Each annual volume reprinted what in the opinion of the editor was the best horror short fiction appearing in the previous year.
Veterans among the contributing authors included Brian Lumley, Eddy C. Bertin, Kit Reed, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, and Tanith Lee; some of the relative newcomers to the field featured were Stephen King, Al Sarrantonio, Lisa Tuttle, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, David Drake, Juleen Brantingham, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman.
The Year’s Best Horror Stories II, editor Richard Davis, Sphere Books (UK) 1972.
The Year’s Best Horror Stories III, editor Richard Davis, Sphere Books (UK) 1973.
The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series II, editor Richard Davis, DAW Books (US) 1974 3 (US).
The Year’s Best Horror Stories VIII, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1980.
The Year’s Best Horror Stories IX, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1981.
The Year’s Best Horror Stories XI, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1983.
The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXI, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1993.
The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII, editor Karl Edward Wagner, 1994.