HIERARCHY IN ANTHOLOGY PUBLISHING.

Joe · 2025-03-31T17:11:08Z

HIERARCHY IN ANTHOLOGY PUBLISHING. Now, before anyone contacts me and says that the word ‘Hierarchy’ is not properly spelled in the image, obviously I know that. The image is from a post that was made to one of my Facebook groups quite a while ago and spelling error aside, it struck me as a good subject for discussion. In the field of Indie Publishing (and life in general) there are always going to be accusations of favouritism, of certain people being given preferential treatment through association rather than ability. One only has to grab almost any anthology in recent years to see that there’s a lot of truth to what is depicted in the image. A great many of us will have seen the comments on Social Media surrounding new releases or even just general conversations in which writers voice their discontent with Publishers who have a ‘Stable’ of writers. I would consider it safe to say that the majority of the anthology publishers I am aware of have them, not just anthologies either, magazines have them, but in all fairness they are often considered ‘Staff Writers’, I know that because I kinda sorta am one. 1/ PUBLISHER The party organiser throwing a bash for the rich and famous. The accusations here are that there are publishers whose writing would be rejected by any quality publisher, but who know how to play the system. They set themselves up as publishers, because, let’s face it, anyone can these days, and they put out an ‘open call’ which isn’t usually all that open as they will already have approached their favourite celebrity authors as well as their immediate social circle of friends. The intent here is seemingly to surround themselves with the great and the good, and by association imply that they are of a similar stature. Guess what… It often works! I have a lot of respect for those few publishers out there who can put out an anthology without shoving their own stories in it. 2/ CLIQUE. It ain’t what you know, it’s who you know. Ah, one of my favourite bones of contention. Undeniable. Some publishers even admit to having a stable of writers, though the reasons they give (if at all) vary only slightly. It’s usually the case that they declare a % of their writers are people whose work they know to be of a certain consistent quality, and the writers themselves are easy to deal with. I can actually see the logic there as it’s common sense to not want to have stories from 30 different authors which then have to have a shedload of work done on them while the writers are arguing the toss over their artistic vision, with accusations every step of the way, that the editing is ruining their voice. There are often spaces for the general public in the open calls, but they are relatively few. I know examples of anthologies having a slew of the usual suspects, with as little as a single spot for one lucky recipient. This (IMHO) is disgraceful, but hey, it’s their choice. It does raise the question of how the hell new talent is going to get recognition when the anthologists only recycle established writers. A note about ‘Staff Writers’, I did mention earlier that I kinda sorta am one even though it’s unofficial. I have articles and reviews in a couple of dozen issues of Phantasmagoria Magazine. Am I in every issue? NO. Is my name ever on the cover? NO. I’m basically an ‘also ran’ in that stable, but there nonetheless. Magazines generally do have a stable of regular writers as it lends continuity, but that’s something I don’t see a reason for with anthologies, yet there are entire series of them from certain publishers in which the same names always crop up, as if it’s a given that they’ll be in every publication. I’d love to see more emerging writers given a chance, but unless I begin publishing anthologies I’ll just have to keep my pie hole shut as it’s none of my business. 3/ FAMOUS NAMES. Yeah, I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna be a ‘name-dropper’. Somewhere on an external hard-drive I have a ‘bucket list’ Excel File of authors I wanted to appear in anthologies alongside of. It was a great inspirational checklist, it gave me something to strive for as I believed that being included would mean that my work was considered to be good enough, and I actually began to achieve the goals, so yay me! My work has appeared alongside the likes of Clive Barker, Joe R. Lansdale, Jack Ketchum, Graham Masterton and so many others that it could make your head spin. I’d resurrect the list to tick the Stephen King box, but other than that… Nah! Okay, so it could be said that getting celebs on board is a common-sense business move, even if they demand a significant fee for their story, as they bring their fan base with them, but that’s not always the case. Example: I have a story in someone’s charity anthology, it has a lot of ‘household names’ in it, one of the biggest has a fan club which I contacted about their idol’s inclusion in the anthology. As is usually the case, the big names don’t supply new s...

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