Wait. What? That's not what I heard...

[maygra]

The No Stairway Anthology


To be upfront and honest, we're not quite ready for the reveal. Neither the comm nor the website are entirely ready, not all the process and procedures have been honed or tested, and our proposed staff have neither been allowed to review the project nor opted in on any level.

However, I seem to be doing a poor job of defining just what this project is and what it intends -- mostly because we've been using the procedure process to help refine our scope and better define our mission and goals -- but I did hear what people were saying and we did make note of their concerns. We can't guarantee this will satisfy everybody, but we do hope it at least gives people a place to start assessing what we plan on doing instead of what they think we are doing -- or even why.

People form opinions and take positions that are entirely valid to them -- and the information in the link below may change no one's mind, and it is as likely as not to generate more questions and possibly more concerns. Fair enough. But I'm sincerely hoping that at least some information -- as opposed to speculation -- might at least give the project a chance.

So, please go here: http://community.livejournal.com/nostairway/

at least this way, if you still think it's a bad idea, at least it will be the right bad idea.

*and for anyone keeping track, the "Anthology" part of the idea jumped in and wrestled us all to the ground around midnight Friday. *g*

Comments

[stormcloude]

Here's a couple of logistical questions:

Our Acquisitions Manager is responsible for ... encouraging talented new authors to participate in the Anthology.

Makes it sound like it could be "invitation only" or could lead to accusations of cronyism etc. I'm sure you can see all the negatives to this statement without me pointing them out.

No Stairway is not a greatest hits collection, but an anthology of work that values both style and substance, and a chance for readers to discover those unrenowned b-sides

Are you going to turn down stories with more than a certain number of comments or that have already been rec'd all over. How are you going to determine if something is a b-side or a greatest hit?

Relatedly, you've mentioned elsewhere about not getting enough submissions. Do you push back the release schedule or lower the standards if that happens? Publish less than 10 stories per volume? Start accepting "greatest hits"?


Also I'm confused as well by the use of the word "literary," but I am hoping to scope that out from reading other's discussions on it.

[maygra.livejournal.com]

1.We hope to encourage new authors, as well as established ones. Anyone can submit their work. Old, new, published, unpublished. Unless a work is accepted (or really, widely known), no one but the administrator is going to know submitted what. So a new author (or old) may be Asked to submit, but asking doesn't guarantee acceptance.

2. We don't turn anything down just because of comments or because it's been posted or recced. We may struggle with finding reviewer who can be completely objective on a well known work, but we'll find a away by either expanding the review panel size or tap people who wouldn't normally read that genre if they are willing. The b-side and greatest hits are metaphors -- we're looking for stories that aren't as well known and those that are -- but their actual status or reception as they exist within the fandom now won't impact their assessment. Or at least not in so far as we can mitigate it.

3. We're looking at a fairly healthy submission schedule, probably over a couple of weeks. We don't intend on publishing a "thin" anthology, or a padded one. If that happens we'll either push back publication date and re-ask accepted authors if they are still interested.

4. Literary in this sense describes the process as much as any kind of specific work. The whole process is very much like a publication process for a lit anthology, in that it's a collection of solid if diverse work. Someone else suggested that what we're really talking about is similar to genre works that are hitting the literary mainstream -- books that contain fantastical or science fiction or romance elements, that used to be only found in genre novels.