Friday Speak Out: Having Fun with Anthology Builder, Guest Post by Joy V. Smith

Having Fun with Anthology Builder

by Joy V. Smith

I learned about Anthology Builder on a listserv and checked it out. Hmm. This looks interesting, and it could be a home for my old stories since they only take reprints. Then I googled it and discovered that lots of writers are discussing it on blogs, submitting their stories, and selling some. So, I submitted a couple stories and then more, and then some more. I got the chance to put connected stories together that had run in different publications.

You're probably not going to make a lot of money with Anthology Builder. As a matter of fact, some people are using it for their own pleasure. They collect stories and cover art, and the book is printed by Lulu and sent to them for $14.95 (up to 350 pages), plus shipping, which depends on the size of the book. You can choose to have your anthology kept private or placed in the public library, where anyone can buy it. You select from a list of stories (with descriptions and previews), choose your own title and cover art, and receive a perfect-bound, Trade Paperback book.

After I had a few stories accepted by Anthology Builder, I noticed that some writers and writing groups were putting together their stories in collections and anthologies, so I thought I'd experiment with a cover and a collection and ended up putting my collection, Aliens, Animals, and Adventure, in their library, and I ordered a copy for myself. (I've wanted my stories in a collection for a long time.) I've received my first book; it didn't take very long, and the quality is good. Though there were typos, they were mine, and I have no idea what caused the broken lines in some stories. (The sentences are complete, but dropped to the next line.)

The cover art is in genre categories, as are the stories (you choose up to three genres per story when submitting), and the artists include Frank Wu (Hugo fan artist winner) and Baen's Universe artists. There are a number of public domain stories available, by authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, L. Frank Baum, and Jane Austen. There is also a list of publications that the stories appeared in and an author category. You can have fun browsing all the listings.

Nancy Fulda, who is the editor/publisher of Anthology Builder and who is also Assistant Editor of Jim Baen’s Universe, offers blog entries that give you updates on submissions, what she's doing to enhance the website, and describe some stories and art, if you want to check them out.

Future plans for the site include the addition of an Open Market where authors can set their own prices for individual story sales and the addition of a direct-import option for texts from Project Gutenberg. I plan to add more stories to my collection; you can do this, change your cover art, and add more tags. I'm happy to have my stories in Anthology Builder, and Nancy Fulda is a pleasure to work with.

Visit Joy's Live Journal for media tidbits and more.

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