I’m reading an interesting little booklet by Kevin J. Anderson, entitled Slushpile Memories: How NOT to Get Rejected. I’m hoping it will give me some solid suggestions to improve my short story sales record.

I’ve just started, but I’ve read Anderson’s work before and he’s a good writer, so I’m sure it’s going to be a good read. It’s got some sensible chapters on following directions and submitting again if you get rejected. I’m also hoping for some tips & tricks to polish and sharpen my own stories.

If you’re a writer who’s trying to break into the magazine and anthology market, you should pick up a copy of this book and read it.

The anthology is out in paperback now — proceeds go to support the Western Fictioneers so we don’t have to pay so much for our conferences and such — we’ve all signed our royalties over to the club so you can be sure every penny goes to support your local Western writers!

I got my authorial copies today and it’s a great paperback! 5×8 and nearly 400 pages — it’s a nice handful of stories. We’ve got 22 stories for your reading pleasure and each one a gem.

It’s still free on Kindle Unlimited — but you know you want that high-quality paper in your hot little hands! You can even get it “signed” if you ship me a book plate! PO Box 3671 Greenville, SC 29608 — shoot me an email if you do so I can check the box more frequently than I usually do…

The anthology is live now — there’s a little snafu with the paperback version but they’re working on it so that should be available soon.

I’m entering “A Little Night Action” in both the Peacemaker Awards and the Spur Awards. I’m not holding my breath because I don’t write “traditional” Westerns, but I always toss my hat into the ring. After all, you can’t win if you don’t enter!

Got the proofs back for Under the Western Sky. Why do you always catch those repeated words and phrases when you get those back, instead of when you do your final edits before sending the story in the first time?

I didn’t find any actual typos in the story — they did a good job setting it up. I do wish I could change a couple of lines though!

The best way to edit your story or proof is to print the thing out. This is the step I skipped because my printer was acting up that week. Somehow, printing the story makes it easier to find typos and wrong word choices. Start at the end of the story and read backwards, looking at every word until you get to the beginning. Misspellings leap out this way, as do grammatical errors of most kinds and repeated words.

I’ll get you a link to the finished book once it’s out on the market. We’re hoping for a November release. I’ll be entering the story in the Peacemaker and Spur awards, too. Probably never going to win since it’s not a “traditional” Western (my protagonists are unrepentant outlaws), but …

It’s official – Devon Day and the Sweetwater Kid will be joining the Wolf Creek gang for the great poker tournament!

The anthology, LUCK OF THE DRAW, will be published later this summer – details to follow as I get them – and will feature 4 or 5 more stories, as well as a background murder mystery.

If you haven’t read the Wolf Creek books, here’s the first one – I guarantee you’ll get them all! It’s a shared universe story, with several authors combining talents to write as “Ford Fargo.”

I’m just a little hopeful that I’ll be invited back to Wolf Creek someday…

Got word of a new anthology coming out in the Wolf Creek series – they’ve thrown open the submissions to anyone within the Western Fictioneers, so I’m going to see if I can get my foot in the door with a short story. I like the books, and it would be nice to create a character and do some collaborative writing with these folks.

Here are some tips for submitting a story for an anthology:

• Do your homework – see what’s already on the market from that publisher, see what other stories have made their anthologies, see what sort of thing they’re looking for before you start your own story.
• Know the world – if you’re submitting for a shared-world anthology, do your homework there as well, and find out about their world. Read some of the other stories set there and some of the books already published. Show them that you understand the world they’ve created.
• Do your best – a short story is harder for some people than writing a novel, so be sure you craft your best. Have a tight, logical plot with believable, sympathetic characters. Keep the action moving and don’t skimp on the emotion. Make sure the story flows, and that the ending is satisfying.
• Do your editing – fine-tune your story until it purrs, then edit one more time for spelling and grammar. If your work has easily-spotted errors, it’s going straight into the circular file.
• Follow submission guidelines – this should go without saying, but so often new writers will submit something totally unacceptable, or something the editors or publishers are just not interested in. Read the guidelines and follow them to the letter.

Have you had stories published in anthologies? What tips would you add to the list?