a quick poll

[mizkit]

Apropos of a discussion with a friend earlier this morning, I am asking the writers on my friends list the following question: Why do you participate in short story anthologies

Comments

[wood_dragon]

As a writer who has not yet published a novel, anthologies are a way to build a little recognition in the field.

[mizkit]

Ah hah! See, I knew I'd missed at least one excellent reason to participate in anthologies! :)

[camilla_anna]

What Wood_dragon said. My first published fiction was in an anthology.

[mizkit]

*laughs*! Yes, see? I *did* forget good obvious answers. ;)

[dqg_neal]

I voted from the write side of my brain, instead of the editor side... which usually would have had answers such as:

"To make writers jump through hoops."
"To see how many name authors verbally abuse me after hearing the concept."
"To find some new wonderful insults to add to my vocabulary."

AS A WRITER:
"My ego requires a little more stroking, and I might actually get my name on the cover."
"I'm still in instant gratification mode, I like to see my work released before the year is up."
"After I pester enough editors, they may have sympathy for me and take my drivel."
"More options to cause the reader's eyes to bleed."

[desperance]

Short stories are all kinds of wonderful. They give technical stretching-room, and the opportunity sometimes to explore the darker corners of novels, or that untilled space between one novel and another; they satisfy a different creative urge, the opportunity to explore one sharp idea without all the ramifications of length; they can work like exercise, almost like a throttle and a brake, getting you up to speed for a book and then slowing you down again after, when the next big project is not in question but you're too twitchy to do nothing. Mostly, though, short stories are another form of fiction, sui generis, and I write them because they're there to be written, and if I don't who else is going to? All else is subordinate to that. It's nice to be published, it's nice to share bookspace with cool writers, it's nice to be paid - but none of those matters. I have stories written - recent stories, not juvenilia - that I've never even sent out to a market yet. That'll come, probably, sooner or later, but it's not the issue.