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Submit an Iowa Author
Instructions for authors
Welcome to the authors’ section of the Iowa Center for the Book Author List. Here are some guidelines to help you as you add yourself and your work to this site.
The Iowa Center for the Book Iowa Authors Project is intended to be a source of information about authors of books who are currently living and writing in the state of Iowa.
We are interested in both you as an author and in the book or books you have written. Our goal is to provide as much useful information as we can about published books by current Iowa authors. For the purpose of this site, we define book as a print-on-paper, bound publication. We define “authors currently living and writing in the state of Iowa” as authors with an Iowa zip code. We are glad to list published collections of short stories or poetry from a single author. Self-published books are eligible for inclusion as long as they are print-on-paper and owned by at least one library in Iowa that is open to the public. Textbooks will generally not be included. Our goal is to be as inclusive as possible of books by current Iowa authors.
We don’t include individual poems, broadsides, or brochures at this time because of our focus on the book as an object in its own right. We do not include books that are available only electronically (on the Web, etc.), leaving the creation of a bibliography of electronic works to some other group to consider in the future.
You may have questions about some of the information we are requesting from you for this site. Here is a little more detail and definitions about some of our categories. If you need additional information or wish to discuss this project, please contact Carl Orgren at carl-orgren@uiowa.edu. Orgren is a member of the Iowa Center for the Book Advisory Council and the Iowa Author Project committee.
- Your name—and your pen name if you use one. You can indicate whether you want both or only one visible to the public.
- The county where you live in Iowa which will display to the public.
- Author Web site URL (Optional, although we are hoping that if you have one, you’ll want us to connect to it.)
- Free-text box for you to write what you want about your work, your approach to writing, why you write, etc.
- Preferred mode of correspondence with the public. You can provide whatever communication method you prefer. You can also choose more than one mode. Currently you can choose from mail, email, telephone, agent, publisher, or a request that you not receive correspondence. Any of these is useful information for our readers. We do ask that you provide us an address and email so staff of the Iowa Center for the Book can reach you if we have questions about your entry or need to update the entry. This is in a separate section of the form and will not be displayed on the Web site.
- Willing to do programs - yes/no. Often book groups, classroom teachers, or public libraries are looking for authors to come and talk with group members, students or library patrons. This can provide you with good book exposure.
- What kind of books have you written? This will help readers decide whether your books fit their reading preferences or program or curricular needs.
- Type: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry collection, short story collection
- Audience: Children, Young Adult, Adult
- Genre: Examples listed include biography, drama, essays, history, mystery, realistic fiction, romance, politics, and science fiction but please add any other genre that you feel is appropriate in the “other” option.
For each book, we are looking for standard citation information.
- Title
- Publisher
- Place
- Date
We appreciate your participation in this project. We are excited by the possibilities of putting Iowa books into the hands of Iowa readers!
The information you enter will be reviewed before it appears on the Web site. Every effort is made to check for new author submissions Monday through Friday.