I wish I had the ability to drabble.

So do I. Are you sure you don't? Some nice crisp 100-word observations on fandom?

I've made the attempt. It never works out well.

Yeah. I think the paid in copies thing would make sense - maybe not even always that. I mean what if someone has written one really good drabble? You want to leave that out if they are willing to contribute it? And somewhere in the range of zero to one copies equals market rate of compensation for 100 words of fiction from a non-name. If there is any money it shold go the names, and perhaps to people who make really signficant contribution. (That might be a fair distinction - major and minor contributors.)

No point in discussing money until we know if it's even up BenBella's alley. Glenn may read the proposal and say something unprintable; you never know. I tend to think not, since anthologies are BenBella's mainstay.

My feeling about it is pretty straightforward: there are a lot of very good writers in here, who have yet to publish anything in the "buy this for money" print medium. This would be a fabulous way of getting them into print.

For me, since there isn't likely to be much money in this anyway, that doesn't really arise. My thing is the above (getting all your words out), plus I've become fierce in my love for the form itself, and think it can be a perfect writer's tool.

I do want to make damned sure that, if this does fly, everyone understands that it isn't a popularity contest or any of that crap. I don't want hard feelings and pissiness and people feeling hurt if, for instance, BenBella does what the editor at Seal Press did: cut the list of twenty writers down to (I think) eleven.

Sure. The whole point of collection is what you said. The editor may love books, but she also works for a business. If this comes to fruition, In the end what will be picked will be the authors and drabbles the editor thinks will produce a book that has a shot of earning money. Of course everyone (or almost everyone) who wrote a drabble will hope to be picked. And of course those who are not picked will feel a moment of disappointment - even as they feel happy to see the others get included. I think we are all human enough for the former. I think we are all adult enough with, and have enough generousity of spirit for the latter to predominate.

TB, I hope you're right, but the truth is, there's a lot of ego wrapped up in writing, and well there should be: no one wants their baby snubbed, and that includes me. There's no negative connotation on the word "ego" there.

What I would do is include sample topics with one or two sample drabbles for each topic, as part of the proposal. The ones I used would be what I considered the most illustrative of writing on the topic. So I'd have to get an acknowledgement from the proposal inclusion drabble writers that use of their work as part of the proposal was okay with them.

Hey deb and amy, I'm kind of terrified that I'm not going to make my deadline simply because I've run out of things to write. Even after beefing up existing work, and with one final essay to be completed today, I'm still 9000 words short. Somehow, I managed to LOSE WORDCOUNT.

I'm freaking out, needless to say. I'm unsure if I should contact my editor and say, "this is due in four weeks, and I don't know what to do, and I think I need to give the money back."

I'm not sure what I can do, or even if it's appropriate to bring it up.

Advice?

Allyson. Do not give up. Do not give the money back. Do not panic. 9,000 words in 4 weeks is not impossible. That is 450 words a day if you take weekends off. You post 450 words a day on the buffista bulletin board all the time.

Question: are you even sure you managed to lose word count? Word's word count can can be funny in a very non-humourous way sometimes.

If the problem is you really have nothing more to say - then how about talking about something else:

1) Do some interviews. 2) Do some essays on peripherally related stuff.

Talking to your editor may be a good idea but not in this mood. You will end up with a submission your editor will like. Terminating the project is not something to discuss. The three possibilities are: you deliver 9,000 more words on deadline. you deliver less than 9,000 more words before dealine. You deliver 9,000 more words after dealine. The last two would need to be discussed with your editor.

If you want, send me what you have. I'm not anything like as great a beta as the others who have already look at it. But the material is new to me, unlike your current betas. Maybe something new will occur to me. (Doesn't mean you should not consult your regular betas as well.)

Allyson, breathe. You haven't run out of words - you've just run out of immediate source ideas.

Ask your friends. We have ideas.

For instance:

As a writer, I know I'd personally love to see a section on the difference in cons. Hell, that ties in with the book's title - but was the scene at, say, the thing you put together for Suze Brockman the same level of intensity and nutso as a Star Trek convention would be?

There's one possibility for a nice beefy essay. And on that one, you can ask your BNFs for quotes and input. Instance: I fell asleep by the pool at BayCon (a scifi/fantasy con; ask Karl T about it, he goes every year) and waking up surrounded by ginormous people in full Klingon battle gear and prosthetic brow ridges. And when I opened my eyes and froze, the biggest guy announced "Good. The human female wakes. We will SING NOW." and proceeded to serenade me with Klingon opera. A couple of months after that, in Minneapolis for World Fantasy, I found myself listening to Neil Gaiman referencing the Siege of Beziers in answer to my challenging the panel on how to write fanaticism from the POV of it being overcompensating for doubt.

So, the difference in the fan bases. It could be a honker of an essay, especially in word count: tell it from the organiser's end, the participating Name end, and the fans' end.

Any help?