The anthologies are an important part of GA, and have always been eagerly anticipated by both authors and readers.  We’re in the final stretch for this year’s anthology, with the deadline for submission to the proof team a week away.  That’s still plenty of time to complete the final edits and get stories to me by or on September first. I’m going to let the final number of stories be a surprise, so you’ll have to wait until it goes live to find out if we met our goal of at least twenty stories.

The anthology wouldn’t exist without the support of site members, and that can happen in a variety of ways:

Authors and Poets – write, write, write! We want to read your stories and poetry, and, as we discussed last week, it doesn’t need to be a 25k novella (unless that’s what you want to contribute), but can be a 1k flash fiction piece or anything in between.  Writing for the anthology is a great way to get new readers and also to give back to a site that has given so much.  The link to the theme can be tangential, so if the theme isn’t speaking to you, it doesn’t have to smack the reader in the face as long as it’s there somewhere.  But that’s a topic for another blog post.  The anthology is open to all site authors and poets, so even if you’re new to writing, give it a go!  We’ve had authors/poets contribute their first stories to the anthology before.  So as long as it fits into GA’s story guidelines and has gone through an editor, send it on! 

Readers – read, read, read!  Authors love reader feedback. At the very least, leave a reaction or recommendation.  Remember to leave a reaction for both the story and story chapters.  Story reactions help get authors recognized on the recommended stories list.  Even better, leave a comment and/or review. 

Editors – edit, edit, edit!  In the months leading up to the anthology, there are usually quite a few requests in the Writer’s Circle from authors looking for editors.  Stories must be edited before being submitted to the proof team, and it can be difficult at times for authors to find someone to edit their story, so stepping up to help make these stories the best they can be is a fantastic way to support the anthology.  Another way for editors to contribute is to join the proof team.  Having more proof team members will help ease the backlog we sometimes experience when a lot of stories are submitted at once.  Anyone interested in joining the proof team can feel free to message me, and we’ll go from there.

Finally, I wanted to give anthology authors/poets a reminder to post the links to your story in the anthology links thread in the Writer’s Circle once they’re returned from the proof team.  If you have any questions about the process, message either myself or Cia and we’ll be happy to help.