Hello authors! Thank you so much for your interest in publishing with DILIM Press.
Having gone through the first anthology production process, here are some items that we anticipate you’ll need as you embark on your writing career.
- Bio, 100 words: We’ll use smaller-format bios throughout, including in book descriptions and in other formats. Prepare a short-form version
- Bio, 450 words: Consider also offering a longer bio, this is helpful for all documents
- Pen Name: Your pen name suffices for all your correspondence and formal documents, you may only need a legal name if you’re accepting a check.
- Payments: speaking of payments, a Venmo or PayPal setup (or GCash for the Philippines) makes it much easier for your publisher to pay you. It can be time-consuming to send through other formats. We typically have paid out in a combination of PayPal, Venmo, and paper checks, but prefer e-payments whenever possible.
- Author headshot: A picture of yourself is helpful for any marketing that your publisher does for you. Use less “busy” backgrounds, a plain white background is fine. Make sure you mention or credit your photographer.
- Website: A WordPress.com or other place to send readers is also important: this is where you will also highlight your own published work
- Library of Congress: Your publisher will ask for your birth *year* as this is needed for the Library of Congress Control Number
- Copyright requirements: The United States Copyright office also requires your birth year when the work gets filed for copyright protection (current work from DILIM Press gets filed with the United States office).
- List of affiliations: Do you have other groups with whom you work or write? These are all potential partners for both marketing, cover rollouts, and/or blurbs. Pinoy fiction is a small community but if you have options, please list them.
- Links to at least three versions of drafts. To avoid complications, we have been asking for not only confirmation that artificial intelligence is not used, but also evidence of the “beginning, middle, and end” of your document. Consider *SAVING* an archive draft version of your piece with each new writing session so you can always revert back and demonstrate progress on any work-in-progress all the way to completion.
Finally, a great piece means the difference between publication and not. Share your work with writing partners or others who can help you improve. When you submit, please submit your best and most highly-edited work; this will improve your chances of acceptance.
Here are some additional questions that we ask from authors, in order to do highlights and additional pieces on other marketing such as on our blog.
Consider the answers and/or come up with your own questions and answers:
- What are your earliest memories of writing or creating?
- Do you have a favorite place to feel productive?
- Which advice would you give to yourself from five years ago?
- What would you want the reader to remember, long after they’ve left the page?
- What’s next for you in your creative process?
As you have more options and advance in your literary career, having these items as a start will help you as you prepare your work for market.