Ready to Build Your Own Anthology?
Ξ November 21st, 2008 | → | ∇ All Fiction Genres, HE SAYS, SHE SAYS, Illustrators, Cover Artists, Peek Behind the Scenes |
Nancy Fulda proprietress of AnthologyBuilder.com thinks you might be. Executed as a straight forward website on the surface, AnthologyBuilder is in reality, an innovative concept that takes advantage of state of the art of print on demand technology, Web 2.0 user interfaces, and a huge pool of author talent. Seemingly, Nancy has found a way to keep popular reprints available, paper consumption to a minimum and get authors paid for their work.
The Deepening, in conjunction with roving reporter Bosley Gravel, was graciously granted a few minutes of Nancy’s time to get the details of this fascinating project.
BG: What can you tell us about the genesis of AnthologyBuilder and its goals, mission statement?
NF: AnthologyBuilder started as wishful thinking and a whimsical blog post *. I was frustrated because my friends were publishing in so many different magazines that I’d go broke trying to subscribe to them all, and joked that I wanted a build-your-own-anthology web site that let me pick and choose my own stories.
There was an overwhelmingly positive response to that post. Several people even contacted me and proposed business partnerships to get the site up and running. Most of the proposals fell through in the end, but by then I’d fallen in love with the project and decided to make it happen on my own.
The site opened for its first round of beta testing last December and currently hosts 674 stories and 313 cover images. I’m amazed at how supportive the creative community has been of the concept. At this point, we can’t afford to pay our artists and authors the kind of compensation they truly deserve, and yet they’ve chosen to entrust us with these fantastic stories and images anyway. For me, it’s a reaffirmation that we’ve got a truly innovative project here; something people are willing to go out on a limb for because they like the idea of it and believe it will work.
One of the driving concepts behind AnthologyBuilder is the idea of the customer as an editor. In the past, fiction readers have been at the mercy of the market; they could only buy the stories that happened to be in print at the time, and assembling a collection of their favorite stories often required the purchase of over a dozen anthologies and magazines.
I hope that AnthologyBuilder will change all that. As our library grows, I expect AnthologyBuilder to become a place where customers can come to assemble the anthology they’ve always wanted to buy but have never been able to find on the shelves at their local bookstore. A cat-lover could create an anthology of kitty mysteries, for example, and a retired doctor could assemble a collection of futuristic medical thrillers.
BG: Approximately how many hours a day goes into AnthologyBuilder?
NF: Heh. It depends on the day. In the beginning, I spent about three months working on the project full time, and it still sucks entire weeks out of my life on occasion. The rest of the time, I’d say I spend about 2-3 hours per day updating the web site, processing submissions, and doing quality checks on customer orders.
BG: What about staffing?
NF: Mostly, AnthologyBuilder is all me. I’ve got my husband handling negotiations with our printing companies, and I’ll be pulling in some extra editorial help in the not-too-distant future. But for now, the company is far too young to support a full-time staff.
BG: Have any big names (prize winning, etc) contributed to AnthologyBuilder?
NF: The list is actually quite long. We’ve got stories by best-selling author Eric Flint; Campbell Award winner and SFWA Secretary Mary Robinette Kowal; Campbell Award winner Jay Lake; British Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and Pushcart award nominee Eugie Foster; and about a dozen winners of the Writers of the Future contest. We also have cover art by Hugo-award-winning artist Frank Wu.
Other names visitors to the site might recognize include Dave Freer, Cat Rambo, Tobias Buckell, Jim C. Hines, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Irene Radford, James Maxey, and Lawrence Schimel.
Oh yes, and our selection of public domain stories includes one written by President Abraham Lincoln.
BG: AnthologyBuilder appears to running custom software. Was it commissioned?
We tried to commission a web developer, but couldn’t find anyone willing to take on the project, so I ended up doing it myself. That was kind of fun, actually. It involved learning PHP, figuring out how to run a web server, interfacing with an online API, and juggling several random tasks that I never would have guessed come hand in hand with running a company.
BG: What is your hosting situation?
NF: We run off of a Linux server and use a fairly standard web hosting package with (theoretically) unlimited bandwidth.
BG: Currently there is no sponsored advertising on the site. Could you tell us a bit about your philosophy on third-party ads?
NF: I make a point of keeping advertising to a minimum on the site. I want visitors to feel comfortable and have fun putting together anthologies. They can’t do that with random advertisements flashing at them from five different directions. When I do run ads on the site, I make sure they’re low-key and relevant to the site’s content.
BG: What sort of things might be in AnthologyBuilder’s future?
NF: The first item of business is to finish the last few bug checks, move out of beta testing, and make our first big marketing push. We’ve been running very low-key so far, making sales primarily by word-of-mouth through the blogosphere, and I’m curious to see what kind of traffic the site might generate once we start actively looking for customers.
After that, the next planned expansion is the introduction of an Open Market where authors can upload their own stories and set their own prices–sort of like the e-Bay of the written word. This would be a secondary site, running separately from the more carefully moderated main site, and would be a bit of an experiment.
BG: Any plans to expand to podcast style stories?
No. Our site is centered around the concept of printed books. Podcasting doesn’t really fit into the scheme.
BG: Will AnthologyBuilder ever offer a paperless version?
NF: I doubt it. For one thing, the contract with our authors clearly specifies reprint rights and limits electronic display to a short preview only. Moving to a paperless version would require getting each author’s approval of the change.
Secondly, I don’t feel it would add much to the site. There are already plenty of places where you can get electronic stories. The whole point of AnthologyBuilder is that you can hold the stories in your hand and stash them on your bookshelf.
BG: Any plans to expand to the world of ‘first rights’?
Only in the sense that authors could choose to put unpublished stories in the Open Market. I’d advise authors against doing that, though. Sell the story somewhere else first. You can always put it on AnthologyBuilder later.
BG: How about on staff copy editors?
NF: Yup. That’s a definite possibility.
BG: Have there been any legal problems?
Well, I have nightmares about all the ways someone could potentially abuse the site, but so far no one has tried.
BG: Tell us about the physical characteristics of the actual book:
NF: The books we print are 6 x 9 inch Trade Paperbacks. That means they’re about the size of a hardcover novel, but with a glossy paper binding. They look about like this, except with a title and cover art of your own choice.
One of the coolest things about AnthologyBuilder, in my opinion, is that you can choose your own cover art for each book, and we’ve got a truly astounding selection. From Carolyn Yoachim’s photographic genius to the fantastical renditions of Dean Spencer and Jonathan Rollins, there’s something here for everyone.
So far, our customers seem very pleased with the books and the quality of the stories. I intend to keep it that way.
BG: What are your favorite anthologies?
NF: Looking over my bookshelf, I’d say three of my favorites are Tales of Knights and Roses, When My Job’s Done, and the Villa Diodati Sampler.
BG: How many books printed this far?
NF: Sorry, that one’s confidential 
Clearly, with dozens of pre-edited anthologies, and hundreds of top notch stories to chose from when you build your own, there is something for everyone at AnthologyBuilder.com. Go build your own personalized anthology today! And don’t forget your gift cards for all your friends and family.
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Nancy Fulda’s fiction has appeared in venues including Jim Baen’s Universe, Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest, and Norilana Books’ Warrior, Wisewoman anthology. She is a Phobos Award recipient, a two-time WOTF Finalist, and an assistant editor at Jim Baen’s Universe.
Nancy keeps a blog at http://nancyfulda.livejournal.com. She lives in Germany with her husband, their two children, and no cats.
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Bosley Gravel lives in a constant state of breaking the fourth wall, he is currently working on slipstream detective novella featuring evil incarnate. He writes in various genres and interested in all things fictitious.
2 Responses to ' Ready to Build Your Own Anthology? '
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on November 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Ah, I do like the sound of this. Now all I have to do is persuade Ms Fulda to accept many of my stories and I can then direct people wanting anthologies of them to her site!
on November 21st, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I had three stories up on Anthology Builder and even created an anthology filled with stories from folks I know. It’s titled “Things That Caught My Eye.”
I took my stories down since nobody wanted them anyway. It’s hard to get selected when there are so many top-notch writers putting stories up.
Still, I like the concept. However, since the few selections I did have weren’t paying, so I choose to give them away free on ISSUU. Which reminds me to post another story up there.