Themed anthologies have been popular, particularly in indie publishing, for years now. When I came on the scene with a serious desire to publish the stories I was writing, however bad they were at the time, I realized quickly that there were always submission calls for anthologies with themes. The question was, should I write stories for these specific themes? My answer, at the time, was yes, but these days I’m much more reluctant and I’ll tell you why.
One of the small press publishers I associated with in my early days was Library of the Living Dead. I stumbled upon the forum back in 2008 or so, realizing quickly that not only were they open to submissions for several anthologies, they were paying a cent a word too! At the time, that was amazing. I gave my first few stories away like an idiot and was finally getting a few bucks and a contributor copy, all from micro publishers who, at this point, have almost all gone under. I actually thought they had all gone under, but recently saw a post on Facebook about getting accepted into one of those shitty zines. I felt bad for the person, but also understood how excited they were about it. Let them feel accomplished and happy. It isn’t my parade to rain on.
I made a decision to write for the various themes Library of the Living Dead had open calls for and my stories were accepted for each one I submitted to, which was a red flag. At the time, I was excited, much like the person I saw gush about their acceptance to a non paying market that no one will read. But I ignored those red flags. I had a great time with the Library of the Living Dead family, and no hard feelings when things went bottom up. Those of us crunching the numbers in our heads could see it coming and were not surprised.
Anyway, some of those stories were published, and others have sat on my hard drive and thumb drives or disappeared on old computers, never to be submitted elsewhere unless a similar theme sprouted up. A lot of publishers don’t want zombie stories, for instance, so what was I to do with these fucking zombie stories?
In the years that have come since, there have been all kinds of themed anthologies from music inspired by certain rock bands to pizza of all things. I did an anthology about food, specifically requesting no pizza stories, which brings me to my next argument that writing for themed anthologies should be a very calculated endeavor. Ask yourself how sellable the story will be when you get rejected for the anthology you’re writing it for. When Max Booth III announced a pizza themed anthology, I thought he was fucking crazy. But in some twisted way, it made sense. I don’t know how that book sold, but the theme was so ridiculous that it was brilliant. I tried to think up an idea for a submission, but I couldn’t. On top of that, I knew that the story would be dead if it didn’t get accepted, and I had been short listed for Booth’s previous anthologies but didn’t make it in. I didn’t want a pizza story I’d spent time on that I couldn’t do anything with.
You might be saying to yourself, “Robert, you could still submit your pizza story to other publishers.” Sure, but being on the editing end of things, reading slush, you see trends. You soon recognize whose cast offs you're getting when you receive a slew of submissions in the world of Oz after a Wizard of Oz themed anthology send out responses (this happened to me years ago), or you get a slew of pizza themed stories when you’re editing a food themed anthology (I did indeed get a few and they were rejected unread). A rejection doesn’t necessarily mean the story sucks, but I did not want to be inundated with pizza fiction, particularly when there would be a pizza anthology released around the same time as my anthology Chew on This!
So, if you’re going to write for a themed anthology, be sure it’s something you’re passionate about. Consider what you will do with the story if it doesn’t make it into the anthology. If it’s worth your time, do it! But understand that if you do get that rejection, you might not have a very sellable story on your hands. I remember all The Wizard of Oz stories I was sent while reading for Malicious Deviance and I cringe. I have nothing against The Wizard of Oz, but that is way too specific a theme to expect an editor to get excited about unless they happen to be a huge Oz fan, and even then, the chances are slim that it would be accepted for an open call.
Really, do what suits you. This was just something I’ve been thinking of. Especially when I see that Black Sabbath story sitting on my hard drive along with a few others I don’t know what to do with.