This site exists as a place to organize the publication of a wuxia fiction anthology. Here, you can submit your story for consideration for inclusion in the anthology, you can learn more about wuxia, and below you can read about the methodology I plan to use in order to get this anthology published. This site will also be used to post updates on the status of the anthology. If you would like to follow our progrress, simply subscribe via RSS or email at the bottom of this page. Now to get to specifics.

The Plan

Phase 1

Phase 1 will be the collection of choosing of stories. This will likely be the longest phase. People need time to write their stories if they aren’t written yet, and I need time to sift through the submissions I get and choose the best ones. And the best ones have to be good ones. So it might take some time to find enough good stories which are really wuxia to publish. If I can’t find enough good stories then I won’t publish the anthology.

Phase 2

Phase 2 will begin before Phase 1 has ended, and this phase will contain the raising of funds. I want to pay the writers whose work will be published here, and for that I need money. I would like to pay between 1 and 5 cents per word. Add to that the cost for buying cover art and an ISBN number. I will be typesetting and designing the book myself, so that won’t cost any money.

So for a 100,000 word anthology, which is the target, the cost will be about $1500 USD if I am paying 1 cent per word, and $5500 USD if I am paying 5 cents per word. That gives us a lower and upper goal to reach. At the minimum, I need to raise $1500 USD in order to publish the anthology. If I can’t raise that much money then I can’t publish the anthology (and any donations received at that point will be returned).

Obviously, 5 cents per word is what I would like to pay. That is the lowest amount considered to be professional pay by the Science Fiction Writers of America, and I think it’s a good criteria. 1 cent per word is not much at all. A 2,000 word story would only pay $20. Phase 2 is the part I worry about the most, because I think it will be difficult to raise even $1500 USD, especially given how little support I received with the journal even when everything was free and no money was needed. On the other hand, since the money is going to the writers and artists, maybe people will be willing to donate.

Why pay the writers? So many publications do well without paying the writers. Just getting their work published would be good enough, and it’s to help out the wuxia genre.

I thought about that too, but I don’t agree with it. I think I could get submissions, but maybe not enough for a 100,000 word anthology. And since this is our showcase, a word count less than 100,000 would hardly be worth it. A paying publication is likely to attract better talent, meaning better stories. And anyway, writers should be paid for their work.

But there’s another reason why it’s important to pay the writers: Credibility. This anthology is a real book, with real stories from a real genre, and we want to be taken seriously. This is no mere fan work. The wuxia genre deserves it, and the people who write the stories deserve it, to be taken seriously and to be paid for their hard work, as little as that pay is likely to be, at least at first. So even though we’re just getting started, I feel it’s important the writers get paid for their work. Same thing with cover art.

To recap, I am hoping to raise $1500 USD to publish this anthology. Ideally, I would like to raise $5500 USD, but $1500 is the minimum I need to go forward into phase 3.

Phase 3

Phase 3 is where I have the stories decided, and I work with the writers to edit these stories and get them looking their best so we can show them to the world. Also included in this phase is the actual design and layout of the book. As I said, I will be doing the design and the typesetting, as I did with Kunlun Journal. This time I will be using good cover art, though, which I’m excited about.

I will buy an ISBN number for the book and publish it under the moniker Genreverse Books. Money made from sale of the book will go towards paying for the next project. In the future I would like to publish more wuxia, in the form of novels and novellas, and short story collections, Maybe another anthology.

Phase 4

Phase 4 is handling everything after the book has been published. The writers and artists will have been paid before publication, but if sales are particularly good, I would like to give some more to them; after all, it’s their stories. If such a scenario were to occur, the paying of royalties might get complicated depending on how many contributors there are. Paypal will be used for all transactions, but dealing with anything interantional can be a headache.

That’s one reason I prefere a flat rate for payment over just paying royalties. The other reason is that, if the book doesn’t sell well, then the writers might not make much since they’d be getting a percentage of the sales, split up amongst themselves. I can see a royalty payment easily giving back less than a flat rate. But I don’t know, I may be wrong. This part of the plan hasn’t been nailed down yet, so any feedback or suggestions are welcome. I want the contributors to be paid fairly, but I also want to minimize complications so this goes smoothly, especially as I’m not experienced with doing this. But first things first.

Even raising $1500 USD will be daunting. I honestly don’t know if I can do it. If I can’t then the anthology won’t be published, unless the writers themselves wanted to go ahead, and that would have to be a consensus.

So, that’s about it. In a few days the website for the anthology will be open, and at that point people will be able to submit their stories. Take your time. I know it will take time to find the right stories. Make sure yours is the best it can be before you submit. Detailed writer’s guidelines will be posted on the site. I will be using Hey Publisher, a submissions management system. You’ll need to sign up with them in order to submit your work, but signing up is quick and easy. You can sign in through Yahoo, Facebook, or Twitter, or directly through them. Either way, the process takes only a few seconds, as they don’t ask for much information from you. Their system, which integrates vis a plugin with WordPress, will make organizing and responding to submissions much easier and the response times should be fairly short.

Unless I like your story, that is. Since it will take a while to collect enough great stories for a 100,000 word anthology, if your story is in the “maybe” pile then you might have to wait a bit longer for an answer. If I don’t like your story, though, then you should know pretty fast.

Simultaneous submissions will be accepted, as well as multiple submissions. Previously published stories will also be considered. After all, this is an anthology; the stories need to be the best, but they don’t necessarily have to be new. That means you can also submit your story to a magazine and have it published, and then have it accepted for the anthology as well.

I am looking for stories from between 2,000 and 30,000 words, so novellas will be considered. I would like a good long story, actually.

I’m not sure when I will begin accepting donations. I might wait a week or so after opening submissions. It might be a good idea to wait and see what the repsonse is, not just via submissions, but online feedback and comments, before I start accepting money. If nobody gives a crap about the project then I don’t want to take anyone’s money; then I would just have to refund it, and that is an annoyance.

So that about covers it. Specific details are subject to change as the project moves forward. All news will be featured as blog posts on this site, so feel free to subscribe below if you want to be kept up-to-date. If you have any questions for comments, or feedback, you can email me at admin@books.genreverse.com.

Hi. I’m John Dishon, editor of Genreverse Books and Kunlun Journal of Chinese Historical Fiction, which is currently on hiatus. I’m the one who will be selecting stories for this anthology and publishing it once it’s all put together. I will also be the one putting it all together. I also administer Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a social network community site for readers and writers of Asian literature. Originally from the United States, I currently live in Taiwan with my wife.