Anthologies

Introduction   
Titles

Introduction
Editing an anthology is MUCH harder than writing your own book! This is because you have numerous contributors to find and persuade and then chivvy to meet the deadline, write to the right length, the right sort of story and then allow you to edit them.

So far I have edited only one anthology for profit – Ip, Dip, Sky Blue. (Sorry about the ghastly title – that was a publishers’ decision. I called it Deadly Letter after the story I wrote for it.) The other two have been for the Library Association – Stacks of Stories (don’t like that title, either; I much preferred Douglas Hill’s suggestion of Off the Wall) and for UNICEF – Lines in the Sand (also reviewed on www.wordpool.co.uk/ccb/lines.htm)

I should be happy with that title, since I thought of it myself!

I have contributed ever so many short stories myself to other people’s anthologies. People like Wendy Cooling and Tony Bradman, who are mates of mine, often ask for a contribution to anthologies they are editing. I have written so many now that there are probably enough for a collection of my own.

Note: an anthology (which comes from Greek words meaning flower + word) is a book of stories or poems by several different writers. It always has an editor or a compiler. A story collection has stories all by the same writer.)

Lines in the Sand (ed with Rhiannon Lassiter) Francis Lincoln 2003 0711222827 Buy from Amazon
Stacks of Stories (ed) Hodder 1997 0-340-69968-X (pbk) Buy from Amazon (pbk)
Ip, Dip, Sky Blue (ed) Collins 1990 0-00-1932519 Buy from Amazon