook platforms: Amazon KDP, Lulu, and IngramSpark. This list may be expanded in the future as our partners change.

MTN Duck Press is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon KDP, Lulu, IngramSpark, or any other platform. Each platform sets its own terms and controls its own purchases, retail listings, payment processes, and services.

How a project works

There are two ways to work with us, and the signed agreement picks one.

Non-exclusive, a la carte services. The author picks the services they want, one at a time, and pays the listed price for each. There is no exclusivity and no percentage of sales, and the author publishes through their own accounts.

Exclusive publishing license. We handle production and publishing for the listed editions and collect the retail royalties. The standard production fees are recouped from those royalties, and the net receipts are split 50/50 with the author. Nothing is charged that the author has not selected and approved. The initial term is two years, then it renews automatically one year at a time unless either side gives written notice. Even here, the author keeps the copyright and can end the agreement.

Before work begins, the author and MTN Duck Press must sign a written agreement. The agreement will identify the services, schedule, fees, the split, the optional features selected, and the editions and channels covered by the project.

The author must approve the final manuscript and cover before publication. The author retains copyright and ownership of their work. No copyright or other rights transfer to MTN Duck Press. Any limited publishing license must be set out in the written agreement.

The author is responsible for confirming that they have the necessary rights and permissions for material they provide, including text, images, quotations, and other third-party content.

Fees, costs, and royalties

Non-exclusive, a la carte services. The author pays per service, up front, at the price stated in the agreement. The author publishes through their own Amazon KDP, Lulu, IngramSpark, and other accounts, and the platform pays the retail royalties directly to the author. We take no percentage of sales, and no exclusivity applies: the author may work with anyone else, on any edition, at any time.

Exclusive publishing license. We produce, publish, and manage the listed editions, and we collect the retail royalties. From the amounts received we first deduct documented platform fees, refunds, and returns, then recoup the standard production fees stated in the agreement, until those fees are fully recovered. We then split the remaining net receipts 50/50 with the author and pay the author's share with a statement, monthly or quarterly. Production fees are recouped once, and only from the editions they relate to. If the agreement ends before those fees are recovered, the unrecovered balance is ours to carry, not the author's.

Optional extras such as advertising, an ISBN under our imprint, or additional services are billed up front, at the amount listed in the agreement, so they never come out of the author's share. The author chooses them, approves them in writing, and can decline them. The initial term is two years, then it renews automatically one year at a time unless either side gives written notice.

Either way, we get the author's written approval before billing or deducting anything, and nothing is ever charged twice. Platform payment schedules, deductions, reporting, and policies are controlled by the relevant platform. The written agreement states exactly which fees are recouped, which extras are billed up front, the split, and how any payments received by MTN Duck Press are accounted for and paid to the author.

ISBNs

An ISBN identifies a particular book edition or format and identifies the publisher of record in industry databases. An ISBN does not transfer copyright or ownership of the work.

If an ISBN is issued under the MTN Duck Press imprint, that ISBN remains associated with that imprint and edition. It generally cannot be reassigned to a different publisher. Where available and suitable for the project, an author may use an ISBN they own instead. The ISBN choice will be recorded in the written agreement.

In practice, exclusive publishing license projects normally use our imprint's ISBN, and a la carte projects normally use the author's own, since the author is the publisher of record. Either choice is available for either arrangement, and the tradeoff is stated in the signed agreement.

Ending a project

The author may end the publishing agreement by giving 60 days' written notice, subject to any project-specific terms in the signed agreement. There is no fee to end the agreement or for rights to revert. Amounts already owed for completed services or approved costs remain payable as stated in the agreement.

When the agreement ends, the author's rights revert automatically. We will promptly request that listings managed by MTN Duck Press be taken down. Third-party platforms control their own processing times, so removal from their sites may not be immediate.

We will provide the author with the print-ready files created for the project and return access to any author-owned platform accounts used for it. We do not provide credentials to MTN Duck Press-owned accounts. If a project used a company-owned account, we will reasonably cooperate with the author on the transition to an author-owned account or other agreed arrangement.

How to apply

MTN Duck Press works with authors by application only. There is no signup form and no package you can buy and self-serve. We are not a vanity press: paying for services does not get a book accepted, and we turn down projects we do not believe we can publish well.

Applications are open to any author, including a first-time author with an unpublished manuscript. What we offer depends on what you show us. A book with a publishing and sales history may be offered an exclusive publishing license. A book that has not been published before, or has no sales history, will be offered a la carte services.

MTN Duck Press is currently working mostly on projects for our own imprint, family, and pen names, so we take on a limited number of outside projects. We read applications, but a reply is not guaranteed.

Tell us about the book and about you: the title and genre, the word count and whether it is finished, whether it has been published or offered for sale before, any sales or royalty history, and what you need help with. We will ask for more if the project looks like a fit. Do not send a complete manuscript unless we ask for it.

Send applications to press@mtnduck.com. Applying costs nothing, does not create a publishing relationship, and does not commit us to publish anything. If we decline, you keep every right in your work.

Summary, not legal advice

These website terms are a general summary. The signed written agreement controls the specific project if it differs from this page. This page is not legal advice.