Why write for anthologies? Part 1
The first anthology I became involved with was A Splendid Salmagundi – put together from the UK based Goodreads group. They’d done one the year before and had some success with it. The royalties were fed back into the group for various uses – promotion and get-togethers for example. That wasn’t the point, however – it was a good way to get an author’s work in front of a new set of readers. Salmagundi was a mixed genre book – with everything from fantasy, to romance, to sci-fi, to mystery and beyond. I remember reading a heartbreaking story about a woman who was suffering from an incurable illness, and the tenderness her husband showed. That story touched me profoundly, as it wasn’t long after my own mother passed away. I cried. Some of the stories made me laugh, some I wasn’t as bothered with, but all were well crafted, and gave a good insight into the author’s style.
Not all the stories were for everyone – it depends on the reader’s tastes but there was bound to be something enjoyable, and that’s the point. A reader may take a chance of a short story from an author they aren’t familiar with – and enjoy their work.
Several groups write anthologies for charity – A Fifth of Boo! for example. I became involved with this one, and it’s predecessor through a writers’ Facebook Group. I usually see at least one anthology asking for submissions every couple of months. Now it’s not guaranteed your story would be accepted – some of the anthos have strict guidelines – but it’s worth a try.
For Boo! I wrote a ghost story based around the mysterious bunker at the site where I work. It was a story wanting to be written every time I walked past that damn building. It is good fun to get involved with a genre outside my normal fantasy writing. It’s also great writing practice. Anthologies are a great way to find a home for those stories which pop up at 3am and don’t have a place in the main body of your work.
Single shorts are a hard sell – especially very short ones – after all, are you, a reader, going to pay 99p or 99c for a 500-word story? Probably not. You might pay for a collection of stories, however. And thus find a new author.
There is definitely a knack to writing shorts – after all the author has to introduce the characters and the world, get the action going and then conclude within a relatively short space. No flowery descriptions there, or protracted scenes. I’ve read some super shorts and some crap ones, but that’s the same for novels. That said, I’m far more likely to persevere with a short than a novel I am not enjoying. There will be a post of writing short stories at a later date.
Anthologies are a great lunchtime read, or on the bus, or the half hour before sleep, or even on the toilet! All those times when a reader has a few minutes but not enough to get really involved.
Finding Anthologies
The places I’ve found anthologies:
Goodreads author groups, Facebook Groups (either via links or directly through the groups), word of mouth. Networking is a must for indie authors, and once you build these relationships it’s far easier to find this information. Indies tend to be supportive, but also needy (in the nicest way – it goes with the territory) and are often looking for people to join anthologies. Ask in groups, check online.
https://www.authorspublish.com
https://thejohnfox.com/publishers-of-short-story-collections/
https://www.mywordpublishing.com/2017/08/first-time-writers-self-publish-anthology/
https://www.janefriedman.com/getting-an-anthology-published/
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