Samhain Publishing

We very frequently have calls for a themed anthology, be it the current call for a space opera story or the recent call for the bondage-themed anthology (Binding Ties! Coming this September! grin) or any of our many other anthologies.

Personally, I love anthologies. My reader self loves them for the theme, and the variety of voices, and the bite-sized reads are perfect for a quick fix. My editor self loves the chance to work with Samhain authors I don’t usually get to work with and the opportunity to discover brand-spanking new authors – each of the anthologies I’ve done have included at least one previously unpublished author.

So, I’d like to offer a few tips to help you find yourself included in an upcoming anthology.

1. Follow the guidelines.
If we ask for a 15,000-word story, don’t send us 150,000 words. If we ask for super-hot, don’t close the bedroom door and lock the door. We aren’t trying to trick you or test you with our calls. We’re telling you exactly what we’re looking for, so sending us what we want will improve your chances.

2. Make it a complete story.
Even though our anthology calls are short (under 30,000 words), that doesn’t mean we don’t still want a fully developed story with plot and conflict and character development. My authors know how much I tend to rant and rave about the vignette. Vignettes are pretty, but they’re not going to give us tension and angst and the conflict readers want to take them on your characters’ journey.

3. Don’t make it a shortened version of a complete story.
I know that sounds like a contradiction of my previous point, but remember that even though we want plot and conflict and character development, you still only have less than 30,000 words. Try to keep the in-depth mythologies and backstories and histories short and sweet and not too convoluted. Readers don’t want to feel like they’re missing part of the story when they get to the end.

4. Respect the deadlines.
We’re pretty darn firm on the due dates for the anthologies. First, we usually only have a couple of weeks in which to read all of the submissions we have (most people are last minute people, so we expect that a good 60 – 80% of the submissions come in on the last day), so we need every one of those days to make sure we give the submissions we have the most amount of attention. Second, accepting late submissions isn’t fair to those who did get their manuscripts in on time, or to the others who missed the deadline and didn’t ask.

5. Remember that sometimes you can do everything right and still not make it…and it’s not your fault
Sometimes we get totally awesome stories that no matter how hard we try, we just can’t make them work with the other stories in the anthology. Usually this comes down to genre or heat level or characters. Because we frequently package the anthology stories into a print book, we try to keep things similar. So, fitting a M/M in with two M/F stories or a futuristic suspense with contemporary romances could result in very angry readers who are surprised by a sudden twist in expectations or difficulty in knowing where and how to market the story in the bookstores. The editors have had a few really interesting discussions about this… while some of us like the variety of genres in a story, most readers don’t like to play a game of ‘One of these things is not like the others’.

6. Don’t be intimidated by this rule: Please be aware that manuscripts submitted to this anthology cannot be resubmitted at a later date unless by invitation from an editor.
I get this question a lot, because we get a lot of really great submissions for our anthology calls, and we only have a few slots that we can fill. I’m going to tell you a little secret (Shhh. Don’t tell Angie… ). We’re in the business of publishing great books. So rejecting a great book just because it didn’t fit the anthology isn’t good business sense. So, if I get a submission that doesn’t work for my anthology, but I’m totally in love with it, I’ll buy it for my regular schedule. If that same submission is really good, but kinda not my personal taste, I’ll offer it up to another editor to look at to buy for her regular schedule. So, if your submission is totally awesome, it still has a shot at being considered for publication with us…even if it’s not part of the anthology.

So, I hope that helps a bit, and that your name is up on our site under the next anthology we release. Editors? Anthology authors? Do you have any tips you want to add?