Hey everyone. Arok's here.

As none of you know, I'm editing an upcoming anthology for a local press in Lexington, Kentucky. The press is Seventh Star Press, and it's best known for publishing fantasy books and series by authors like Stephen Zimmer, Steven Shrewsbury, Michael West and Jackie Gamber.

I won't reveal the theme of the anthology quite yet, but we will be taking unpublished stories for first anthology rights. Upper limit will probably be 10,000 words, and the pay will be royalties split evenly among authors and myself (as editor). Anyone from unpublished high school kids to George R.R. Martin will be welcome to submit for consideration. Obviously well-known authors have a better shot, for publicity's sake, if not quality. (I'll need to do some checking to find out if previously published characters/settings are kosher.)

Zimmer and I are going to be putting together the press release and invite to authors in the next couple weeks (I'll spam it here), and I know he's going to invite various authors he's met on the promotions circuit at cons.

I'm curious if any of you have any suggestions/advice on approaching other authors. This is my first time doing it, and while I don't expect to get the attention of the big name authors, I'd love to at least try. A lot of them are pretty down to earth people, doing interviews for sites like this one, or AMAs on Reddit, but I don't want to contact anyone in an intrusive way or pressure someone here to initiate contact for me outside of their comfort zone.

I'll search the usual writing forums for advice (Nano, Absolute, WD), but I know some people around here have both interviewed authors and worked on publications, even anthologies. I hoped I could get some advice, either in this post or in a note or IM (ZealotIncognito). Both on approaching authors and on editing anthologies.

I think the subject will be exciting to people both as writers and readers, as it's not a common one, to my knowledge. Again, I'm not mentioning it yet for fear of someone jumping the gun on us before it's officially released, but it's solidly fantasy and topical.

Thanks, and I'll check in periodically. I have work on another job right now and am starting a second job soon. I'm also anticipating promotions for an upcoming non-fiction book I've co-written on the Civil War in Lexington, KY. Busy busy busy.