Frequently Asked Questions

We recommend readers are over 17 due to the explicit content and/or subject matter in a few of the stories. These stories are asterisked on the Table of Contents and a trigger warning is placed on the title page of the story.  The other stories are suitable for young adult to adult readership. 

We have asterisks as a trigger warning on stories that contain explicit content or sensitive topics. We felt the writing and stories were strong and should be included. However, not all readers may be comfortable with the content so they are flags for readers to be aware.

Any story with explicit content or sensitive topics have asterisks on the titles and Table of Contents. For “The Secrets We Keep,” we state the explanation on the start of the page of the story. We took it further in “Every Breath Alight” by detailing the content warnings in the footnotes and in a separate section. 

“Not Quite as You Were Told” – The DRP team collectively designed this for our debut book. We were intrigued with the idea of having a female form and our silhouette was ideal since she could depict any age, any race, mythological or realistic female. We overlay images of mosaics into silhouettes, representing the various genres and characters. The white cover with colorful splashes gave a fresh and clean feel of promise, we all felt in 2019.

“The Secrets We Keep” – We worked with the wonderful artists of Elephants & Trains, Natalie Awuah and Malik O. The intention was to complement our first book cover by mirroring the colors with an ambiguous female figure. The darker tones capture the mystery and heavier emotions of this collection, as well as ours in 2020-2021. Elephants & Trains did a wonderful job matching our vision with their talents; their artwork can be found at elephantsandtrains.com or on Instagram @elephantsandtrains.

“Every Breath Alight” – We decided to collectively create the cover with a darker silhouette mixed with a vibrant mosaic. The red mosaic represents the fire that existed in each of our characters and our silhouette image was reminiscent of our first book. Once allowed this silhouette to take more space on the cover, surrounded by the fiery mosaic, we knew this was the perfect design for this breathtaking anthology as it launched in 2022.

We use a blind submission process, which means that we read the stories without the author’s information. This ensures a fair reading of all stories by removing any indicators of the gender or racial identities of the authors, as well as any personal associations.

After the submissions have been read, the team ranks and selects stories based on the writing, the execution of the story and adherence to the theme. Above all, we seek stories that show female characters being dynamic and complex in fiction as they are in real life. 

When the authors’ identities are revealed, we have been thrilled to learn how diverse and globally distributed they are. We are grateful to them for trusting us with their words!

It is an honor to read these works and we do not take this responsibility lightly. 

If you have submitted to us in the past, thank you for sharing your words with us. We hope you will consider submitting to us in the future as well.

Will you be publishing any more print or eBooks in the future?
Our immediate vision is to focus on building and promoting new stories online and continue to build a virtual community on Substack and social media outlets.

As for returning to print books, we never say never.