Organize an anthology, a poetry collection, a photography book, a collection of essays or stories…

1. Start strong and on topic – the first entry
   should pull the reader in and make them believe this anthology will be well
   organized and worth reading.
2. End strong – when they put the book down you
   want them to think they’ll read more from these authors, they might recommend
   the book to the library, they might even reread their favorite entries. Leave
   them with a good taste in the mind.
3. If you’re separating the anthology into essay,
   fiction and poetry (plus, say, very short fiction, drabbles, …) think about how
   you will deal with crossover entries (a poem preceded by a piece of memoir for
   example).
4. If you’re separating the anthology into themes
   or diverse sections, try to make the transitions smooth – if two sections include
   cat stories, maybe put the cats at the end of one and beginning of the other?
5. Aim for smooth transitions within each section
   too.
6. If you’re not separating out poetry, etc., you
   might want to alternate poems and prose for ease of reading BUT, you might also
   want to make sure each poem appears on one page or on a two-page spread – an
   issue you probably can’t address until you do the layout.
7. If you’re including images, try to space them
   out fairly evenly and, depending on layout, try not to have two images facing
   each other in only one place in the book.

How to Choose your Entries

1. If this is an anthology of your own work, choose
   your best work
   1. If you’ve got a theme, and something really fits
      the theme but isn’t your best work, edit it.
   2. If your best work doesn’t fit any theme or
      theory, just choose it anyway then organize it.
2. If this a group anthology, decide what your
   purpose is
   1. To give everyone the experience of being
      accepted and published (because, after all, rejection experiences are easy to
      obtain). If so, you’ll accept everything as long as there’s no huge reason to
      reject it.
   2. To advertise your group to new members? Then the
      question is whether you want new members in different age groups (choose
      entries that appeal to different groups), new members who are just starting out
      (mix entries from new and established writers… or just accept all entries)
   3. To create a book you can all be proud of? All
      might mean all your members, so accept everything. Or it might mean just those
      who got published in the anthology, in which case select the best entries (but
      if your anthology has sections, make sure each section has a good number of
      acceptances).

What about Themes and Sections?

1. You can choose a theme and invite submissions
   that fit the theme. But bear in mind, some submissions will fit better than
   others. You’ll probably end up splitting the book into sections for the
   different sub-themes that appear (or rejecting entries).
2. You can use a set of themes (say, monthly
   contest themes for the last year). Now there won’t be much connection between
   sections, but see How to Organize an Anthology to fit it all together.
3. You can look for a theme to emerge from the
   entries or the sections.

What About Titles?

1. Calling it “the Writers’ Mill Journal Volume 23”
   will be fine, as long as you’re only hoping to sell to members and friends.
2. Giving it a more catchy name might be fun, but
   might also make your anthology appear on the same page as something entirely
   inappropriate on Amazon.
3. Why not combine the two – a catchy name (well
   researched), and a “writers’ mill journal volume 23” style subtitle.
4. Catchy titles are easier if you have an
   overarching theme, but you can use where you meet, how you meet, who you are,
   etc to create a catchy title – e.g. Musings from a Computer Screen for a group
   that meets over the internet.