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Today’s guest post is an excerpt from Taking the Short Tack, Second Edition, by Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Matty Dalrymple.

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Anthologies—groupings of works from different authors—are one of the most powerful tools that a short fiction author has to pursue both income and reader connection goals. The fact that the anthology includes many authors means that it can sell to the fan bases of all those authors, improving its potential for income generation. The fact that all those readers will be exposed not only to the work of their favorite author but also to the work of the other authors in the anthology means that the opportunity for connecting with new readers is high.

The component works in an anthology are often chosen based on specific genre (e.g., noir, horror, romance) and often on a specific theme (e.g., end-of-the-world, vampires, Christmas). They are often curated and edited by a recognized name. They can feature original works, include a mixture of new and reprint stories, or be themed reprint anthologies such as a Year’s Best Mystery Stories collection. They may be one-time projects—for example, Noir at a Bar: The Oxford Files, published by editor Gary Zenker to support the Oxford (PA) Public Library—or may be recurring—for example, Tesseracts, an annual science fiction and fantasy themed anthology that features Canadian writers. Mark served as editor for Tesseracts Sixteen and was a contributing author for Tesseracts Seventeen. A benefit of being published in a recurring anthology is that it has a proven track record and ongoing audience. Each year, bookstores and readers alike anticipate the next volume of that edition, providing a bit more visibility.

Inclusion in the most well-established and well-respected anthologies can come with impressive perks. For example, the annual Writers of the Future anthology—aimed at emerging writers who have not yet earned professional rates for short fiction or published a novel or novella—showcases their work to icons of the science fiction and fantasy field, including Larry Niven, Brandon Sanderson, Kevin J. Anderson, and Robert J. Sawyer. This anthology is widely available in bookstores around the world and comes with a significant marketing push from its publisher, Galaxy Press. In addition, participating authors have an opportunity to be mentored by the judges via an in-person week-long celebratory event in Los Angeles every spring that is connected to the launch of the book.

So how do you find these opportunities?

Finding the opportunities

Writers improve their chances of success in anthology placements by being active members of their writing and publishing communities. Unlike magazine and other serial short fiction markets, anthologies tend to have short submission windows that are announced with limited lead times. In some cases, there is no call for submissions; instead, the editor requests stories from authors they are already familiar with or have previously worked with and whose work is appropriate for the anthology.

Opportunities for inclusion in anthologies are often best found via word of mouth within writing groups and forums. For example, for a horror-themed anthology that Mark edited in 2009, Campus Chills, he personally solicited stories from writers whose work he knew. While collecting stories for the anthology, Mark was on a panel with author James Alan Gardner at a science fiction conference. Mark knew James as a science fiction writer, but as they chatted while waiting for the panel to begin, Mark learned that Jim’s first published story had been a horror tale. As a result of that informal discussion, Mark invited Jim to write a story for his anthology, for which the authors were paid professional rates.

Writers’ groups are another great place to expand your contacts with fellow authors. Matty was invited to participate in the anthology Noir at a Bar: The Oxford Files through a writers’ group connection with its editor, Gary Zenker. Hanging out and sharing ghostly tales in the hotel lobby late one night at Superstars Writing Seminars was the genesis of the brainstorm that led to the anthology Cursed Collectibles, which Mark was invited to submit to.

In another example of how developing personal relationships within the industry creates opportunities, Kevin J. Anderson invited Mark to submit a story to an anthology while enjoying poutine and craft beer on a patio in Hamilton, Ontario. The anthology contained stories based on songs from the Canadian rock band Rush called 2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush, and Kevin knew Mark shared his appreciation of the band.

Must you cultivate an interest in French Canadian cuisine and craft beer to take advantage of the opportunities presented by anthologies? No … but you do improve your likelihood of being invited to participate in an anthology by being a good citizen of the writing community. If you’ve supported a fellow author, they’re more likely to think of you if they are curating an anthology, or if they know someone who is.

When new opportunities come your way, how do you decide if they’re worth pursuing? Below are a few things to keep in mind.

Assessing prestige

Who are the other contributors, and who will be penning the introduction? This information might not be available at the time of submission, but if the anthology is recurring, you can get a sense of the caliber of the participating authors by reviewing previous installments. Prestigious anthologies will often include a well-known author to draw people to it: Nora Roberts for romance, Stephen King for horror, Michael Connelly for police procedurals. These marquee names will attract fans who will buy the anthology because of that person’s recommendation or contribution but will end up discovering the other authors in the anthology.

Assessing income opportunity

How will participating authors be paid? For the more well-established anthologies, authors receive a one-time upfront payment, with amounts ranging from token payments through semi-pro rates and even up to pro rates. Payments can occur any time between signing the contract to within 60 to 90 days of publication of the anthology. Authors do not receive any further payments regardless of how many units the anthology sells over the years.

For example, when Mark curated and published the anthology Campus Chills in 2009, he paid all thirteen contributors professional rates, which were, at the time, $0.05 USD per word. Mark paid roughly $3,700 for about 75,000 words across all the stories included in the anthology. As the publisher of this book, he kept all royalties for sales of the book, which is still available. (As of the end of 2024, the anthology had brought in close to $5,200 USD in sales.)

Other anthologies offer no up-front payment but share royalties with participating authors. Payment splitting is far more common within the indie author community than with traditional outlets. This is where authors do not receive any payment in advance but instead receive a percentage of the royalties from those sales. The main benefit of an anthology like this for the editor is that they do not have to raise the funds to pay for the stories upfront. The potential benefit to the authors included in the anthology is they can continue to earn revenue for years after a book is released.

As examples, let’s take a look at two of the anthologies Mark was paid upfront for. Mark received $0.05 USD per word for his stories in 2113 and Northern Haunts. Northern Haunts was released in 2008 and Mark earned $100 for this reprint story. 2113 was published in 2016 and Mark earned $265 for this original story. Both books are still available for sale online and in bookstores. Extrapolating sales based on BookScan weekly sales reports and ongoing tracking and analysis of Amazon ranking for both titles, it is very unlikely that Mark would have earned even $100 from ongoing royalties in the more than 17 years since Northern Haunts was first released. (It contains 100 stories, and his share of earnings would likely be no more than 1%).

However, with the 18 contributors for 2113 and a split per contributor of about 5%, it’s entirely possible Mark would have earned considerably more via a royalty split than via the upfront payment. Since its release nearly ten years ago, 2113 has been a consistent seller, with global fans of the rock band Rush continuing to discover it. While the book’s exact sales are known only by the publisher, Mark estimates that it has sold tens of thousands of copies over the years. Assuming that 50,000 copies have sold and that revenue from those sales might amount to $3.50 per unit (based on industry averages on margin earned on a print book), a 5% royalty share (that is, 5% of the earned margin) would be upwards of $8,750.

Of course, these examples of Northern Haunts and 2113 are complete speculation, because they were traditionally published titles that didn’t have payment splitting as an option.

A third, less common, option for paying contributors is for the publisher to offer both a token upfront payment and a royalty share. The upfront pay offered is usually less than pro or even semi-pro rates and might often be a flat fee. This option allows the curator to offer a bit of monetary incentive to the participating authors as well as the opportunity to earn even more should the anthology be successful and sell numerous copies.

One example is the 2020 anthology Obsessions that Mark published. Because he raised the funds to pay professional rates to the anthology contributors through a Kickstarter campaign, he not only paid the 15 collaborators professional rates for their fiction (which came to about $4,000 USD), but he also leveraged Draft2Digital’s payment splitting option for the print and ebook sales with a 5% royalty on sales. In the five years that the book has been out, each contributor has earned an additional $35 dollars.

That might not seem like a lot of money, but for authors who leverage multiple channels for the same short story, they might have also sold reprint rights to that same piece of work, and thus the additional $35 in royalties is yet another drop that slowly fills their bucket.

Not every legitimate indie anthology will be a direct income earner; you can also gain goodwill and the possibility of reader connections leading to sales by donating a piece of short fiction to an anthology to support a good cause. Matty donated her Ann Kinnear suspense short “Our Dancing Days” to Noir at a Bar: The Oxford Files to support the Oxford (PA) Public Library. She contributed her short story “All Deaths Endure” and a story coauthored with fellow crime fiction author Jane Gorman, “Blood of the Wicked,” to an anthology assembled by the Delaware Valley Sisters in Crime of short stories set in and around Philadelphia: Death Knell VI. Mark donated a reprint of his story “Requiem” to the anthology Cursed Collectibles, which supported the Don Hodge Memorial Scholarship to Superstars Writing Seminars, an annual Colorado Springs conference at which Mark is a regular instructor.

Note that publishing a story in such an anthology, even if you’re not making any money from it, still counts as publication, and so you would have to submit such a story to other markets as a reprint, not as a first rights work.

Assessing production

How will the anthology be produced? Anthologies that will be offered in print are the most desirable. As Jason Sanford says in The State of Genre Magazines, “Just as e-books have not come close to replacing print books over the last decade despite many predictions this would happen, so have print editions of genre magazines held on in the marketplace. As Sheila Williams of Asimov’s told me, part of this is due to many readers still preferring print editions. But she also added, ‘Print editions are much more visible. They do a lot of our promotion for us.’”

Anthologies for which the publisher will produce stock in print runs (as opposed to a print-on-demand publication where the books are only manufactured upon order by a bookstore or consumer) will be far more likely to be stocked by bookstores, often displayed at the beginning of its genre’s section.

Another option to pursue to make your story available to anthology curators is to upload it to an online marketplace designed for this purpose, such as PubShare (formerly BundleRabbit). Independent curators (not PubShare itself) select stories from the marketplace for digital anthologies or bundles. Curators can identify a set of books that conform to a certain theme, as reflected in the story’s metadata, then request you as the author to approve your book to be included in that bundle. Curators can make these bundles available for extended periods, and the longer the anthology is available, the longer it will continue to earn you and your anthology partners money.

The benefit of a platform like PubShare is that it handles some of the tedious administrative work required of other outlets. As a potential contributor, once your story is loaded to PubShare, your work is (theoretically) done. We say theoretically because, as with participation in any anthology, you will greatly increase your chances of inclusion through some author-to-author marketing and networking with the platform’s curators. For the curator, PubShare handles the compiling of individual stories into a single anthology or collection and then making it into a single EPUB file.

Your responsibility as a participating author

Prestige, income, and the chance to see your story in an anthology on bookstore shelves are all benefits the editor of an anthology might bring to you as a contributing author. What do you owe the editor if your story is chosen for inclusion in the anthology?

You have a responsibility to promote the anthology to your fans and followers in your email newsletter, on social media, and on any other platform you use to connect with your readers. Make sure your curator knows about your marketing efforts—for example, ask permission to add them to your email newsletter distribution list or flag them in your social media posts. If your curator knows that you are doing your bit to spread the word about the anthology, you increase the chance that they will choose your work for a future anthology.

But you’re not just doing this for the publisher or anthology editor. Every time you push or promote the book, you’re helping to raise the visibility of every other author in that anthology. You never know where or when that community-minded elevation of the group of participating authors will help you in the long run. And, of course, continue to elevate your own brand by spotlighting any anthology that contains one of your stories.

Red flags to watch out for

While most traditional anthology editors are genuinely committed to serving both their readers and their participating authors, every venture carries the risk of encountering bad players whose practices can undermine your work and reputation. Some anthologies operate less as genuine publishing opportunities and more as revenue streams for the organizer. As you assess anthology calls, keep an eye out for these warning signs:

• Every submission is included. Be wary of anthologies that promise publication to every entrant. This practice dilutes the value of your inclusion and often indicates a pay-to-play model rather than true editorial selection.
• No real editing. A strong anthology benefits from an engaged editor shaping the anthology. If there’s no sign of meaningful editorial involvement, you may be looking at a vanity project rather than a professional opportunity.
• Mandatory book purchases. If acceptance requires you to buy a minimum number of copies of the anthology, think twice. Legitimate anthologies may offer contributor discounts, but they shouldn’t make purchases a condition of inclusion.
• Inflated prices, minimal distribution. Some anthologies are priced far higher than market norms and have no realistic distribution strategy. Readers outside the contributors’ circle rarely encounter them, limiting income and visibility. This is another sign that the people producing the anthology make their money when participating authors purchase copies rather than by selling to the open market.
• Misleading claims of prestige. Some projects use vague or deceptive language to suggest associations with respected organizations, awards, or well-known authors. Verify any claims before committing.
• Rights grabs and no royalties. Always read the contract. Beware of anthologies that demand broad or perpetual rights, especially without royalties or clear compensation. Any license you grant should be limited in scope and time.
• Royalty fraud. In revenue-sharing anthologies, insist on transparent reporting and clear royalty-splitting mechanisms. Lack of clarity around how and when royalties will be distributed is a major red flag.

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If you found this article insightful, be sure to check out Taking the Short Tack, Second Edition, by Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Matty Dalrymple.