Over the last few weeks I’ve discussed various legitimate and less legitimate ways authors are encouraged to spend money. Today we’re discussing anthologies.
First, what is an anthology?
An anthology is a collection of short literary works chosen by a compiler or organiser. It may be short stories, plays, articles, poems, songs, excerpts, or a combination of those.
Anthologies can be an excellent way of getting early publication credits, as you only need to submit a short piece of work, not a full novel.
The most famous anthology series is probably Chicken Soup for the Soul. It publishes several anthologies each year, each 101 stories on a specific theme. Stories must be non-fiction, no longer than 1200 words, and not previously published. Contributors receive $200 per story, plus ten free author copies and a discount on additional book purchases.
If you’re interested in Chicken Soup for the Soul, click here to check out their current topics under development.
Chicken Soup for the Soul has the qualities of a good anthology:
- The stories are curated—not everyone who submits a story gets published.
- The books are professional.
- Authors are paid.
- Authors receive some free copies of the book.
- Authors have the option to buy additional copies of the book at a substantial discount.
- The authors are not required to contribute towards the production or marketing of the book.
There are other kinds of anthologies which don’t meet all these standards, but which are still reputable anthologies.
Charity Anthology
While I’ve never participated in an anthology, I have friends who have. There are some up-front costs with producing an anthology, such as cover design and editing. There may also be some promotional costs (e.g. advertising or a website).
If the anthology is being organised by an individual or organisation, then the organiser might pay these up-front costs and be repaid from sales of the anthology, with profits then going to the named charity.
If a group of authors decide to create a charity anthology, then they may be asked to contribute towards the production costs (and may or may not be repaid these costs). Or they might each arrange and pay for their own editing, and find someone who will donate a cover design.
In either case, the aim is to keep costs down to maximise profit and therefore maximise the donations to the charity.
Contest Anthology
Some writing contests publish an anthology of the winning entries.
The Stories of Life contest costs AUD 10 to enter, which is used to fund cash prizes of $500 and $250 in each of the three contest categories. Shortlisted entrants in each category are published in an annual anthology at no additional cost—editing, cover design, formatting, printing, and all other costs are borne by the contest organisers. Contributors each receive a free copy of the published book, and some have the opportunity to further publicise their work by appearing on a local radio show. Contributors do not receive a royalty payment. I assume all royalties go back into a central fund to pay for the production of the next book.
FaithWriters also publish an annual anthology of approximately 100 of the best submissions to their weekly writing challenge. Anyone can join Faith Writers and enter the challenge, although only paid members can enter every week. Again, there is no additional cost (beyond the cost of Faith Writers Gold membership), but contributors don’t receive a royalty.
Box Set Anthologies
Many self-published authors participate in multi-author box sets as a way of introducing their work to new readers, or as a way of hitting a bestseller list (e.g. New York Times or USA Today). While the specifics of each box set vary, there is generally one author who leads the project and sets the rules. These will include the overall box set theme and manuscript length, and may also include cover design, editing, and formatting.
Each author is responsible for their individual expenses (e.g. cover design, editing, and formatting). They may also contribute to a joint fund if some expenses are to be shared (e.g. advertising, or design of the box set cover). The lead author will usually collect all royalties and distribute them to the participating authors, as per the agreed contract.
However, there are other ways of managing a group anthology, as Carole P Roman explains in this blog post about her experiences as an anthology participant and organiser:
https://www.bookworks.com/2019/04/creating-group-anthology/
Vanity Anthologies
Unfortunately, there are also vanity anthologies targeting Christian writers.
The 2019 Women of Purpose Anthology from Higgins Publishing aims to encourage women to “step out in faith even if they face rejection”, and offers participants the opportunity to become a “Best-Selling Author” and to receive profit of 100% of personal sales. All they have to do is submit a “pre-edited inspiring story of 1000 words” … and a minimum of $250 “registration”.
There are some early red flags, like the suggestion to use Grammarly.com “to edit your story to 100% accuracy.” Well, no. While Grammarly is no doubt better than Word’s spellcheck, it’s not as good as an actual editor. To suggest otherwise is akin to serving a burger patty when the customer asked for steak.
The minimum purchase is 25 books at 40% off the retail price (which is $25). So after paying a minimum of $250 to be in the anthology, authors must spend another $375 on books to sell to recoup that up-front cost. Or you can elect to pay $450 up front, and receive 25 “free” books. The most expensive package is $2,500, which gets you 200 books plus matching bookmarks, postcards, and a “retractable event banner”.
No. Just no.
I don’t take issue with paying for necessary production costs, such as editing, cover design, or even copies of the book. But the costs should be reasonable … and $2,500 for 200 books plus $100 worth of (unnecessary) promotional materials is far from reasonable.
Especially when you compare that to Chicken Soup, who pay all the production costs as well as giving each contributing author a small payment. Or paying $10 to enter the Stories of Life contest. Or a little more to join with friends and create an anthology which benefits a charity you all care about.
Thanks for that Iola. There certainly are a number of legitimate reasons why people might need to pay something to be in an anthology, but as you mention, there are also the vanity ones that will publish anything as long as you give them money.
I’ve had stories and poems in lots of anthologies and I think the only ones I paid anything for were the ones that were the entry fees for competitions. I don’ think I ever had to pay more than about $15 to enter, and it was worth it to be shortlisted and included in the anthology. I was in another anthology where we were encouraged to buy 10 at a discounted price (I can’t remember now if that was a requirement). But again in that case I felt it was worth it because the cost per unit was cheap and it was a beautifully-produced anthology that I was proud to be a part of. In that case I knew the publisher was just covering costs. For most anthologies, you would receive a free copy. However, others ask you to pay for your copy. That can also be legitimate, depending on the cost. Apart from the big ones like Chicken Soup for the Soul, publishers tend not to make much from anthologies.
I think the amount of money you’re being asked to contribute is one of the warning signals. If you have to pay $20 to enter a competition in which the grand prize is $100, forget it. You also shouldn’t be required to buy expensive book bundles. If possible, also see if the publisher has already published other books and look at the quality. Are they really choosing the best pieces to go into the anthology or will they publish anyone who pays something? Also check that you will still own the rights to the piece that’s included in the anthology.
In general, I’ve been really happy with the anthologies I’ve been in. They’ve been nicely produced and it’s an extra writing credit you can add to your CV. As long as you retain the rights to your individual pieces, you can also collect them into your own book at a later stage. So ‘go for it’, but keep your eyes open.
Thank you, Nola. You’ve given some great tips here based on your extensive experience with anthologies. It was knowing something about the anthologies you’ve been involved in which got my spidey senses tingling when I came across the vanity anthology.
Hello, I recently had a Zoom video with someone for a book series of anthologies who are passionate about empowering women. I took good notes during the meeting and everything has checked out that was said. However, what’s bothering me is that I need to pay a little over $1,000 in full or divided into 3 payments. For that I get to be published in the anthology, have full rights to my work, receive 10 free books, have an Amazon site to promote my book, a landing page to promote my book, access to an education piece on writing and so on provided by the publisher, a pod cast, an article in their magazine, and some other things. I really need some honest input about this please?
That’s a lot of money for a list of things that don’t have a lot of value e.g. 10 books will probably cost the publisher around $50, the “Amazon site” is probably a free Amazon author page, and being a guest on a podcast or writing an unpaid article for their magazine sounds like you’re promoting them, rather than the other way around.
You are paying for the person’s time rather than for things with a specific cost. Now, people deserve to be paid for their time (that’s a biblical principle), but this model has the publisher being paid for their time but not you. You’re paying to contribute to their profit-making publication, and (from what you’ve said) you won’t even earn royalties on any books sold.
That goes against the first rule of publishing: money flows from the publisher to the author.
From what you’ve said, it sounds as though this publisher’s business is to collate and publish anthologies, not to sell books. If you do go into this, you can expect the only people who will buy the book are you and your fellow contributors, and your friends and family (maybe – they might expect one of those free copies). Selling the book doesn’t matter to the publisher, because the contributors are paying all the costs (as well as paying for the publisher’s time).
If you want to write and share your story or message and don’t need to earn money from it, great. Start a website, or ask if you can write articles for other websites or magazines that feature your kind of story. Write for free if that’s your calling. But don’t feel you have