KW Anthology - and this time we mean it!

[aTOMiC]

Okay, lets not lose our heads here.

Seriously, from what I know about so far if you combine what has already been submitted, The Creed and my story (“Thule of the Quill” 8500 words or so, of which I have a first draft completed and after I convince dAN to read it and give me some feedback I'll submit) we already have enough material to go to publication. BUT! I know of a few watchers that are currently working on stuff and will all be submitting at or just before the deadline. I'm excited and wish there was more chatter about who is doing what and so on but I think we all have to be patient for another couple of weeks. Trust me the selection committee will have their hands full making choices at the end of the month.

[Thomas Covenant]

I agree, the submissions are starting to come in quicker, now. We have a fair few submissions.

And I agree that it is WAY too early to start discussing a volume two at the moment, but that does not mean that we shouldn't put "volume 1" on this, just in case.

[hierachy]

^me.


Forgot who I was logged in as

[Myste]

What if we give the Anthology an actual title? McSweeney's has done a couple of anthologies of genre fiction--two volumes now, and they dealt with the situation by calling the first "McSweeney's Treasury of Thrilling Tales" and the second (the creation of which hinged on the success of the first) "McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories." If we did something like that, then we wouldn't need to say anything so mundane as "Vol. 1" or "Vol. 2", but could make clear by the titles that they are related. That way we don't force ourself into a corner by putting Vol. 1 on a book whose sequel is at best a future project and at worst, never going to happen.

Besides, I agree with everyone who says we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves here. Let's keep our focus on the project we've got now, which still isn't finished, and worry about the next project when we get to it.

[Dragonlily]

I would like to start work on those submissions which have definitely been selected. Editing takes a kind of immersive concentration which will probably not allow for working on more than one story per night. Multiply the number of stories by the number of exchanges between editor and author and back, and you will see that the editing stage can easily be expected to take more than two months. That's if everyone including me is prompt in their follow-through.

[[Syl]]

Don't forget the procrastinators like myself. Life's a little busy, but I'm about to have a lot of free time come this Friday (underway for a couple months). Besides, all my best work is produced under pressure.

*cue the David Bowie*

[CovenantJr]

I simultaneously support and oppose Loremaster's suggestion - as I warned him I would

My arguments in favour:

1) All you apathetic "submitters" now have less than two weeks left a...what?...two month-ish submission period. I have strong suspicions from experience of such behaviour (not least my own) that several of you will fall through (unless you take sufficient umbrage at this comment to actually make you get on with on it ). We may need to bulk up.

2) It will significantly broaden the distribution of the anthology, thereby getting the stories/poems in front of more people, spread the name of the Watch and of SRD - and also give any Watchers who could potentially reach professional standard a better start than if it were limited to just a KW audience.

Now against:

1) Sentimentality. There's something warm and fuzzy about it being a little project by friends/acquaintances for friends/acquaintances.

2) Rubbish. We could get any old pants submitted by people who aren't serious about the anthology because this site means nothing to them.

3) Reshuffles. Any sites who do take the anthology seriously would quite likely want some of their own people on the selection/editing committees. This could be quite complicated and slow down the already sickeningly laborious process still further.

[SoulQuest1970]

You know what? It has been way too long since I have seriously written. I keep making excuses because of the kids and being a single mom, etc, but I want to participate in this. I need to do it for me. Out of curiosity, would you consider ghosts in sci/fi or horror? I see a lot of ghostie stuff on scifi channel. This will determine which story I write and/or perfect. I wrote some screen plays in college and always intended to write them as a short story. Some are more novella length, but I have some good short stories as well.

[aTOMiC]

Nothing at all wrong with a story of supernatural elements. Go for it, SQ.

CJ, the Anthology will be published through Cafepress. I've had a book published with them and its not as limited as you might think. The book will recieve its own webpage (which looks astonishingly like and Amazon.com page. If we were to purchase an ISBN for the book it could also be registered with the aforementioned Amazon.com.) Anyone on earth with an internet connection and a credit card will be able to buy it. I like the idea of this project being produced exclusively by our members. The idea of mixing it with an outside group doesn't sound like what we had in mind when this was started. IMHO.

[CovenantJr]

I know people will be able to buy it, but they won't actually buy it. They won't even know it exists, page and ISBN or not.

[aTOMiC]

I know people will be able to buy it, but they won't actually buy it. They won't even know it exists, page and ISBN or not.

why?

[CovenantJr]

Why would they look for it unless they already know kevinswatch.com?

"An anthology of short stories written by a load of random people you've never heard of, and who could quite feasibly be utterly rubbish writers for all you know" isn't a concept likely to attract any punters who do stumble across it purely by chance. There is no market for this outside the people who already know about it. Make no mistake, I'm all in favour of the anthology, I think it's a great idea; but don't get carried away, we're not being offered publishing deals here, nor will we be.

[aTOMiC]

I don't think any of us believed we'd launch our writing careers with the Anthology. You have a point about the book being obscure and unknown to anyone outside of KW. I think that the concept of the Anthology escaping beyond the boundaries of our discussion group and attracting outside attention should have no bearing or impact on why we are creating the book in the first place. I'm cool with it being "by us for us". If it goes beyond that its just gravy.
After having read some of the submissions and having trust in the skills of our volunteers, I'm guessing the book will end up being pretty polished and entertaining. We won't have much longer to wait to find out.
I'm submitting this week for certain.

[[Syl]]

1) All you apathetic "submitters" now have less than two weeks left a...what?...two month-ish submission period. I have strong suspicions from experience of such behaviour (not least my own) that several of you will fall through (unless you take sufficient umbrage at this comment to actually make you get on with on it ). We may need to bulk up.

Sorry, Alan, but I think I have to take a bit of umbrage at that, considering it came right after my post about procrastinating. Don't think I've ever fallen through for anyone, though. Even if I had to have my wife send me chapters of the book at sea, I still got my dissections done.

The only reason I considered contributing to this effort is because it sounded like fun. But if it's outside KW or get's to be a big hassle, I don't see it worth jeopardizing my intellectual property.

[Leonard Nimoy]

I think you guys just need to be patient and wait till the end of the month to see what you have; then you can decide whether or not to add other outside authors.

[aTOMiC]

Lookout Submission Team!

I have submitted my story. Its a first draft but should be complete enough, with editing, to work out. I don't think I can spend any additional time on it before the deadline.

I hope this helps get things moving.

A Submission! Wahoo.





Syl, I believe things are and will remain hassle free. Please submit. I'd be very interested to read your work.

[hierachy]

I see no need to go outside of the watch for this project. In fact, I am directly opposed to the idea. This is the Kevinswatch anthology, not the kevinswatchandaloadofrandompeoplewedontevenknow anthology.

Tom: Great! I'm going to go read it now!

[Loredoctor]

Why would they look for it unless they already know kevinswatch.com?

"An anthology of short stories written by a load of random people you've never heard of, and who could quite feasibly be utterly rubbish writers for all you know" isn't a concept likely to attract any punters who do stumble across it purely by chance. There is no market for this outside the people who already know about it. Make no mistake, I'm all in favour of the anthology, I think it's a great idea; but don't get carried away, we're not being offered publishing deals here, nor will we be.

Here here!

[CovenantJr]

1) All you apathetic "submitters" now have less than two weeks left a...what?...two month-ish submission period. I have strong suspicions from experience of such behaviour (not least my own) that several of you will fall through (unless you take sufficient umbrage at this comment to actually make you get on with on it ). We may need to bulk up.

Sorry, Alan, but I think I have to take a bit of umbrage at that, considering it came right after my post about procrastinating.

Okay...two things to say here...

1) The fact that my comments immediately followed your post was coincidence; it wasn't directed at you, or any one person specifically. I had already decided what I was going to say before I got to the last page of the topic. I apologise if I seemed to be addressing you with that comment; for an explanation of why I was address it to others but not you, see point 2.

2) I apologise for the tone of that post. There seem to have been several runs of the "Hurry up and submit please" "Yes, I'm going to. Yes I know there's only an hour left, I'm going to, really. No, I will." between various people. I know that's quite rude, but all I can offer as an account of my behaviour is that I really hate that kind of thing, and I had just finished deleting a page of spam, so I was a bit cheesed. As for why I would direct that at last-minute submitters in general but not at you - this is the first mention you've made of your submission for some time, and you haven't consistently and repeatedly said you're about to submit. The other reason is because you weren't hopping about in excitement at the prospect, to promptly do nothing for weeks - in fact, I didn't even know you were submitting.

Again, I apologise to everyone on both counts. I was somewhat unfair due to my general irritability at the time.

[Furls Fire]

Okay, The Creed is on it's way. Sorry it took so long everyone.