Hi H K! Thanks so much for welcoming me back to Pick A Genre Already. While I want to share an excerpt from my latest e-book, Chemistry With The Billionaire, I also wanted to talk a little about the differences between writing for anthologies and writing stand alone short stories.
Writing Anthology vs. Stand Alone Stories
When I decided to jump start my writing career last year, at first I had no idea how to do it. A few years before, I’d written short stories, the confessional kind you find in True Stories magazines. I stopped to focus on writing a novel, but after multiple attempts with little to show for it, I decided to return to my short story roots. However, the company that used to publish my stories had gone out of business, so I did research to try to find who or what had taken their place. That’s when I discovered e-publishers, especially ones that had submissions calls for anthologies, were an option.
There were so many writing opportunities that I had a hard time deciding which ones to pursue. That’s when I started to realize that I would be able to continue to write short stories, but that in submitting to anthologies, I wouldn’t necessarily get to choose the theme of my story or the types of characters I wanted to write about. For me, this is the biggest difference between anthology calls and stand alone stories, limitations on the type of story you want to tell.
This doesn’t bother me because usually the anthology submissions calls are sufficiently broad enough that I can still come up a story that I want to tell within the parameters that have been outlined. Usually submissions calls ask for stories involving a profession, like policemen or paramedics, or they could center on a theme, like stories involving ménages or BDSM. These themes are broad enough where a writer can take on just about any genre, from comedy to suspense. More often than not, looking over the submissions calls for an e-publisher can spark the inspiration for a story.
On many e-publisher sites, you’ll see encouragement to submit to an anthology in order to ‘get your foot in the door’ of their company. This allows the e-publisher not only to get to know you, but so you can get to know the e-publisher and see if their contracts, editors, marketing efforts, etc. fit with the expectations and goals your have for your writing career. And speaking of writing careers, both anthology submissions and short stories are great ways to build your back lists. You really can’t go wrong which ever route you decide to pursue.
Chemistry With The Billionaire
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When Sam Yates meets Elliot at a Harwin Biotechnologies office party, he can hardly believe the tanned and muscular Adonis is interested in a nerdy scientist like himself. However, the attraction between the two men is immediate and it doesn’t take them long to act on it. It is only the next morning that Sam realizes that he’s just slept with Elliot Harwin—the company president.The revelation leaves Sam uneasy and afraid it will look like he's trying to sleep his way up the corporate ladder. But Elliot helps him to put aside these reservations, and it isn’t long before Sam achieves the professional success and personal fulfillment he has long sought. But this newfound happiness is threatened when a jealous co-worker tells Sam that he's not the first employee with whom Elliot has been involved. With his career and love life at stake, Sam starts to wonder whether the foundation he and Elliot have constructed has been built on lies.
Excerpt:
That’s it!” Sam snapped his fingers. “Phillip Harwin, the CEO and chairman of Harwin Biotechnologies. But what is he doing here with you?” The light bulb finally clicked on and embarrassed that he hadn’t caught on sooner swamped him. “You’re Elliot Harwin, the president of the company.”
“Guilty.” Elliot smiled, but he looked as uneasy as Sam felt.
“You didn’t think this was worth mentioning last night?”
“I know I should have, but things happened so fast that I never really got the chance.”
Sam conceded that things did go pretty fast last night. There really wasn’t time for an I’m-the-president-of-your-company conversation. And to be totally honest, conversation of any kind had been the last thing on his mind last night after meeting Elliot. But that was last night, and this morning was another matter entirely.
“I better get dressed, I have to get going.” Sam rushed past Elliot, eager to get back to the bedroom and find his clothes so he could leave and put this awkward situation behind him. He’d pulled on his pants and almost finished buttoning his shirt by the time Elliot re-entered the room.
“I’m not your direct supervisor, so this really isn’t as bad as you’re making it out to be.”
“Is that a line you tell all the other Harwin Biotechnologies employees you sleep with to make them feel better?” Elliot’s face went slack, like he’d been slapped, and Sam regretted the harsh words. “Hey, look, I’m sorry, that was completely out of line.”
Elliot nodded. “It was, but I guess I asked for it by not coming completely clean with you last night. For the record, I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve been so busy getting the company back on track after three straight years of decreasing sales and lost market share that I haven’t had much of a social life. I guess that’s why when things clicked between us, I didn’t want to risk telling you who I was and messing things up because it had been so long since I felt that way.”
“Same here,” Sam said, recognizing the similarities between Elliot’s story and his own. “I wanted you so badly last night that I’m not sure your telling me who you were would have made a difference because I haven’t been that attracted to anyone in years.”
Elliot smiled and walked over to Sam so that they were only inches apart. “So, does this mean I can talk you out of rushing out of here?”
“Depends on what you have in mind.” Sam’s breath quickened as Elliot unbuttoned his shirt and ground a burgeoning erection against his crotch.
“Something that’s going to get the day started a whole lot better for the both of us.”
Buy Chemistry With The Billionaire at:
Find Noelle on:
Email : noellekeaton@yahoo.com
Twitter : @noellekeaton
Web site / Blog : http://noellekeaton.blogspot.ca/
Thanks so much for having me as a guest at your fantastic blog!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, Noelle, anytime.
DeleteCongrats on you bestseller, Noelle!
ReplyDeleteI like anthologies too. Often I start a story for an anthology then it winds up being too long so it turns into a single title release. Whoops. :)