How to get your work published in anthologies
_ How can I get my work published in anthologies?_
Someone asked me this in the last Submission Cafe, so I wanted to share my answer here. Getting published in anthologies is a great way to get your work in front of new eyes. But it can feel obscure to know how to go about it.
You can be asked to contribute to an anthology if its editor thinks you are a good fit for the topic. That can sometimes feel like an insider's club. However, there are many anthologies that have open calls for submission or ask for pitches from writers who are interested in contributing.
One of the most notable anthologies that has open submissions the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which seems to be always accepting submissions and pays $200 per accepted piece. The Best American series (short stories, essays, food writing, etc.) is another open submissions anthologies market. You can find instructions to submit your work there in the back of the latest addition.
Places I will look for anthology calls for submissions include:
- Opportunities of the Week newsletter sometimes sends out anthology calls for submission
- Submittable Discover has an anthology filter for searches
- Entropy Magazine "Where to Submit" has an anthologies section
- NewPages has an anthology filter for searches
Sometimes, anthology editors want to see a pitch from interested writers. Other times, they want to see the full piece before accepting or declining.
I tend not to write on spec since it represents a big investment of time for an uncertain outcome. My exception is if it's a story that I wanted to write anyway or if I see another outlet it would work well for, so I won't feel like it's time wasted. But there are other writers who hate to pitch so are much less likely to pitch an idea even if it is a great match for the collection!
I've had four pieces picked up by anthologies I've found using the search options mentioned above. These include an essay on potlucks for activism and mutual aid in the LGBTQ community, an essay on the rural queer experience, a flash fiction piece I wrote in a conference workshop, and a true crime piece on a 25-year old murder case I'm kind of obsessed with.
Two of these were full pieces sent on spec. One of these was a reprint I was excited to find a second home for. The other spec one was a simultaneous flash submission to lit mags. The other two were pitched pieces that represented stories I'd been wanting to tell for some time.
Submittable did a helpful blog post on how anthologies can help you advance your writer career and a few places to check for anthology markets. Bottom line: consider anthologies another tool in your writer toolkit to tell the types of stories you want to tell, broaden your audience base, and get paid for your work.