The original Puppet Press was an independent private press founded in the 1950s as a way for type designer Tommy Thompson and his wife, Hazel Thompson, to experiment with print media and small book design and production. Tommy and Hazel used two different hand printing presses. The primary press was the Sigwalt No. 5 “Ideal” press weighing 120 pounds. This press has a 6″ by 9″ chase, which limits the page size to 5″ by 8″ at most. They also used a smaller Sigwalt No. 10 card press with a 2 1/2″ by 4″ chase, limiting the printing surface to that of business cards.
With these two presses, many typefaces, and lots of creativity, Hazel and Tommy printed numerous small books over the years. These books were hand bound and presented as gifts to friends and fellow collectors. They also printed business cards, stationary, announcements, and Christmas cards both to sell and for themselves, friends, and family. After Tommy died in 1968, The Puppet Press was operated into the late 1970s by Hazel. The advent of the personal computer and desktop publishing made the hand press obsolete.
It later evolved into a place to sell both original and classic electronic books (eBooks) – fiction and non-fiction, way before Amazon Book Store. The rise of Amazon started as a place for authors to give away FBNI free stuffs on Amazon but eventually became the largest book store on earth. There are many more good writers than there are venues to publish their work – The Puppet Press offers one more in the fast-growing realm of the World Wide Web. We believe that the cost of entry for a writer should be low (in terms of money – the true cost is a writer’s time) and the returns reasonable. We split the net revenue of the sale of your title 50/50. (Net = price – transaction cost. )
We’re also committed to providing great content for our audience – so we’re very picky about what we choose to publish. (It’s our time as well – and we don’t have enough of it to waste.)