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an⋅thol⋅o⋅gy

1. (-noun) a book or other collection of selected writings by various authors, usually in the same literary form, of the same period, or on the same subject.

I recently gained a new appreciation of the anthology, in particular those found in the romance novel publishing world. I never gave them a chance in the past, but recently, because one of my favorite writers had not released a new book in some time (or so it seemed to me because I lack the patience in between novels), I sought out her more obscure works of literature. I discovered then that she had written several short stories that were all in anthologies released with the short stories of other authors.

I became curious and after reading the whole collection, found that I had three new authors that I became exposed to and who had many novels that I had never read! Imagine that, a wealth of reading material that was now available to me, and the reading of which would eat up all the time in between the other author’s release dates. Eureka!

This of course is probably not news to some of you, and certainly not news to the publishing houses that released the anthologies in the first place. Anthologies fill a niche that needs to be filled in the world of writing. And I think this need is even more prevalent in the romance genre. I, as a fan, become attached to certain characters, their extended families and the world that they inhabit. Every nuance, every story, no matter how small is interesting and entertaining.

Authors of romance novels have dedicated a lot of time to making their characters lovable and captivating. Short stories serve their purpose that they can completely conveying their point across in less than 150 pages. As a result, this is a perfect medium to flesh out stories of the sometimes minor characters in novels that end up becoming larger than life to the fan of the book.

Another purpose for the anthology (again, not news to the publisher) is that it can serve as the vehicle to introduce either new storylines for established authors, or new authors to established markets. Overall, its a brilliant strategy. Some authors that share the binding with one established author, may have participated in a few short projects, meanwhile still working on their major release.

Due to my current exposure to this genre within a genre, I am making a point to spare the glance for the books I would normally ignore and pass over in the library or bookstore.