Writers and Anthologies

 

Many of you know that I have multiple stories in the Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies. I still check their website for the books that need stories. Right now, they have calls for eleven books. Eleven! Check the Possible Book Topics page to see what they are.

Chicken Soup is one of the best known anthologies, but there are many more, but it's up to you, the writer, to find them. That takes a bit of work, but it's well worth the effort if you find a few that fit your kind of writing. 

Facebook has a group that is a boon for writers. They have calls for anthologies but also other publications. The page is Call for Submissions. Find it by searching on your home page for the group. Other writing group pages on Facebook sometimes have calls for submissions to both anthologies and other types of publications, too. 

If writing for anthologies is your aim, do a search on your favorite search engine. Then try a different search engine, where you may find some duplicates, but also some different places where you can submit. There are many to choose from. Some of the top ones are:

Google

Bing

Duck, Duck Go

Yahoo

Baidu

Yandex

Ask.com

When you search, you may be surprised by the number of anthologies and also how specialized some of them are. Some want only horror or dark stories, while others might seek holiday stories, and still others are looking for mystery stories. There are poetry anthologies and anthologies that feature stories about cooking. Guideposts puts out lovely anthology books. Theirs is one of the nicest quality, I think. I once had a story in an anthology that used reading as the theme.

Some of the former anthologies have come and gone. A Cup of Comfort was quite popular for a while, and then it vanished. Another was Not Your Mothers... But it had a short duration. Why? Maybe the quality of the stories was not up to par. Maybe the editor didn't put enough time and effort into advertising. Or perhaps the editor moved on to other things. 

Be sure when you are searching for anthologies to check the date the calls were put out. I noted one recently that sounded interesting, but it was from 2008. A waste of your time. When you put your keywords in a search engine, it might not hurt to add 2022.

Why bother to write for anthologies? They pay, some better than others. Chicken Soup for the Soul is the highest that I am aware of. You'll get a check for $200 and 10 free copies of the book in which your story appears. Others pay $50 or $25 or maybe with a copy of the book. A second reason is that it is a good addition to your list of publications. A third is that some are easier to bring a successful submission than some other publications. Not all, but some of the smaller ones are not as choosy. Chicken Soup for the Soul, being the Queen Bee, has rigid guidelines and great competition. 

If you want to write for anthologies, find some of those lesser ones to start with. Move on up when you feel confident about the stories you're writing for the various anthologies. 

One of the most important things you should do is to study the guidelines. You will find books that have minimal guidelines all the way up to Chicken Soup for the Soul which has lengthy and rigid ones. Pay attention, no matter which anthology where you want to submit your work. 

Last, but not least, read a variety of anthologies to help you get an idea of the kind of story or poems they publish. It helps you get a feel for what you should keep in mind when writing and submitting your own stories or poems. 

Five Tips To Get Published in Chicken Soup for the Soul Anthologies

I have been fortunate to be published twenty-one times in Chicken Soup for the Soul books, with number twenty-two coming up in January. Is there a magic formula for getting your story selected? No, but there are some things to pay close attention to that will make the odds of being selected tip in your favor. 

1. Read their books. The more you read, the better understanding you will have of what the editors are seeking. You’ll get a feel for what the editors want as you read numerous Chicken Soup stories and you’ll be entertained, as well.

2. Send only true stories that are humorous, inspirational or illustrate a life lesson. There should be something for the reader to take away. Make sure they are actual stories with a beginning, middle and end. An essay or a sermon will not make the cut.

3. Study the Guidelines. Note the word ‘study’ because scanning quickly through the lengthy page of Guidelines is not going to help you at all. Go to www.chickensoup.com and scroll down to the bottom of the page. On the far right column of the section titled More Chicken Soup for the Soul, click on ‘Submit Your Story.’ You will find three titles at the top of the page—Possible Book Topics, Story Guidelines and Submit Your Story. Check out the Possible Book Topics, then study the Guidelines and finally, submit your story via the online submission form. When the Guidelines say 1200 words, they mean 1200 or less, not any more. The editors are quite serious about every one of the Guidelines so you should be, too.

4. Start your story with action, not a long explanation of what you are going to write about. Jump right into the story and hook your reader. Make them want to continue reading.

5. Use dialogue, sensory details and emotion. If you have none, your story becomes a dull report. Keep in mind that too much of any of these overpowers the message of your story. Humor is great but don’t let it take over your story. Finding the happy medium is key.

If you do all of the above, the odds of being accepted will be in your favor. Even though I’ve been published in this well-known anthology many times, I’ve also submitted numerous stories that were not accepted. Keep the submission Ferris wheel going and see what happens. 

Note: If you have not heard from the editors two months after the story deadline date, you can consider it a rejection. They do not send rejection letters which is my one and only complaint of this fine series.