“I’ve interviewed a few authors but this is the first interview I’ve done with an editor of a short story collection. Could you tell me a little bit about the process you had to go through to put ‘Wastelands’ together? Did you have an idea about specific stories that you wanted to be included or did you ask writers to submit work that they thought was suitable?
Well, after reading the abovementioned titles, it became harder to find books on the subject, and so I decided to write an article on the sub-genre, which required tons of research. (I figured if I was going to do the research anyway, I might as well write an article based on it and get paid for it!) In the end, it served me quite well when the time came to put the anthology proposal together; when the time came to do that, I put down most of the table of contents right off the top of my head.
Other than that, I just talked to my friends and colleagues and solicited recommendations from them. Also, once word got out that I’d sold the anthology, I had a few authors approach me to point out that they had stories on the subject I should consider.
There’s a bit more to the process than that, of course. Once you settle on a table of contents, you have to contact all of the authors (or their agents) to negotiate permission to reprint the stories. Then, once you secure permission for all the stories, you have to set the order of the stories, which can be a lot like putting together a puzzle. And in the case of Wastelands, I had to write the introduction, write the header notes to all of the stories, and finally assemble the “For Further Reading” appendix.”
4 out of 5
http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com/2008/02/interview-john-joseph-adams.html
