Although they have been around for a long while in the publishing world, anthologies and short stories appear to be riding a new wave of popularity. SFFWorld has invited four talented editors to share their views on the subject.
Fantasy author Joanne Hall is the Acquisitions Editor for Kristell Ink. She has co-edited three anthologies, the most recent of which is the award-nominated Fight Like a Girl (Kristell Ink, 2016). Nathan Hystad is the Editor-in-Chief of Woodbridge Press and a science fiction, horror, and fantasy author. He has edited five anthologies, with a sixth one (the fourth in the Explorations series) out in October. SFFWorld contributor Nila E. White writes science fiction and fantasy, and has edited and co-edited five SFFWorld anthologies. Andrew Leon Hudson, Nila’s co-editor at SFFWorld, writes an eclectic range of weird western, science fiction, crime, horror, and historical fantasy. He will be editing the latest SFFWorld anthology, a shared-world compilation of hero and villain tales.
Thank you all for joining us at SFF World. These days, it seems that everywhere you turn there’s a submission call for an anthology. Anthologies are, of course, not new, but why do they seem to be so popular at the moment?
Nathan: It does seem like there are a lot of avenues for short story writers these days, and I think a lot of it has to do with the electronic avenues we have to publish them. Some are posted on blogs, e-magazines, or in eBooks, and the publisher can do this with ease. We are also living in a time where time seems to be more in demand, so readers enjoy reading a piece of flash fiction, or a short story that has a start, middle, and end they can read in one sitting.
Nila: I agree that the age of eBooks and alternative reading platforms (i.e. Wattpad, etc.) has reminded everyone that short fiction can be just as satisfying and fun as novels. But I also think short fiction has always been popular. I’ve been pleasantly astounded to discover some of the venerable sci-fi stories are shorts.
Joanne: I think as the market for short stories has moved more online there’s been an increase not only in the demand for short stories, but in the markets available to writers, rather than there just being a few print magazines. And with the rise of the Kindle, a lot of people are looking for a quick read that they can just slot into their commute. It’s like the short story is having a resurgence, which is great.
Andrew: Lots of people try the sampling menu when they check out a new restaurant. It’s fun to dip into a range of alternatives and see what appeals, even to find out what doesn’t.
Like Nila says, short fiction has been hugely popular for years, so it’s not exactly a new situation. But there is a general embracing of short digital-media forms and publishing has flourished in this medium, so it doesn’t surprise me that short stories would see a similar benefit to that which novels and other longer works of fiction are enjoying.
Short story collections, meaning stories by the same single author, are popular too, but anthologies offer something different. I have a bad habit of consuming short story books the same way I would a novel. I find it can become a bit exhausting to bounce through numerous pieces by the same author, one after another, even when it comes to authors I like a lot. With anthologies, the variety of sources avoids that problem (so I guess that’s why they are popular with me).
How can you make an anthology stand out from all the others around?
Andrew: The obvious way is to pick the right theme, but I think it’s important not to try too hard to be unique. I spotted a submission call recently that was so distinctively narrow that, yes, it would certainly stand out, but how many pieces it would receive I couldn’t say. Nor how much it would appeal to an audience. It certainly identified a niche, but if you can count the potential contributors (and readers) on your fingers and toes…
Nila: My strategy has been to attach a “big” name to each project. And by big, I mean, someone I am currently a big fan of. I was super lucky to get both Hugh Howey (right before his Wool and Silo series went viral) and Michael J. Sullivan for my very first anthology. That kind of set the stage, so to speak. Also, the anthologies I put together with the forum writers on SFF World are special in that I purposely wanted to provide a venue to showcase new writers. The monthly contests on SFFWorld.com produce such good material, I wanted to share that with the world.
Joanne: It’s really nice to have a big name if you can get one. We’ve had some success with themed anthologies – “Airship Shape and Bristol Fashion” did really well, as did “Fight Like A Girl”. It helps to find some angle to the anthology that will resonate with people, rather than a bunch of unconnected stories.
Nathan: Woodbridge Press is publishing their sixth anthology in a year and a half, and what I’ve done to try to separate my collections is to use shared worlds/universes. “The Haunting of Lake Manor Hotel” had 13 tales told in the same hotel, with the same staff, many stories linking together between the authors. Then the Explorations books are in a shared universe, with again, many tie-ins, even more so in the last one “Explorations: War”, where we had an overall story arc the authors kept to. I find this a fun way to be different from the other anthologies out there.
What is, in your opinion, the perfect mix of stories for an anthology? Do you prefer them all similar in pacing, for instance? Or do you like some variety?
Nathan: I like a variety. Moods, characters, POVs, length, intensity. The hard part is placing them within the collection to get that perfect flow, and I’m not sure I always get it right, but it is something I strive for.
Joanne: Yes, definitely like a variety so you can mix them up a bit. Putting together an anthology is a bit like (showing my age here!) putting together a compilation tape – you don’t want the stories to jar against each other. It’s always good if you can get them to flow. We write notes about each story on an index card, lay them out on the floor, and move them around until we think we have them in the right order.
Nila: I like variety, too. Whether what I produce flows or not, I am not a good judge of that. But based on other anthologies I have read, I think that’s a challenge all anthology editors face. Sometimes, you get a great story, but it doesn’t fit well with all the others. What to do? I always error on the side of including too much, rather than too little.
Andrew: I agree, a good mix generally demands differing ingredients, especially if the theme establishes a very strong common factor.
Open submissions vs. invitation only? Thoughts?
Joanne: I like to do a mix of invitation and open subs. If you’re editing an anthology it’s a really good opportunity to showcase new authors alongside more established ones, and that’s important to me.
Nathan: I love the idea of open invitations, and I did open invite a few spots in “Journeys”, and “Explorations: Through the Wormhole”. If I had employees, and/or more time, I may look at it again, because I love the idea of giving different authors a shot at being published, perhaps for the first time, in my books. For the most part, I have been doing invite only though, and the quality of stories has been super high.
Nila: I have never done invitation only. Seems a little exclusionary to do so. I like seeing what’s out there.
Andrew: I think both approaches work fine. Depending on how well-connected an editor is, invitation only can result in a higher standard of writing but also a tendency for familiar, popular names to appear time and again across different projects. I don’t just mean projects of a particular editor–regardless of who puts them together, many top-end anthology covers tend to boast similar star turns (and why not? they’ll appeal strongly to an established readership). So I’d say that an open call’s primary advantage is the greater possibility of encountering something wholly new, balanced by the factor that it may have to work harder to be noticed.
Nila kicked off the SFF World anthologies more or less with a bit of both–it wasn’t an actual open call for subs, just within the forum’s writing community, but that was open to anyone who wanted to join in. To this she added a few invitations with the aim of raising the project’s overall profile with some professional presence, and that’s basically still the format now. All that’s changed is, for the last three years, subs have been opened to the wider world as well. I think that’s simply down to the project and editors finding their feet and growing in confidence. Necessary too, since a truly open call can mean a truly open floodgate.
How much editorial work do you think an anthology organizer should be expected to do?
Joanne: Loads. It’s important to be involved at every stage, from slush reading to cover design to marketing. Probably something that’s more likely in the small press. We’ve taken previously unpublished authors through multiple edits if we’ve loved their story but felt that the execution needed work. Otherwise what’s the point? You’re trying to make all the stories shine.
Nila: Holy crap. These things take a boat-load of time, money, and talent. They are not for the faint of heart. Ultimately, the more you out into it, the better the product.
Andrew: I expect the question of invitation-only/open-submissions has a big impact. If you want a dozen stories and that’s how many you receive, obviously that’s less work than sifting through countless options and winnowing out your preferred few. As far as the actual editing of submissions is concerned, my feeling is that there is a responsibility by all involved to deliver quality, not just to future readers but also to the other contributing authors. As a writer, you always want to provide your best, but you also want to be alongside other good work. As an editor, you need to be making sure that happens. If I see a story that’s a close fit but isn’t quite there, I’ll try to work with the author to get it there. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Nathan: I produce the books from conception, to covers, to finished product, so this takes a lot of work. I do outsource a few things, and do hire a copy-editor to do the necessary work (shout out to Scarlett R. Algee and Samanda Primeau, who both do exceptional work). Like anything, what you put into a collection is what you get out of it, and of course the work isn’t over once the book is out there for the world to buy. Then it’s marketing time! So, unless you are willing to spend months on a project, producing or editing a collection probably isn’t for you.
How hard is it managing authors? And for Nathan and Andrew, who are working within a ‘shared world’ concept, how hard is it to keep everyone on the same track?
Nathan: I create private Facebook groups for the authors, and we bounce ideas back and forth; some post their stories for others to read, and use common names, and events from. I often get a list of questions emailed to me before an author writes in my universe, and I go through them one by one to ensure we are all on the same page. So far this part has been fairly smooth. Of course, when dealing with a large group of people there can be challenges with deadlines and communication, but I’ve been quite lucky so far.
Nila: Chocolate goes a long way. And like Nathan said, communication is key. I tend to write long-winded emails with tons of details, then keep repeating myself until I get results. Works for me!
Joanne: Wrangling authors is a bit like herding cats. I think it’s important to give every author individual attention – we try not to send mass emails when we can contact each author privately and talk to them about the whole process. Some authors need more hand-holding than others, and that’s fine.
Andrew: I’ve had a few cases where my idea of how to fix something clashed with the author’s. More often than not it’s worked down to a satisfactory compromise, but on a few occasions one side or the other has walked away. However, my general experience, limited though it is, suggests that “managing” authors hasn’t been much of a headache at all.
As far as our specifically shared world anthology is concerned, we’re playing the coordination tune by ear. The option has been raised every year since the first project, but was always rejected as too demanding to be workable. Now we’re trying it, but we’re being intentionally vague on many details: in essence we’re saying, Here’s a vast city to play in, go define your little corner of it. That means the chance of contradictions is minimised, if not eradicated.
The longer-term plan is to produce other anthologies in the same setting and build progressively on what came before. The genre is urban spec-fic, but the approach is more organic than that might sound. We’re planning subtle ways to create connections between the stories so the overall anthology gains a more cohesive feel, and this element is hopefully going to work to our advantage during pre-release promotional activities too.
How important is communication between the anthology editor and the authors? How do you handle this?
Nathan: One thing that I find anthologies great for is networking. I try to make it so the authors in my collections can get to know each other in the process. They can bounce stuff off each other, become FB friends, help promote one another’s new projects and books. It’s a fantastic way to expand your network, and for me, being able to invite so many amazing authors, many of whom I read their books all the time, has been so great. Through the Explorations collections, I’ve worked with so many best-selling SF authors it blows my mind. And the talent of some of the newer authors on the scene is so great to see start unraveling, and it’s exciting for me to be able to work with them at an early stage of their upcoming careers.
Being an author myself, and having been in a few collections, one thing I always noticed, was the lack of communication or opportunity to communicate between authors, so that was one thing I wanted to establish as I created my brand. In the time since I started Woodbridge Press, I have learned so much from making these collections, and this is due to the awesome people I’ve surrounded myself in the process.
Joanne: See above. It’s vital. People’s stories are important to them and should be handled with respect.
Andrew: During the process people need to know where they stand, so naturally it matters then. On the other hand the editor is a bottleneck for a lot of different activities, all of them stampeding towards a deadline, so some degree of time management has to take place. Once the book is completed then you have promotion to deal with, at which point (ideally) your contributors become a key resource for reaching out to an audience. Some people find that easier than others, of course, and some people are more effective whether they find it easy or not. For me, this last part is the most demanding element of the whole anthologising process.
Tl; dr? Very! Email!
You can find our interview guests on their websites and on Twitter:
Joanne Hall: https://hierath.wordpress.com and @hierath77
Nathan Hystad: https://nathanhystad.com and @NathanHystad
Nila E. White: https://nilaewhite.wordpress.com and @n_e_white
Andrew Leon Hudson: https://andrewleonhudson.wordpress.com and @AndLeoHud
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Interview by Juliana Spink Mills – SFFWorld.com © 2017
