DAW Darkover Anthologies

The DAW Darkover Anthologies were professionally published, for-profit fiction anthologies with content by written by fans of Darkover, a series of books created by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Bradley herself edited the series.
There are one hundred ninety-eight published Darkover short stories in these anthologies, written by ninety-five different writers. Bradley wrote twenty-two of these stories.
Many of the stories were written by "regular fans" who'd answered the submission requests in Darkover Newsletter or other places, some stories were chosen by Bradley via contests sponsored by her zine Starstone, and some fiction was by "super fans," fans who had elevated status through their involvement with Friends of Darkover and other forms of Bradley's personal mentoring. Some of these "super fans" are Diana L. Paxson, Elisabeth Waters, Jacqueline Lichtenberg , Mercedes Lackey, Jean Lorrah, Patricia Mathews, Cynthia McQuillin, and Adrienne Martine-Barnes.
One of these fans, Deborah Wheeler, went on to become Bradley's successor and writer of her Darkover continuations.
==DAW Books and Darkover==
DAW Books played a large role in the Darkover fandom.
After Darkover became popular both from MZB's published books and among fanwriters, MZB began to accept submissions from fan and professional authors for a series of Darkover anthologies which she edited and were published by DAW, beginning with The Keeper's Price (1980). This gave some fan fiction writers an opportunity to be professionally published.
==Introduction to One Anthology ==
From "Renunciates of Darkover":
"These volumes of stories written by Marion Zimmer Bradley herself, and various members of the society called The Friends of Darkover, strive to "fill in the blanks" of the Darkover history, and elaborate on the eras, tales and characters which have captured their imaginations."
==Where Did the Content Come From?==
Marion Zimmer Bradley kept fans abreast of her activities, solicited fiction, and published guidelines for submission to the DAW Anthologies through announcements and comments in Darkover Newsletter.
The anthologies were a veritable laundry list of Darkover (and Star Trek) Big Name Fans, and much of the content as well as the authors, in early issues were pulled from issues of the zine Starstone and from other fan sources. Another source of material for the Daw Darkover Anthologies were winners of the Darkover Short Story Contests. Fans who's submitted their fiction to this contest found themselves automatically on the radar as possible DAW material. From the first issue of Starstone in 1978:
 
==Show the Money==
Fans were paid between $10 and $20 for their stories if they were chosen contest winners in the 1979 Darkover Short Story Contests. A 1990 list of guidelines published in Darkover Newsletter #49 said fans would be paid: "2-6 cents a word as an advance against royalties" for the DAW Darkover Anthologies.
Bradley's desire to start, and continue, the DAW anthologies was based on many things (ego, visibility, fun, desire to assist female writers), and money was one of them.
==Did Bradley Consider Them "True Darkover"==
From the "Domains of Darkover":
==The End of the Line==
The DAW Darkover anthologies ceased in the mid-1990s after the Marion Zimmer Bradley Fanfiction Controversy, something that was upsetting to many fans who'd enjoyed the visibility, status, and money of being published professionally. This included Bradley herself.
==Fan Comments on Content/Quality==
==List of DAW Anthologies with Fan Contributions==
* Keeper's Price (1980)
* Sword of Chaos (1982)
* Free Amazons of Darkover (1985)
* The Other Side of the Mirror (1987)
* Red Sun of Darkover (1987)
* Four Moons of Darkover (1988)
* Domains of Darkover (1990)
* Leroni of Darkover (1991)
* Towers of Darkover (1993)
* Snows of Darkover (1994)
==References==
Category:Darkover
Category:Books & Literature