Beware of submitting to anthologies

An author who got screwed by submitting to an anthology? Not me – but I can relate.

I’m not too keen on submitting my stories to anthologies. My experience has been the stories authors send are used as free material to fill a book that the publisher throws up on internet, and provides little or no online promotion/exposure for the contributors. You may or may not receive a free digital copy.

I imagine some of the authors (one anthology I was published in had 52) encourage their family and friends to buy the book or even buy it themselves to gift to some unsuspecting person, brag about at dinner parties or attempt to flog at the local flea market. I’m not one of those authors.

I’m not sure what the publisher’s motives are, most say it is a labour of love – which apparently justifies not offering payment. However, that also applies to the work being submitted. At best, it’s a zero sum game – certainly in terms of financial gain, and likely in respect to advancing the author’s career as well.

At worst, the publisher is making a profit on the writer’s work while at the same time holding the rights to that story (usually three to six months) which prevents resubmitting. Futhermore, when the rights are released, at least half the legitimate publications won’t accept previously published work.

Fool me once….

But hang on, a publisher is requesting stories about “Bigfoot, Sasquatch, even Yeti for an anthology” and “Payment is at least 100 dollars per story.”

 Wow! And I just happen to have a story about Sasquatch in my bibliography.

The publisher is also committed to running “a kickstarter in the new year. The better we do, the more authors get paid.” That’s optimistic since any kickstarter campaign for a book launch I’ve seen only succeeded with the help of one or two angel investors (Mom, rich uncle, sympathetic partner).

My story is accepted, I sign a contract, my faith is renewed. Then this from the publisher:

“I’m considering cancelling the campaign and restarting it. To make that effective we’d have to really push traffic and sales of books. Right not we have 14 supporters. That’s only 14 books sold. To make it work we need about 300 books sold if we don’t have any of the higher level perks chosen. Even if I choose a lower goal, I still need to be able to sell enough books after to make back the money I’ve invested.

Give me your feedback. Show we reboot and try again with a lower goal? Let this run its course?

I still want to put this book and your stories out into the world, but it will be much more difficult without a successful Kickstarter.”

When did it become my problem, that the publisher “make back the money he invested”?

It’s too bad that publishing this anthology “will be much more difficult without a successful Kickstarter”, but a deal is a deal. I’ve upheld my end of the agreement including promoting the anthology during the Kickstarter campaign.

Whatever the decision, move forward, pause, abandoned, I still want $100 promised for my story and so should every other author he contracted with.

And let’s be honest, the return on investment is far more in time than out-of-pocket.

Labour of love notwithstanding.

After I post a response suggesting “a deal is a deal”, here’s the reply:

“I fully plan to pay my authors. I never said that I wouldn’t. I have alternative plans I hope will cover that. Having said that. The contract is for payment on publication. If publication doesn’t happen within a year of signing then the project is dead.

I will reboot the campaign this week and have materials to share on a variety of media. The goal will be lower but I can live with that.”

A year! Once again, the author gets screwed.