Anthologies present a great opportunity for writers to build their portfolios. If you are interested in publishing one, this blog provides the basic steps to compile and publish an anthology with the world’s top self-publishing companies.
What is An Anthology Book?
Anthology is a collection of short stories, poems, essays, or articles written on the same theme, genre, literary form, and time period, produced by different authors. An anthology could also be a collection of works by one author.
Anthologies are very much in trend these days. For starters, short stories easily fit into the reading patterns of 21st-century readers. They are a quick read, just like watching 10 episodes of a season on an OTT platform vs. being distracted in a 2.5-hour movie. Readers can read the book in one go or take breaks after each story. Besides, it is also a good gifting option for people who are not keen on reading fat novels.
Why Should You Publish an Anthology?
- Publishing experts highly recommend writers leverage the power of the best self-publishing platforms for a collaborative anthology for a number of reasons.
- Working with other writers in book publishing online can lessen the publishing load, help gain awareness, build readership, clear writer’s block, improve marketing efforts with extra funds, and produce better sales.
- Anthologies can also be one of the best ways to start a writing career and make money simultaneously. Collaborating with established authors gives new writers a good foothold in the publishing industry.
- But the primary benefit of publishing an anthology is that you produce an interesting book with less effort. The burden of making the book successful falls on all the authors compiling the book, reducing your effort by 70%.
Click Here to read the benefits of publishing your first anthology with free self-publishing companies.
Best Steps to Self-Publishing an Anthology
Step 1: Choose Your Theme
The theme or genre allows readers, bookstores, and even search engines to locate your book. Without the genre, even the best self-publishing companies in the world cannot wisely distribute your book. Moreover, to appease your target readers, you must stick to one theme and subgenre. For instance, if your theme is recipes, the genre can be breakfast ideas, bachelor’s foods, lunch box menus, or Indian curries.
Alternatively, you can choose a theme that crosses paths with different genres. For instance, if you select marketing as your theme, your genre can be digital marketing, cold calling, elevator pitches, email marketing, product marketing, etc.
Step 2: Determine Word Count and Number of Contributions
To maintain consistency, you must decide on the word count for each story/essay. The typical word count of any book’s manuscript is 40,000 to 1 lac. The average word count for short stories is 7500 words. The number of contributions will depend upon the word count you select. For example, if you publish essays with a word count of 1500 to 2000 words each, you would need at least 30+ contributions.
Step 3: Request for Submissions
You can approach contributors in different ways – through your book lovers circle, social media platforms, contests, and giveaways, or by contacting them personally for contribution. Before moving forward, discuss the guidelines and legal formalities.
Step 4: Share the Guidelines for Manuscript Submission
Contributors must establish a set of rules for summiting the manuscripts. These include time frame, compensation, language, content, tone, style of writing, formatting and editing of the book, and judge for the entries. Apart from the manuscripts, the contributors may also have to provide relevant documents, such as copyright transfer forms, NOC, consent letters for true stories, etc.
If required, you can draw up a contract to fulfill legal obligations.
Step 5: Edit and Arrange Manuscripts
While organizing the manuscripts for book publishing online, edit the stories that will be published in the book. Editing plays a significant role. It is advised to hire a professional editor, designer, and proofreader before submitting your manuscript to self-publishing companies. Writat offers customized book editing and designing solutions for self-publishing anthologies. To know more about them, click here.
Tips to Publish a Successful Anthology Book
- Creating and publishing an anthology isn’t easy. Following these tips, authors can collaborate and publish an anthology hassle-free online.
- Don’t forget to select the best self-publishing platform to compile, publish, and distribute your anthology. Self-publishing offers amazing book marketing and promotional benefits for anthology contributors, as promising as any leading traditional book publisher.
- Invite more authors to contribute so that you have more options to choose from.
- Give a chance to budding writers. Gen Z may have fascinating ideas, and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to know them.
- Don’t give an early deadline. Set enough time for editing, feedback, and formatting.
- Be specific on the language (British or American), style, and tone of writing.
- Choose the stories wisely. Each one must be substantially significant. Therefore, providing constructive feedback is a must.
- Use good editing software for self-publishing. Each story must be professionally edited and revised at least twice. Read why Google Docs is a great writing tool for self-publishing authors.
- Marketing, book formatting, and the cover design must be eccentric and top of the game. Instead of a traditional publishing package, try Writat’s cost-efficient, stand-alone publishing solutions.
Try out publishing your book today. Get started for free.
