Michele Lee

My third topic for this week is on the politics of editing and invitations to anthologies. I’m not linking to online flame wars (um, this time) but the topic has come up elsewhere. I do not know the full scope of that other fight, I only know what a casual person sees looking in from the outside.

One more thing that makes having a writing career hard is the flexibility of the roles. The fellow writer you’re drinking screwdrivers with and gossiping to tonight might just be putting out a call for submissions for an anthology or landing a job editing for a magazine tomorrow. Unlike many other fields there’s a lot of flexibility in publishing as editors become agents, or writers become editors or publishers themselves. The relationship is especially more fluid in the small presses and genres and it can, obviously, be VERY hard to deal with. This snake’ll bite you in the ass y’all.

It’s impossible to wear a single “hat” (though I hate that analogy, it’s largely understandable) and not piss people off with so many egos involved, much less someone who you meet as a writer, but you also know works as an editor. On the editor side people will expect you to invite them into your project just because they’ve been friendly to you. People will expect a nudge up in the slush, if not a guaranteed place. And as an editor you can’t help thinking every time you meet a writer that this is what they want from you. (Also common, the “Hey look at where all the stories you rejected got published” method and the “You’ll be sorry when I hit it big” folks. FYI: No agent or editor is going to regret passing on your work because you hit it big later. They’re in this for the love, the passion and for the individual project too. They have to accept the possibility of passing on a JK Rowling because they don’t believe in the story just like writers must accept rejection as part of the process.)

On the writing side of things you expect people who know you, who you’ve helped and promoted and loved to give you that chance. The thing is, sometimes they can’t. If you don’t know why, look back at my post Monday on rejection. It does hurt when an editor says they liked your work, but they don’t invite you into an antho. But they are NOT under any obligation to invite you. Hell, I can’t stand Stephen King’s style and if I was editing an antho and the King offered me a story for it I’d be under no obligation to accept it.

An invitation to submit is like a letter of interest. “I’ve read your work and am interested in working with you on this project.” That’s it. The idea that certain people should have been invited, or worse, guaranteed a place, just because they have a recognizable name (potentially) is ridiculous. Bashing the editors and saying there are personal reasons there instead of taste is deplorable–even if it might be true.

I’ve had the “be careful what you review because the people you’re criticizing now might be your peers later” conversation quite a few times. Some people I know have chosen to give up reviewing once they could write full time to avoid conflict. I’ve feared that someday I might be faced with the same choice. The fact is that I review in part because it encourages me to read, widely, and to think about what I’ve read. I want to remember that I’m a reader first, and a writer second. At this time it’s a risk I’m willing to continue to take. (Besides, if Charlaine Harris can still post the occasional review, why can’t I?)

Would it hurt if someone refused to accept my work because I’d given them a review they didn’t like? Well yeah. That could be the point. Sure people exclude others and reject people at times just to hurt them. But that’s childish and petty and those who do that are sooner or later figured out because they do that to everyone. Not to mention I wouldn’t want to put my work in the hands of someone who would do that in the first place. But it could also happen because the editor recognizes that we don’t have the same vision for a story, or a theme, or a genre, and decides to spend their time working with someone else.

And in the end, does it matter? Do you really want to force yourself where you aren’t welcome? Can anything good come of you demanding to be included?

Books, anthologies, magazines, there are invite only projects all the time. It saves the editor time, allows them to more tightly focus the book toward their vision. The best projects, in my opinion, are part invite and part open call. But not everyone thinks so. I fail to see how throwing a fit (and flinging accusations) online or even just in private makes anything better. If anything you just make it perfectly clear to a wider audience why the editor didn’t want to work with you in the first place.

I have been lucky to have been invited to a few (5 or 6) anthologies. I have made it into exactly one. Invitations aren’t guarantees of acceptance either. In the end no one owes you an invite, or an acceptance. That’s the hard truth of turning art into commerce based on subjective taste. If you can’t take the fact that there are invite only anthos being put together all the time in this field then reconsider sticking around. It’s hard enough without your meltdowns and mudslinging. And furthermore there are MORE markets open to general submissions and many of them (Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, Fantasy, Apex, Tor…oh hell, just go to duotrope or ralan and look it up for yourself) are nothing to scoff at.

And of course, good luck!