Thanks and Explanation on Invitations to the Anthologies

[jpskewedthrone]

First of all, thanks to everyone who voted on the Modern Faery Title poll I put up yesterday! There is an obvious favorite, although suggestions left in the comments are going to be taken into account before we decide on a final title. There were also lots of suggestions for combining titles or tweaking ones we already had, so we'll look at those. But I certainly think we can get a decent title out of the feedback we've gotten.

A few writers out there were curious about how we're going to fill these anthologies with cool stories, is it going to be invite-only or what? Our last anthology was invite-only to a very select few authors, simply because we'd never edited an anthology before and wanted to try to control the chaos somewhat. We feel that we've learned a few things based on that anthology (AFTER HOURS: TALES FROM THE UR-BAR, preorder yours today!) so we're going to try things a little differently this time. How we're going to do that, we don't know yet.

You see, at this stage the anthology hasn't even been sold. We're only working up some proposals. So, we've got the description of the anthology, the title, and the editors. *coughcough* For the next stage, we're going to send out the anthology descriptions to potential authors who might be interested in writing a story for the anthology and who's name might be able to help us sell it. For example, we'll invite, say, Jim Butcher (picking a name at random). If he's interested and is willing to put his name on the proposal, then we'll add him to the list and hope that having him interested in the anthology helps us sell it.

We've got a list of potential authors we'd like to invite. At the moment, we'll only be getting in touch with those who's names will help sell the idea. After that, we'll see how many slots in the anthology are left open and then expand the invite list from there. We both feel that we can handle a wider invite list than the last anthology. How wide, we're not sure yet. It depends on interest and, if the anthologies sell, what the deadlines are. But we'll certainly let people know if there's going to be an open call for any of them.

Oh, and if any of you guys have something you can hold over, say, Neil Gaiman or George R.R. Martin that you'd be willing to cash in for our benefit, please get in touch. *grin*

Comments

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Well, if you have any slots left over and would like some less favourite contributors :puts up hand:

[highway-west.livejournal.com]

That does make sense. You need some names to get attention. Hopefully, you will be able open up s couple of slots for submission. :)

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I read this as 'Invitations to the Antipodes'.

[(Anonymous)]

I *really* wanted to ask the question about this but was too shy. Thanks for the explanation!

[blood-of-winter.livejournal.com]

this was me...I didnt realize I wasnt signed in.

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

Jeff VanderMeer went through a whole discussion link a few years back about the verities of open vs invite only anthos. As I remember he took a moderate stance weighed slightly toward the "open" side and was pilloried. But yeah, both in the "starting up" and "we gotta sell this thing to a publisher" side of things having invite only works best. Hopefully once you get your name known for editing, that can change. A little. Maybe.

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

I only wish I had the direct line to Neil, but... alas.

I'd have to say that it's frustrating to be in the category of writers who aren't famous enough to sell books by the virtue of their name alone. Most of the ones who -are-, get so many invitations they can't fulfill them all, the rest of us sit by the phone like a second-choice prom date. :> Stupid system, it has failed us once again!

Good luck pitching the concepts, though, looking forward to seeing what gets the green light. (And I can still make a hell of a pitch for myself if you ever open up auditions. :> )

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Chiming in as a co-editor-- when you're pitching a spec idea to the publisher, it's the status of the potential contributors that matter. So there's the list of "These names will help sell the project" and the much larger list of "These people we want to invite to send in stories after we've sold the project."

[1hope1dream.livejournal.com]

Well, if you've got any open slots and want to try out new and unpublished authors in there...I'll volunteer to get murdered by everyone else's fans! *grin* (BTW if there's any confusion, I used to be on LJ under amguynes but things changed so my journal has changed.)

All shameless self-promotion aside, I do volunteer work for a website where we have to review submissions to make sure they follow the rules to get ONTO the website. I don't edit them, I just let the people know what needs to be fixed to get it ready for submission and that's hard enough. I've edited a few things for friends and family before too, so I have a vague inkling of the difficulty involved in such a large project. Good luck with pitching the idea, getting it sold, and getting through the pile of submissions for it!

"The Splatterfairies" is available

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

My story "The Splatterfairies" (think of the brownies who come in to do good deeds at night while everyone's asleep, but turn them into wicked fairies bent on doing mischief) is available . . . maybe I could be one of those invited later? Ah, I'll put it on my prayer list.