You know, sometimes I wonder just why our mothers chose to feed us from birth. That single habit has wreaked more havoc on a writer's life than any other.
I mean come on, let's face it; if we didn't have to feed ourselves, look how much spare time we'd have? If we didn't worry about eating, we'd never have to wrok, and if we didn't have to work, look how much time we'd have to devote to what we truly love and really want to do-WRITE!!!!!
I signed with an agent a few months ago for my second novel, "Dark Ridge". She's great; very supportive, very professional and well, let's face it, very demanding, in the nicest possible way, of course. She is anxious for me to get another book to her, but I don't have one, not finished anyway. I have six works in progress, all of which seem to excite her.
What doesn't excite her is the fact that I had to go back to work fulltime in order to 'feed' that nasty eating habit my mother started me on. Now the only time I have for writing is Friday mornings and as every writer knows, you simply can not impose a time restriction on your muse. At least I can't. Mine controls the when for her appearance and she will not be shackled to a certain time.
That's a real problem for me. I have Friday mornings to devote to creativity and my muse may or may not make her presence known.
It is really disheartening to sit down at the PC and sit, and sit, and wait for the muse to strike, only to look up and see that a couple of hours have passed and I've written "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" roughly a hundred times. Now I ask you, where's the creativity in that?
And then there's the weekend. Two whole days of freedom to write to my hearts content, and I have a husband who for whatever reason simply can not leave me in peace, so of course no writing is done on the weekends. Sometimes, I think the best course of action for me is to hole up in the mountains in a little cabin with NO TV, no phone and no husband and beg, coerce, cajole or just threaten my muse into working with me.
Maybe in just a week I could get one of these blasted works in progress finished. Then I'd feel like I'd accomplished something.
Oh well, we do the best we can, don't we?
Okay, so one more complaint and I'll shut up. Is it just me, or are the compiling editors or anthologies kind of taking credit for something they really didn't write? Now, I know I may be stepping on some toes here, but I'm not really, and I'm not trying to hurt feelings, start a war of words or question anyone's integrity, but let's look at some facts, okay>?
Okay, you, as a writer, answer a call for submissions. Now, as a writer, you figure any exposure can only help your career, so you follow the guidelines, submit a story or two or an article and you get so excited when the compiling author sends you an acceptance letter. Your storie(s) or article has been accepted. As payment for your offering, you receive exposure, ( a good thing), and a copy of the book. Hmmm, okay, so I get the exposure, but let's face it guys, exposure don't buy the bacon, right?
Okay, so, finally the book is published and you get your free copy and you show it around to your friends, your co-workers, your family and to a person they all ask the same thing, " So how much did you get paid for this?" "Oh, I don't get paid for it, I get exposure. I get my name out there." Out where exactly? AS far as I can tell, the only person getting any exposure is the compiling author. That is the person doing interviews, doing radio spots, putting up websites, blogs, making personal appearances and doing book signings, and the only one getting paid!
Take this one anthology I wrote a couple of stories for. I ask a few people who had bought the book if they could name any of the contributing authors in the book and they all gave me the compiling author's name, and you know what? The compiling 'author' didn't even have a story in the book. Just the introduction and the afterword. How about that?
So, I have to wonder, why do we submit stories to anthologies? For the exposure? Better re-think that.
For me the most maddening thing is the fact that of the five anthologies I have works in, I can't recall a single compiling author who has actually given credit for the book to the contributing authors. Seems to me like there would be no book if there were no contributing authors, because if the compiling author could have written the whole book alone, they wouldn't send out a call for submissions. And that being the case, I for one, will not do another anthology unless I am paid up front for my contribution. Let's face it, I can use the money as much as the next guy.
Okay, having said all that, let me just say this. I do not regret the contributions I have made to the anthologies I have stories in. Even minute exposure is better than total obscurity, right? But, I don't think it's out of line to be recognized for the contributions I've made. I've been thanked by the compiling authors for my contributions, but I can't recall ever reading an interview where my name or the names of any of the contributing authors have been mentioned.
I suppose this sounds like a petulant child, but I'm not.
I'd like to hear form other 'contributing' authors to see if I'm the only one who feels this way.
I'll bet I'm not.
I mean come on, let's face it; if we didn't have to feed ourselves, look how much spare time we'd have? If we didn't worry about eating, we'd never have to wrok, and if we didn't have to work, look how much time we'd have to devote to what we truly love and really want to do-WRITE!!!!!
I signed with an agent a few months ago for my second novel, "Dark Ridge". She's great; very supportive, very professional and well, let's face it, very demanding, in the nicest possible way, of course. She is anxious for me to get another book to her, but I don't have one, not finished anyway. I have six works in progress, all of which seem to excite her.
What doesn't excite her is the fact that I had to go back to work fulltime in order to 'feed' that nasty eating habit my mother started me on. Now the only time I have for writing is Friday mornings and as every writer knows, you simply can not impose a time restriction on your muse. At least I can't. Mine controls the when for her appearance and she will not be shackled to a certain time.
That's a real problem for me. I have Friday mornings to devote to creativity and my muse may or may not make her presence known.
It is really disheartening to sit down at the PC and sit, and sit, and wait for the muse to strike, only to look up and see that a couple of hours have passed and I've written "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" roughly a hundred times. Now I ask you, where's the creativity in that?
And then there's the weekend. Two whole days of freedom to write to my hearts content, and I have a husband who for whatever reason simply can not leave me in peace, so of course no writing is done on the weekends. Sometimes, I think the best course of action for me is to hole up in the mountains in a little cabin with NO TV, no phone and no husband and beg, coerce, cajole or just threaten my muse into working with me.
Maybe in just a week I could get one of these blasted works in progress finished. Then I'd feel like I'd accomplished something.
Oh well, we do the best we can, don't we?
Okay, so one more complaint and I'll shut up. Is it just me, or are the compiling editors or anthologies kind of taking credit for something they really didn't write? Now, I know I may be stepping on some toes here, but I'm not really, and I'm not trying to hurt feelings, start a war of words or question anyone's integrity, but let's look at some facts, okay>?
Okay, you, as a writer, answer a call for submissions. Now, as a writer, you figure any exposure can only help your career, so you follow the guidelines, submit a story or two or an article and you get so excited when the compiling author sends you an acceptance letter. Your storie(s) or article has been accepted. As payment for your offering, you receive exposure, ( a good thing), and a copy of the book. Hmmm, okay, so I get the exposure, but let's face it guys, exposure don't buy the bacon, right?
Okay, so, finally the book is published and you get your free copy and you show it around to your friends, your co-workers, your family and to a person they all ask the same thing, " So how much did you get paid for this?" "Oh, I don't get paid for it, I get exposure. I get my name out there." Out where exactly? AS far as I can tell, the only person getting any exposure is the compiling author. That is the person doing interviews, doing radio spots, putting up websites, blogs, making personal appearances and doing book signings, and the only one getting paid!
Take this one anthology I wrote a couple of stories for. I ask a few people who had bought the book if they could name any of the contributing authors in the book and they all gave me the compiling author's name, and you know what? The compiling 'author' didn't even have a story in the book. Just the introduction and the afterword. How about that?
So, I have to wonder, why do we submit stories to anthologies? For the exposure? Better re-think that.
For me the most maddening thing is the fact that of the five anthologies I have works in, I can't recall a single compiling author who has actually given credit for the book to the contributing authors. Seems to me like there would be no book if there were no contributing authors, because if the compiling author could have written the whole book alone, they wouldn't send out a call for submissions. And that being the case, I for one, will not do another anthology unless I am paid up front for my contribution. Let's face it, I can use the money as much as the next guy.
Okay, having said all that, let me just say this. I do not regret the contributions I have made to the anthologies I have stories in. Even minute exposure is better than total obscurity, right? But, I don't think it's out of line to be recognized for the contributions I've made. I've been thanked by the compiling authors for my contributions, but I can't recall ever reading an interview where my name or the names of any of the contributing authors have been mentioned.
I suppose this sounds like a petulant child, but I'm not.
I'd like to hear form other 'contributing' authors to see if I'm the only one who feels this way.
I'll bet I'm not.
posted by Linda L Rucker at 9:56 AM
4 Comments:
You sure hit the nail on the head with your take on anthologies. EVERYBODY knows the guy who compiled all those Chicken Soupr for... whatever book. Yes, he's gotten very famous. But how far would it get you if you had an article in there as far as John Q. Reader or the next editor you approach are concerned?
There's one other thing that bugs me about being in anthologies. Like you, I am in several of them, and I'm not sorry I'm in them. Some of them are actually pretty interesting volumes. But then the "compiling editor" comes around and all of a sudden all the authors--who get no payment and very little recognition--are the ones who are supposed to break their backs out there trying to get the book to sell. I'm sorry, but I'd much rather push a book that at least has my name on it where somebody can see it.
So, welcome to your rant. I agree with you!
Linda, guess you knew I couldn't hold back on this one. As you know you are in my anthology, Romancing the Soul. This book wasn't written entirely by me by no means, although I did come up with the idea, have to sort through hundreds of stories to find the perfect ones that epitomized the whole soul mate theory, edit it. I did write the preface, introduction and have one story in there. All of the authors in the book keep their rights and have the option of posting their stories elsewhere. In fact, if you or any of the authors in the book wanted to do the same kind of promo I do, you're welcome to, but no one does. And the reason is that they feel what's the point if they don't make any money from it.
I'm in several anthologies. Even ones before mine came out. Not once did I feel like this. And the reason is because these stories are not stories that were printed elsewhere and it gave me a chance to see my stories in a book where I didn't have to do a thing but send it. No effort on my part and I did get a complimentary copy which was MY PAYMENT.
As for making money off of this book, I do have to go through the interviews and the promotion. What little money I do make from this hardly covers the time I take to keep this book afloat. I know I'm the only one responsible for this book and it's up to me to keep the book from dying. No one else has this responsibility. I do.
After three years of putting this book together, wouldn't that be foolish to just sit back and do nothing to promote it? Isn't my time worth anything? How about all sixty books I had to mail out? How about the cost in mailing them? I will never recoup the cost, but you know that's okay.
The fact that I have a book when promoting myself as a soul mate expert is only a small part of what I do. In order to go on talk shows, what have you, it helps to have a book to back you up. When I do go on the talk shows, I do mention several stories in my interviews to back up my theories.
It does make me wonder, though, why people send their stories to anthologies and after they are printed, after the book comes to them, they start on a rampage of "why aren't I making money from this?"
Truth be known, unless you're Chicken Soup, you're not making a whole lot of money on this at all. But, as the anthologist, this book was created from a passion. It doesn't matter how much is made. It's the platform - the whole purpose in putting it together - that makes it worthwhile.
Another case in point is my syndicated columns I send out to various ezines. I don't make money from this, but every single one of my articles takes people to my website. That's what it's all about. It's not the money. It's the passion. If you ever do an anthology one day, you'll see what I mean. Once people realize that they are helping a CAUSE and not someone's pocketbook, they'll understand why there are anthologies in the first place. There might be people out there with this intention, but it is not my intention and never will be.
Janet said "But then the "compiling editor" comes around and all of a sudden all the authors--who get no payment and very little recognition--are the ones who are supposed to break their backs out there trying to get the book to sell."
Since when did this happen?
TO Dorothy:
I didn't have you in mind when I wrote this, Doro. Trust me you are not the only compiling editor I have submitted stories to, and the Soul Mates anthology one of the few I've subbed to where the compiling editor was actually gracious and gave credit where credit was due. Some of the others actually act like the whole thing was written, compiled and edited by them alone and gave no credit or recognition to any of the contributing authors. At least you did.
You shouldn't get upset over any comments posted, as I'm sure none of them are directed at you personally.
Like Janet, I too have had the rather unpleasant experience of having the compiling editor of an anthology I have submitted to actually expect me and the other authors to go out and promote the book and try to garner as many sales as possible.
Again, I have to ask why?
But, I do have to say that not only have I sent my stories elsewhere other than the anthologies I submit to, but I have also seen them in print and actually been paid for some of them. SO, for me at least, subbing to anthologies just to 'see' my work in print was never the point.
AS far as RTS goes, I hope it sells thousands of copies and I hope it gets your name out there where you want it to be.
As far as I'm concerned, we are vastly different authors. You write articles and mostly deal in non-fiction and I am merely a fiction writer. I don't want to be anything else.
I'm not sorry I have subbed to any of the anthologies I have. I guess my problem is the fact that without exception, the compiling authors generally take all the credit for the books, when clearly that is not the case. It is their idea, agreed, but without the contributing authors, their idea would like as not never see the light of day. If there were no contributing authors, there would be no book. And, as far as having to do all the work in selection and catagorizing the received stories, in a great many instances, the compiling editor has help in the selection process, whether it be the editor who has accepted the book proposal and chooses to publish it, or a few authors who have agreed to assist in the selection and editing process.
You shouldn't take things so to heart, Doro. This wasn't meant as a slam to you by any means.
You are my friend and I am proud of your accomplishments.
This was merely a general lament on anthologies in general.
So, would I stop answering calls for submissions? Nayyyy, I love to write and short stories help me hone my novel writing skills, and that is where my money comes from.
Post a Comment
<< Home