An Anthology for a Cause: The Process

Dawn Colclasure graciously accepted my invitation to write a little on the process of putting together an anthology to fill in a bit while I take some time off. I believe her story is a good example of how we can make our efforts do good in the world and how important it is for us to remain flexible.

 

An Anthology for a Cause

 

By Dawn Colclasure

 

The first time I put together an anthology, it was a semi-anthology: A book that contained five essays from writing parents on how they find balance between writing and parenting mixed in with interviews I did with several other writing parents throughout the world. My latest book is pretty much the same thing, except that the writing I did for it is not interviews and my royalties will be donated to a charity.

But this particular book did not start out as an anthology. It was actually based on a blog series I ran in 2009 for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I had wanted to do a “charity book” for a long time–-a book in which proceeds from sales went to charity. When my publisher, Gypsy Shadow Publishing, started publishing such books, I jumped on that opportunity to finally make a “charity book” happen. But my book was still not yet an anthology.

 

It didn’t turn into an anthology until much later in the process. A friend and fellow writer wrote a story that had a character who was diagnosed with breast cancer. She knew I was working on a breast cancer book for charity, so she asked if I’d like to include her story. That was when I realized that perhaps this book was indeed an anthology. After all, other writers such as Carolyn Howard-Johnson had contributed to this project back when it was a blog series, and health professionals had taken the time to contribute press releases and assorted material related to breast cancer. Sure, I interviewed some people for this book, and some contributors had a contribution in the form of quotes, but it definitely seemed like this book was turning into an anthology after all.

 

Word of mouth is the one thing that transformed my book, Onthe Wings of Pink Angels: Triumph, Struggle and Courage Against Breast Cancer, into the anthology that was published in late October. I used Facebook and Twitter to let people know I welcomed their submissions related to breast cancer, and when I used Help A Reporter Out (often known by reporters and other writers who use it as HARO) for the Race for the Cure section of the book, I let everyone know this book is for charity. Many people loved the idea and were happy to be a part of something that would benefit grieving children. It was also a good chance for several people, breast cancer survivors, and people affected by breast cancer, to share their stories.

 

That’s the best part about putting together an anthology: Allowing people to share their stories, get their voices heard, and write touching tributes to those who lost their battle against breast cancer. This book was the chance for so many people to come together to spread awareness about the disease and give hope to those still trying to find their way.

 

My book did not turn out to be the way it originally started, but thanks to everyone who took the time to be involved in it, it has turned into something much better and even more inspiring that we can all offer to the world.

 

Author Biography:

 

Dawn Colclasure is a writer who lives in Oregon. Her articles, essays, poems and short stories have appeared in several newspapers, anthologies, magazines and E-zines. She is the author of nine books, among them Burning the Midnight Oil: How We Survive as Writing Parents (http://www.booklocker.com/books/1743.html ); 365 Tips for Writers: Inspiration, Writing Prompts and Beat The Block Tips to Turbo Charge Your Creativity (http://filbertpublishing.com/our-titles/our-books/365-tips-for-writers/ ); Love is Like a Rainbow: Poems of Love and Devotion (http://www.gypsyshadow.com/DawnColclasure.html#LoveRainbow ); On the Wings of Pink Angels: Triumph, Struggle and Courage Against Breast Cancer (http://www.gypsyshadow.com/DawnColclasure.html#PinkAngels ); and the children’s book The Yellow Rose (http://www.gypsyshadow.com/DawnColclasure.html#YellowRose).

Her Web site is at http://dmcwriter.tripod.com/.

About On the Wings of Pink Angels:

"You have cancer." These are words people dread hearing. But when worse comes to worst, push comes to shove, something wonderful happens. More people come together for support and encouragement. More people participate in "Race for the Cure" events, and more people discover an inner strength within themselves that they never knew they had before. On the Wings of Pink Angels offers a gentle hand through this difficult time, sharing stories that inspire hope, strength, gratitude and courage during a time when someone must fight for his or her life against breast cancer.

Learn more about this e-book.

 

Note that 100% of the author's royalties from sales of this ebook will be donated to the charity Courageous Kids (http://www.courageouskidsoregon.org/ ), a nonprofit organization devoted to helping children cope with the loss of a loved one.


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Maria Danforth Shares on the Pitfalls of Anthologies

Anthologies are a good way for writers to gain credibility, get exposure for their writing, make valuable new contacts and more. But they aren't trouble free as Maria Danforth points out in her essay on the  risks. If you have positive or negative anthology experiences to share, please leave them in the comments section.

The Pitfalls of Participating in Unvetted Anthologies

By Maria Danforth

 

When you get that acceptance letter that says your story is going to appear in a horror anthology collection, it's usually a cause for celebration. However, as any writer with a little experience under his or her belt knows that before you even consider giving up the rights to that dark little darling you've written you need to be sure that it's going somewhere you can trust.

New and Unvetted Anthologies
Lots of publishers, both big and small, and individuals put out anthology collections of one sort of another. It's a great way to capitalize on the love of short stories, it gets people to buy a new product and it ensures that lots of writers get a piece of the pie. However, if an anthology hasn't been up and running for some time there's every possibility that it could be a scam. And even if it's not a scam, there is every chance that your story will be taken and twisted, poorly edited and that your payment will be much delayed.

What are the Risks?
They are legion, but some of them are a bigger worry than others. For instance, one of the biggest concerns you should worry about as a newer writer is that the anthology you're submitting to is a fraud, or a vanity publisher. The second is much easier to deduce than the former. All you have to do is find out the name of the publisher that's running the anthology and see what its reputation is. Companies that fall into the same boat as Publish America and other, print-on-demand, publish-anything companies will be easy to spot because any author that's ever been burned will put up big, red warnings for anyone that's looking.

For out and out scams it's harder to tell just what it is you're looking at. However, if the "anthology" asks for a fee for you to be included, flatters you with generic praise for your story (even to the point that it doesn't mention the title), or the description focuses more on what the final volume will look like than what the content will be, you should be very suspicious. This goes double for anthologies for new companies, or for companies that are running a first year anthology. This is not to say you shouldn't take a risk as a writer if it looks legitimate, but if it's more concerned with you paying a fee or selling you the dream of being in a leather bound edition, you might want to move on.

Professionalism Issues
Even anthologies that aren't out and out scams can still give authors fits with how unprofessional they are. For instance, an anthology could accept your story and then change around your sequence of events, alter the names of your main characters or even re-write the ending. A professional anthology won't do that, and it would never even contemplate doing so without your express permission as the writer, but it can and has happened in the past.

Even if a company doesn't completely re-write your story, making it something unrecognizable from the source material, there is still the chance that you have to deal with unprofessional or amateur editors. For instance, you should always make sure that you will get a final version of your story and how it will appear in the anthology. If edits will be made then you should have the chance to see and approve them. So before you sign over your story to an unvetted anthology and hope for the best, you need to ask a few pointed questions to see what will happen once you've signed off.

~Maria Danforth writes about blogging, literature & more at http://creditreport.org.

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Guest Post U

The University of Great Content: www.guestpostu.com

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Coming! StoneThread Publishing's Contest and Anthology

Stonethread Publishing's first contest and the resulting anthology was such a huge success that they’ve decided to do it again! They’re seeking speculative fiction short stories. They define speculative fiction as any story in any genre that responds to the question “What if?” in a way that depends on science or on any fantastic elements. The genres might include science fiction (hard or sociological), fantasy, magic realism, psychological horror or suspense (no slash and gash please), ghost stories, urban fantasy, paranormal romance (no erotica please), etc. They may be based in the past, present, or future. With that in mind, send them your best effort.

Contest Rules

There is no reading fee or entry fee for this contest.
Entry deadline, 30 November 2012 (may be extended if we do not receive enough entries).

Previously unpublished speculative fiction only please.
1,000 to 10,000 words.

Email submission as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf attachment to contest@stonethreadpublishing.com.

Enter as many stories as you like, one story per email.
Name and email address must appear in upper left corner of the first page of the story.

Past tense is the natural voice of narrative; please, no present tense.

Winners will be announced by e-mail approximately one month after the contest closes.

Note: The editors and judges will endeavor to correct any inadvertent errors in a submission (e.g., email address missing from the manuscript) but we will not read entries that are under or over the word-count limits or that are presented in present tense.

 

Prizes

All winning entries including all honorable mentions will be included in an anthology to be published as an e-book by StoneThread Publishing. We reserve the right to publish the anthology in paperback as well.

First Place:   $50 plus one copy of the anthology
Second through Sixth:       $20 plus one copy of the anthology
Honorable Mentions:         $5 plus one copy of the anthology

To get on our mailing list for releases and other contests, please visit http://stonethreadpublishing.com/contests and sign up.

Our first contest resulted in an anthology, Body-Smith 401 and Twenty Other Stories, dedicated to the memory of Ray Bradbury. You can purchase it at Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/234378) in any e-book format. During checkout use the coupon code CH76A (not case sensitive) to get 25% off your order. You can also purchase it at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009991BZQ) but there's no coupon for it there.

PS: My SharingwithWriters newsletter regular runs accessible contest suggestions. Send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and I'll do it for you. (-:


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Recycle Your Books and Get More Readership, Too

Trying a Collected Works E-Book to Spur Sales

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Note: I got excited about Gene Cartwright's new "Collected Works" idea and asked him to tell you about it—as a success, but also as a guide for anyone else interested in trying this. I even like the cover. It has a traditional feel of collected works of the greats to it.

How and Why I Created My "Collected Works" on Amazon: $23 vs. $9.99

By Gene Cartwright

Am I breaking new ground? Perhaps.

Having a mind that seldom sleeps is both a blessing and a curse. I suppose I was in high-speed, Autobahn mode the other day, just after publishing my seventh eBook, "Fire Night."

http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Night-ebook/dp/B0079N53YE/ref%3Dsr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329934319&sr=1-6

Most of my titles at GeneCartwright.com are also hardcover and/or softcovers.

After uploading my recent title, "Fire Night" I decided to place it in Amazon’s Kindle Select Program. (https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect )Click the link to learn more about the program. Of course, an author hopes those who purchase one of his or her titles will be inclined to also read the others.

Therefore, it occurred to me increased readership would be more likely if a collection of all my works were available and at a price that made economic sense. So I created a single eBook containing all seven of my available titles: "Gene Cartwright  - Collected Works."  (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3Dnb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Gene+Cartwright) . These are complete works, not excerpts, including the Pulitzer-nominated, "A Family Gathering."

In my case, individual purchases of my books total over $23. However, purchasing my collection: "Gene Cartwright - Collected Works" at $9.99, will benefit the buyer and me. Of course, this all depends upon the pricing of one's individual works. The advantage to me is my "per buyer transaction profit" will likely be higher. Even if a buyer is not initially drawn to each title in the collection, I believe the bargain will be too good to pass up.

My second real advantage may be with the "Select" program. Amazon sets aside a monthly fund to distribute to the Select Program's authors, based upon the number of 'borrows' for an author's titles. This month, the fund is $600,000. Additionally, buyers may also purchase the book, if they choose. It is also great advertising, as all Amazon's 'Prime Members' are notified of the program's titles.

After 90 days, per my agreement with Amazon, I may choose to provide my collection to all other eBook vendors. I see it as a win-win option I am willing to test. A collection of works may not be of benefit to everyone. However, it is at least worth examining.

~Gene Cartwright is the guru behind the writers' social network iFOGO (http://ifogovillage.ning.com/). Besides social networking and a blog feature, you'll also find services and other associated Web sites that benefit writers like www.booksforfilm.com.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Anthology Scams: Authors Beware

In a newsletter on marketing, I read a call for help from one of that letter’s subscribers. I was appalled because it sounded as if someone had decided to charge authors $595 to contribute their work (what amounts to a freelance article) and their videos (what amounts to a freelance production) to what amounted to a self-published e-book. The would-be author/editor of this book needed help in roping in more authors to pay that hefty fee and admits that the "media typically aren't interested [in contributing]."

Well, if the media aren’t interested in contributing, there may be a reason beyond the fact that this "anthology"  is self-published. What would that be? Here it is: The chapters are paid-for advertorials. That means editors would be complicit in getting their readers to pay to participate in what feels, well, a bit shady to them. At least newspapers’ advertorials are labeled as “advertisements.”

Hint: If you don’t know what an advertorial is, please look it up in your copy of the second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). It’s in the chapter on why you generally shouldn’t pay for advertising, anyway.

And if the media aren't interested in contributing to this project, will they be any more interested in covering the book with features, reviews or other kinds of exposure for the book when it comes out? I'm afraid I don't see the benefit to the author of a project like this. Sure, they’ll get a credit line and a byline but without much exposure in the media, who will read it?

Giving away free articles in trade for a byline/nice credit/and links is one thing. Paying to have someone to put together a book that may sell very few copies anyway is entirely something else. In fact, if feels scammy to me.

The help I would give the subscriber to this newsletter is: Please find another way to involve experts and cross promote with them. There are ways to do that where everyone benefits and participants don't have to pay more than they'll ever get back in royalties--or prestige.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Promotion for the Shy Writer and Newbies

In The Frugal Book Promoter , I advise the shy writer to promote by what they love to do most, writing. Yes, you can sit behind your computer and promote. There are a litany of ways for both publishers and writers to get the message about a book out there; they’re all listed in The Frugal Book Promoter with advice for how to do each of them. But the ones that seem most appreciated are the ones that authors (and their publishers!) can utilize from behind their own computer screens. I also include methods that are accessible to those who haven't yet developed a lot of contacts.

Among those are publishing in anthologies and lesser-known or beginning journals. The emerging writer has a better chance of recognition with these kinds of publications and the shy writer need never show his or her face or even pick up a phone. And "anthology" and "lesser-known" does not mean you don’t have to sacrifice quality. New or small or online does not necessarily mean that a journal isn’t respected.

One of my poems about morning glories and chicken poop was just published in Writings from the River edited by Frederick Bridger (www.frontrangereview.org). It is Montana State University’s journal (so it has the academic cache), but they specialize in a Midwest sensibility which this little poem (borrowed from my childhood experiences) had in abundance. By the way, they will soon be publishing under the name Front Range Review.

I had a similar experience with Mary, a journal put out by St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles.

I also had the luck to publish with a brand new journal Pear Noir . When one submits to something brand new, one has no idea of what to expect. It turned out to be beautiful and this note today is mostly to urge you poets and short story writers to submit to them. When I received this well-designed volume, I was surprised to see that a fellow UCLA instructor, Les Plesko, was also published in it along with quite a few recognizable names in the literary world.

So, one can luck out. But even if the newbie journal doesn’t turn out to be all that you’d hope, it is always a thrill to have someone think enough of your work to want to include it.

Keep in mind that payment for some of these journals is often very low. Sometimes they pay only in copies. I wouldn’t submit, though, if they don’t offer at least one copy in return for using your work. That feels a little scammy. You’ll want to see your work, after all, and you shouldn’t be forced to buy a copy to see it. In fact, that’s one of the ways you can determine the difference between an authentic literary journal and one that will publish anything to get unsuspecting authors to buy lots of copies or one big, thin-paged, unedited, and generally awful volume.

On the other hand, it is nice to buy an extra copy or two of a legitimate journal to support the people who cared enough to publish the very best--YOU.


PS: All of these literary journals will qualify for Poets and Writers'list of published poets (and other writers)--even if they don’t presently have these journals on their list of publications. It is a nice little literary touch to be listed among the nation’s greatest authors on that magazine’s site.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.