Interesting, scalem. If I understand correctly, you are advocating making anthologies much shorter, say the length of a novella or novelette. I'm not sure where the economics fall for producing such an animal, as we do not 'do' novellas--at least not to date. I assume you're talking trade paperback? I'll crunch some numbers on it out of curiosity.
Now, the benefit anthology we produced this fall, titled
Touched By Wonder was just over 300 pages (28 authors), and we priced it the same as a comparable novel. It seems to me the proper challenge would not be to shorten the work to the point a reader doesn't get bored, but rather put stories in it that are fantastic from the first to the last. Balance the pieces, edit sharply, and pay attention to production quality and cover art. Maybe that is not the norm, [shameless plug] because the feedback from reviewers we are getting is one of surprise. Things like, 'usually anthologies have a few good stories and the rest are weak--but I didn't find any stories lacking'. [/end shameless plug] I didn't vote in the poll because I HAD to read all these stories.
