I'm currently in the beginning stages of compiling a short story anthology written entirely by autistic authors about themes relevant to disability politics. My co-editor is a very respected figure in disability rights circles; he was even appointed to a position by President Obama. (Alas, neither of us is well-connected with publishing.) We have five confirmed stories so far, though I want to solicit more once I actually have a way to confirm payment for writers.
But so far querying agents has been a pretty slow going. One agent looked at it and thinks the genres of the stories are too disparate. Another agent liked my pitch during DVPit, but said the collection is too heavy on SFF for her to represent well. I've submitted to a few small publishers and some other agents, with one rejection so far and radio silence. I realize that these things take time, but I want to continue strategizing in the meantime. I'm thinking of changing the anthology to be all SFF for marketability purposes, and since a majority of the stories are SFF anyway.
But while that opens up some options, there's still the matter of finding a publisher. My sense is that a lot of agents just aren't interested in representing this project because short story collections are a hard sell and they prefer to work with single authors. I get that. So should I just target small presses and publishers that take open submissions?
If anyone has experience with this kind of project, I'd love to hear about it.
But so far querying agents has been a pretty slow going. One agent looked at it and thinks the genres of the stories are too disparate. Another agent liked my pitch during DVPit, but said the collection is too heavy on SFF for her to represent well. I've submitted to a few small publishers and some other agents, with one rejection so far and radio silence. I realize that these things take time, but I want to continue strategizing in the meantime. I'm thinking of changing the anthology to be all SFF for marketability purposes, and since a majority of the stories are SFF anyway.
But while that opens up some options, there's still the matter of finding a publisher. My sense is that a lot of agents just aren't interested in representing this project because short story collections are a hard sell and they prefer to work with single authors. I get that. So should I just target small presses and publishers that take open submissions?
If anyone has experience with this kind of project, I'd love to hear about it.
