Indie Anthology "Stories on the Go #2" (2015)

[Deleted]

There is going to be a second indie anthology, Stories on the Go #2

For those not familiar with the project, this is an anthology of very short stories, 1,000 words or less, by indie writers.

* Everyone is welcome. The only criterion is that you have at least one self-published book. That's it.
* All genres are welcome. In fact, according to the reviews of #1 readers seem to like that.
* All stories maximum thousand words. Shorter stories no problem.

The idea behind the anthology:

* This is strictly a cross-promotional thing and a free gift to our readers.
* Don't submit any old thing gathering dust on your hard disk. Readers who don't know you will read your story and decide whether they want to read more of your writing based on it.
* You get a little biography of maximum 300 words to present yourself and your work.
* You also get one link. Since the anthology will be distributed to several vendors this can't be an author page on one of them. A Facebook page is acceptable, but your own site is preferred. You all have one of those, haven't you?

This is the thread of the 2015 project.

This is the thread of the first edition.

If you'd like to know how we're doing so far with the 2014 edition:

This is a spreadsheet with downloads. (regularly updated)

This is the Goodreads page with reviews.

This is the Amazon US page with reviews.

This is the Amazon UK page with reviews.


Let me repeat, everyone and every genre is welcome.

I think this anthology is an excellent opportunity to reach new readers, especially if you can write a story which ties in to a series.

[Daniel]

Awsomesauce! Thanks for posting all those great links. As I said in the other thread, I'm in again for this round.

It looks like several of the returning authors are going to write something special for the anthology, so we may get even better stories this time around.

What a fun project!

[Deleted]

How To Submit Your Story

All indies can submit a story, provided they have published at least one book independently.

Lurking, non-member authors and friends of friends are equally welcome.


1. Stories must be a thousand words or less. They don't need to be original or exclusive.

2. Add the following formula in the same mail as your story:

I, [Your Name], affirm that I am granting a royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual license to use the donated content as part of the anthology "Stories on the Go #2," edited by Andrew Ashling. Once the anthology is published I promise to promote it to the best of my ability through my author website and/or social media account(s).

3. Add a short bio of 150 words or less

4. Send your stories to [e-mail], and mention Anthology 2015 in the subject line.
You can copy/paste your story and bio in the email itself or as an attachment.
Don't forget to add the title, your pen name, the genre of your story, and your author website.

5. Have your story beta read before sending it in.

6. Have your story and your bio proofread by a second pair of eyes (at least).

7. Use curly/fancy single and double quotes.

8. Enclose italic words, clauses or sentences by either asterisks or underscores. E.g. "Did _he_ say that?" or "Did *he* say that?"

9. Same for bold, but either two asterisks or two underscores.

10. Same for bold italic, but either three asterisks or three underscores.

For the formatting I need to get rid of all kinds of code. I copy/paste your story into a simple text program. These retain only ASCII characters which means italics and bold are lost. The asterisks and underscores are markdown notation (not code, but ASCII characters) and there are several conversion programs and apps to render it into valid HTML. You can find more information here or here.
Reddit a.o. uses markdown.

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Please, also see the first post. All indies and all genres are welcome

[lindymoone]

These seems like it will make things much easier for you this time around -- providing the authors actually follow instructions!
As you know, I'm bowing out this time to make room for new blood, but will happily proof the stories again.

[Deleted]

May 19, 2015 10:50:07 GMT -5 lindymoone said:

These seems like it will make things much easier for you this time around -- providing the authors actually follow instructions!
As you know, I'm bowing out this time to make room for new blood, but will happily proof the stories again.

That's good news — not that you're bowing out, but that you're still going to proofread.

When the first stories are ready I'll warn you. Hope you remember the secret handshake to the super secret Indanth-clubhouse.

[vrabinec]

I'm curious if anyone saw a bump in sales after the first one.

[Deleted]

May 19, 2015 14:11:53 GMT -5 vrabinec said:

I'm curious if anyone saw a bump in sales after the first one.

Sam Kates did and reported in the new thread over on KB. Even got fan mail.
A bit anecdotal, but with so many factors involved who's going to say?
Anyway, there are over 32k downloads when I last updated the spreadsheet.

[Daniel]

May 19, 2015 10:50:07 GMT -5 lindymoone said:

As you know, I'm bowing out this time to make room for new blood, but will happily proof the stories again.

You made me wonder if I should bow out to make room for new blood. After thinking about it, I decided to go ahead and participate again for the following reasons:

* Authors from the first anthology were invited to participate in the second.
* From what Andrew has said, it seems that the anthology can be expanded to accommodate new blood as well as veterans, and I'm sure we'll have some attrition.
* Readers of the first anthology might be looking forward to seeing new pieces from their favorite authors (not that I'm one of them, but who knows?). Happy readers from the first anthology will help get the second one rolling.

[Deleted]

May 19, 2015 14:31:49 GMT -5 Daniel said:

May 19, 2015 10:50:07 GMT -5 lindymoone said:

As you know, I'm bowing out this time to make room for new blood, but will happily proof the stories again.

You made me wonder if I should bow out to make room for new blood. After thinking about it, I decided to go ahead and participate again for the following reasons:

* Authors from the first anthology were invited to participate in the second.
* From what Andrew has said, it seems that the anthology can be expanded to accommodate new blood as well as veterans, and I'm sure we'll have some attrition.
* Readers of the first anthology might be looking forward to seeing new pieces from their favorite authors (not that I'm one of them, but who knows?). Happy readers from the first anthology will help get the second one rolling.

You are right, Daniel.

It's one of the things I like about those old, dusty SF anthologies from the 60s and 70s my father bought by the dozen in second hand shops: the mixture of veterans and new voices.

So, please, don't bow out, either of you.
 

[lindymoone]

Hmmm. I would reconsider, considering the very fine points the two of you have made, but I have too much on my plate.

Also, considering that my story was the favorite of one of our least happy reviewers, I'd hate to think he would come back and give the second book two stars, too... 

I felt like by encouraging several other authors to participate last time (they wouldn't have known about it without me) that I had been responsible for some other writers being left out. I think that total was six -- three weren't even KBoarders -- and that's a big percentage of 101 stories. So I felt a bit greedy, and guilty when some KBoarders didn't squeak in under the wire.

[Daniel]

May 20, 2015 1:02:13 GMT -5 lindymoone said:

I felt like by encouraging several other authors to participate last time (they wouldn't have known about it without me) that I had been responsible for some other writers being left out. I think that total was six -- three weren't even KBoarders -- and that's a big percentage of 101 stories. So I felt a bit greedy, and guilty when some KBoarders didn't squeak in under the wire.

I don't think it's fair to blame yourself for the procrastination of others. Most opportunities have a limited-time window. It seems to me that the people attributed with the most "luck" are often those who take advantage of those windows before they close.