I’ve edited several anthologies, and each time I do, I’ve placed one of my own stories in the book. Part of the reason I handle a project is A) an interest in the topic, but B) I have a story that would work for it. Yet I’ve noticed some editors do not do this, or will actively abstain from printing their own story in the book.
Is this merely a matter of an editor’s taste/preference, or is it a faux pas for an editor to include one of their own stories?
I think it might rub somebody up the wrong way. You are judging everyone’s work but nobody is judging yours.
It really does depend on the editor.
For Abandoned Places I made sure I ran my story through a number of editors before placing it in the anthology, and I have done the same for other editors. I feel that if you are going to stick your own story in your anthology, you better make damned sure that it is one of the top tier stories for that collection. If it isn’t, or feels slapped together, you may have others who are reading your book feel as if you are using the anthology as just a vehicle to get your own work published rather than to showcase good stories in that theme.
As a reader, it doesn’t bother me as long as it’s just one story that definitely suits the anthology, and as long as it’s being published under the same name that the editor’s using, so it’s at least above-board. More than one story starts to seem a little much, and an editor publishing their own story under a different name feels a little too sock-puppet for my taste.
I do think it’s a little tacky, though in the instances where I’ve seen it, the stories were decent. If I saw this and the story was bad, I would absolutely call BS.
There are also cases where the Ed needs to write something because there simply haven’t been enough good/on topic submissions.
I think it’s natural to want to include a story, since if you’re editing an anthology you’re probably interested in the subject, but be very careful and get a second opinion from a third party.
I believe an editor shouldn’t create an anthology just so that they will have a place to publish that one story of theirs. That seems to be the wrong motivation to wanting to produce an anthology. I feel you should be putting together an anthology because you enjoy the theme/genre/etc and want to produce something that is not currently out in the market, or is a reoccurring piece that you enjoy and want to continue to see grow.
Otherwise, as Huskyteer mentioned, sometimes the editor needs another story to fill a gap in the anthology. Ianus and ToT is one such example. I believe since he’s been doing the half scary/half sexy books, sometimes another story is needed to even the sides. If an editor wants to put their own story in, they should confirm with others that the story is worth of being in there, and that the anthology needs/wants it.
Will agree with the general opinion of the thread.
When I put a story into the guild anthology, it went through the same judging process as any other story. I also only submitted it because I was hesitant about the amount of submissions we’d get (I was our first submission). I also had judges and beta readers help me with edits because it is a lot harder to edit something you’ve written.
But will also agree it’s not good form to put a story in an anthology just because you can. Make sure it’s good and has been validated by others of a high enough skill level as good before it goes in.
My only real experience with this has been the RF anthology. I know Sterling and Hunter both enter their own stories, but they’re very, very careful to get someone else to read and judge if the stories should even be included. This allows for non-biased opinion both on the relativity of subject matter and on quality. I believe as long as you have one of your peers either work on the anthology with you or at least review your story to make certain it should be in the anthology, you should be in the safety zone.
As a reader, I never had a problem with it, and have even come to expect it when the person running it is a writer. If the story is decent, than it shows that this is a subject that the individual felt passionate about, and they probably knew what they were doing when picking out the stories for it. If it’s not so decent yet the other stories are really good, then I suppose I would think the person should just stick with picking out the stories instead of writing them.
That’s just me and my limited experiences though. In the non-furry world, the first anthology that comes to mind is Rogues. GRRM not only edited it, but contributed a story for it. I haven’t seen anything poorly said about him for this, but there’s also a second editor listed, so it might be assumed that there’s a check and balance there.
I understand why it’s done but I’ve never been fond of the practice. I imagine most don’t have a problem with it either way. I figure if you’re gonna do it, at least use the same name for both editor and your story and not an alias or pen name.
My goal as an editor is to not write and just edit the anthology. But that hasn’t always worked out, and like Huskyteer said, sometimes you have to write something due to balancing issues and the like.
I can’t speak for other editors, but my personal policy if I need to write a story is to run it by two other people that have already been accepted into the anthology after their edits are done and get their feedback on it, as well as ask the publisher to give it a little extra scrutiny in review.
So, while I’d rather not do it, it’s sometimes unavoidable and I at least want to make sure it’s not just going in without any form of oversight or feedback.
I wound up stuck on one of these - I had a huge hole in an anthology waiting for a writer to fill it, and the writer was cataclysmically late. When the story finally arrived, it was utterly unworkable. The project was already pushing deadline, so I grabbed one of my own, edited the hell out of it over the next few obsessive-compulsive days, buried it in the mix, and sent the project off.
The story is probably pretty good - at least it reviewed well - but I’ll never know for sure because I can’t stand to look at it in there. Including it felt like cheating. There were other, more deserving writers who could have used the space, who might not have seen the solicitations for submissions or otherwise missed the sweet opportunity.
However, writers include their own stories in anthologies all the time. Asimov’s anthologies will often lead with one of his. It might be situational - if you’re editing “Best New American Fiction 2014,” chances are you’re an established voice who should step aside and let someone who needs the platform have the microphone, but if you’re editing “Stories about haunted houses” because you’re famous for writing stories about haunted houses, you’re probably expected to contribute as well. It would be a surprise if you didn’t. With a shared universe like “Thieves’ World” or “the Man-Kzin Wars,” it’s probably a requirement.
My own situation, however, was just plain awkward as hell. Even if it wasn’t cheating, it felt like cheating. I think I did do the chicken thing and give it a pseudonym. For my own conscience, I’d prefer to avoid that particular situation, but as a reader, I think it depends on the project.
Is there an additional complication that furry anthologies are a bit on the small side in terms of applicants? An editor adding in a story of theirs to flesh out a good set of 10 when there were 20 applicants seems way more acceptable than an editor dropping in their own with 200 applicants.
I think it would depend on the quality of the applicants’ story, personally. It seems unlikely that out of 200 applicants, at least ten percent of those wouldn’t be worth publishing. On the off chance though that most of the stories sent in are crap, it would make sense that the editor would want to inject a bit of quality into the antho.
The best way to establish this though would be a blind test with a small group, to keep your own bias out of it.
We all care about our craft, and want to produce quality within the fandom to show that we’re not just little kids playing make-believe of an adult’s job (as much as we might feel like it at times X3). There’s major trust that goes into the editors to make the call of whether our stories are a good enough representation of that quality or if there’s still improvement needed. How can that trust remain when the editor themself is including a story of their own that’s not up to par? How can the editor even know without getting someone else to make the call on quality?
It seems there’s a lot of give and take on this issue. Ultimately though, I think the number one question comes down to this: Is your story going to add to and even lift the quality of your anthology, or is your story a detriment, or at the very least blocking out one that could add just as much, if not more.