…stop emailing me and asking me if you made it. Actually, I can be much nicer. I am still reading submissions and we have not made any final decisions regarding the TOC. That’s: table of contents.
Here’s how it went last year and how it’ll probably go this year, too:
I turn in a TOC. TT reads it. They add in some stories. Someone tells us we have too many. We say, “Awwww, come on, now!” And then that someone says, “Cut it!” So then we go through 1, 2, or 3 rounds at the chopping block. Then we do some horse trading about which ones we really can’t live without, OR absolutely don’t want. Then we go for permissions. That means, we ask other publishers for permission to use their previously published story. This is for the big name pieces. Depending on the acceptances we get from this, there could still be some throwing in or out at the end of the process to make the page count. Then the book goes to the printer—in July or August.
Nothing is final until then.
So, as you can see, it’s too early for me to be able to tell anybody if they are in or out of the book yet. I can probably tell a bunch of people no in a month. And if you get a contract in about three or four months, then your chances are pretty good.
Until then, if you really want to get in the book, send me little true travel jokes. You know, like the sidebars and epilogues that we use in the stories or at the end of the stories. If it matches up to any of the stories that get selected, it’ll go in.