Do author retain the copyrights to their work after after publication?
The copyright for each individual work published in our journals are held by the respective authors. All rights to these works are reserved by the authors, and any use, reproduction, distribution, or adaptation of the works requires the explicit permission of the authors.
What is your policy on Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated writing or artwork?
As a publisher, we do not accept any AI-generated content submissions. This includes, but is not limited to poetry, creative writing, personal essays, visual art, and photography.
Note: Some images featured on this website were generated using AI intelligence tools to achieve conceptual styles we were unable to produce ourselves.
We deeply value and support the work of real artists, illustrators, and photographers as our platform exists to uplift real artists and writers. We want to see YOUR ideas, read YOUR words, and live in the worlds that YOU created.
How did you select these stories?
We use an anonymous 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.
We look for 3 primary criteria: Is it well-written, telling a story effectively? Is it illustrating a unique female perspective? Does it adhere to the theme?
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.
I submitted before but I was rejected. Can I get feedback on why my work wasn’t accepted?
If we declined accepting your story and you would like feedback on your submission, please email us directly. We are writers first and understand how hard it is to submit your work. We want to build other writers up however we can.
Who designed the covers for your print anthologies?
“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 collectively created 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 we 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.
What is the appropriate age group for your collections?
We recommend readers are over 17 years of age due to the explicit content and/or subject matter in some stories. These stories are identified on the Table of Contents with a trigger warning on the title page of the story. Otherwise, generally, our stories are suitable for young adult to adult readership.
Do your stories contain content warnings?
Any story with explicit content or sensitive topics have asterisks on the titles and Table of Contents. We’ve selected stories that are well-written and should be included in our collections, however, we recognize not all readers may be comfortable with the content and should be aware.
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.