[Nick's Writing Blog] Seven Tips for Submitting Stories to Anthologies and Co...

9 views

Skip to first unread message

Nick

unread,

Oct 21, 2010, 9:24:36 AM10/21/10

to my-writ...@googlegroups.com

Recently I volunteered to help edit a new fundraising anthology being organized by Greg McQueen for victims of the recent flooding in Pakistan.

Hopefully, you may have seen my messages on Twitter, FaceBook and this blog about 50 Stories for Pakistan, and perhaps even submitted a story.

Helping choose and edit the stories - using the collaborative micro-blogging service Present.ly - was an enjoyable and somewhat eye-opening experience. In particular, it suggested to me certain guidelines writers might like to follow to maximize their chances of success with any similar anthologies or competitions in future.

Here then are seven tips based on my experience...

1. Submit early

On 50 Stories for Pakistan the editorial team voted on every story, giving a 'Like' to those they thought should be included. Quite simply, the stories that were up for the longest time had the best chance of achieving a lot of Likes. Later it got harder, as a few members of the editorial team dropped out for various reasons.

2. Submit according to the rules

These plainly stated that stories were to be submitted in the body of an email and not as attachments. And yet, astonishingly, nearly HALF of all the stories were submitted as attachments, mostly as Word or PDF files. Greg took the decision not to disqualify all such stories, though he could easily have done. Many didn't display properly on the editing site, however, or else had to be saved as attachments, which some members of the editing team couldn't open. Again, that made it difficult for such stories to achieve the requisite number of 'Likes'.

3. Think about the context

The anthology was in aid of flood victims in Pakistan, and Greg specifically asked writers to avoid submitting stories featuring violence, death or destruction. And yet a surprising number of stories broke this rule, some even featuring floods and other natural disasters. When submitting for an anthology of this nature, good taste (quite apart from the rules) really dictates that you should avoid such downbeat themes. All such stories were swiftly rejected, I'm afraid.

4. Understand what a short story is

That may sound a little harsh. And yet, quite a few of the entries weren't really short stories at all. Some read like extracts from a novel, while others resembled a book summarized in a few hundred words. Neither of these really makes for a successful short story.

It's not easy to define exactly what makes a good short story, but in my view it should have a clear beginning, middle and an end, and there should be some sense of purpose to it. Many of the rejected stories were competently written, but it was hard to see any real 'point' to them.

5. Don't submit children's stories to anthologies for adults

Stories with talking animals and Harry Potter-style academies for wizards and witches were never likely to make the cut, I'm afraid. Although there is nothing wrong with a bit of quirkiness, anything that is too obviously a children's story is unlikely to be accepted for an adult project. Better to save such stories for contests and anthologies specifically aimed at children's writers.

6. Beware of being too obscure

Some entries were simply incomprehensible (to me, at least). They might have been good in other ways, but if I didn't understand a story, I couldn't in all conscience give it my vote.

I'm not saying every story has to reveal its full meaning on one reading, but if it leaves the reader totally baffled, it's unlikely to get many votes. A good story can work on a number of levels, of course, some of which may only become apparent on re-reading. For an anthology aimed at a wide general readership, however, I think a story should provide a satisfying experience on first reading as well.

7. Consider humour

As a short story judge for other contests as well, I've often found humor to be in short supply. Many writers seem to think that stories must be filled with gloom and doom, which as a judge can get depressing after a while. Certainly, in the case of 50 Stories for Pakistan (with its rather grim context), humor was very much welcomed by all the judges. Some stories which were perhaps were a little 'slight' in other respects got the nod due to the humour in them.

Congratulations, then, to the fifty writers whose stories were chosen for the anthology, and commiserations to those who missed out - some of whom were genuinely very unlucky. Personal tastes did play a part in the judging too, so don't be afraid to resubmit your work elsewhere (after reading my guidelines and giving your story another polish, of course!).

50 Stories for Pakistan will be published very shortly - watch the Big Bad Media website (run by Greg McQueen) for announcements. And please consider buying a copy of the anthology, as it is a genuinely good read, and all profits will be going to a very worthy cause.

Photo credit: Kim Piper Werker on Flickr.