Anthology Calls
This year I'm trying something completely different with my writing. I've always written where the muse took me. In the last couple of years I've learned to see a project through even as the muse went on vacation and taunted me, but I always started with the muse.
I was double checking the submission guidelines for an e-publisher that I was interested in possibly submitting a WIP to and I read over a call for submissions for an anthology they are putting together. I've seen them in the past, but usually didn't pay very much attention if I didn't already have something written along those lines. But for some reason this time I stopped and read over the guidelines carefully and wondered about writing something specifically for this anthology. I then did what I do best, I started researching. I pulled up other publishers website looking for other "calls for submission" and I actually found several that had other anthology or novella calls. All of which are e-publishers. I haven't checked out every publisher, but the few print one's I looked at didn't have any such calls on their submissions pages.
I was intrigued with the idea. What if I wrote something specifically for a particular publisher and submission call and had to make that deadline (they are all in the first couple of months of 2010)? I can't wait for the muse to saunter into my office. It will take a firm commitment from me to meet the word count goals each day that I will need to meet the deadline. It's way too easy to miss self-imposed deadlines, at least for me.
I'm already thinking up alternative publishers to submit to just in case the story isn't exactly what the editor is looking for in the anthology.
How about any of you? Have you written a story, novella, or novel strictly for a certain submission call? Would you want to? Would you not want to?
I was double checking the submission guidelines for an e-publisher that I was interested in possibly submitting a WIP to and I read over a call for submissions for an anthology they are putting together. I've seen them in the past, but usually didn't pay very much attention if I didn't already have something written along those lines. But for some reason this time I stopped and read over the guidelines carefully and wondered about writing something specifically for this anthology. I then did what I do best, I started researching. I pulled up other publishers website looking for other "calls for submission" and I actually found several that had other anthology or novella calls. All of which are e-publishers. I haven't checked out every publisher, but the few print one's I looked at didn't have any such calls on their submissions pages.
I was intrigued with the idea. What if I wrote something specifically for a particular publisher and submission call and had to make that deadline (they are all in the first couple of months of 2010)? I can't wait for the muse to saunter into my office. It will take a firm commitment from me to meet the word count goals each day that I will need to meet the deadline. It's way too easy to miss self-imposed deadlines, at least for me.
I'm already thinking up alternative publishers to submit to just in case the story isn't exactly what the editor is looking for in the anthology.
How about any of you? Have you written a story, novella, or novel strictly for a certain submission call? Would you want to? Would you not want to?
Came across your blog and found your latest post intriguing. I think you should go for it. Try it. Be creative within clear confines - the confines may not limit the work, but help to shape it. I get the feeling you can see this through and learn a lot from it.
ReplyDeleteHope this helps!
Steph Fey x
Make sure it's not a sham. Don't pay them money to be in there publication. There are poetry shams designed in this fashion.
ReplyDeleteStephanie - Thank you for stopping by. I am writing for the first anthology call I found. Red Hot Fairy Tales for Samhain. So far it has been very interesting working creatively while within the set guidelines. I'm liking it. Thank you for the encouragement.
ReplyDeleteJan - Don't worry, I'm always very careful in my research of any publisher. These are respected e-publishers within the romance industry. Money flows to the author not to the publisher.