How Do I Get My Star Trek Novel Published?
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| Title: | How Do I Get My Star Trek Novel Published? |
| Creator: | Macedon |
| Date(s): | 1998 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | Star Trek |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | How Do I Get My Star Trek Novel Published? |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
How Do I Get My Star Trek Novel Published? is a 1998 essay by Macedon.
Macedon was the author of the Talking Stick Series and other Star Trek fan fics.
Some Topics Discussed
- fanfiction
- fans trying to break into the pro Star Trek novel market
- the series, Strange New Worlds, edited by John Ordover
- many practical tips about submitting manuscripts to publishing companies
From the Essay
Quick answer: You can't.
Well, at least not unless you're already a published author with an agent. Pocket Books accepts only agented Star Trek manuscripts and most agents won't give you the time of day if you mail them a query that begins "I have this Star Trek novel...." It's a bit of a Catch-22. Furthermore, media tie-ins are big business these days and Star Trek novels, once looked down on as a step-child of SF, have become sought-after contracts. So not only do you have to worry about trying to get an agent as a first-time novelist (not easy itself) with a Star Trek novel (nearly impossible), you also will be competing for a contract with multiply-published authors.
The plain truth is that beginning authors with a Star Trek novel in their hip pocket have a bad reputation in publishing, assumed to constitute the dregs of the slushpile, barely able to write their way out of a paper bag. It doesn't matter whether or not this is true. The perception exists. There are also ninty-nine thousand of them, all with stars in their eyes, hoping to make that sale. Consequently, Pocket Books doesn't have the money to pay the readers to wade through all the manuscripts if they opened up submissions--so they don't. Same with agents. Many of the big NY agencies get hundreds of queries a week, eighty percent of which is completely unpublishable.
[...]
So agents see "Star Trek," assume "garbage," and shove that xoxed standard rejection letter into your SASE (assuming you remembered to include one), and fire it right back at you, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Again, it doesn't matter if their perception is true or not. It's their time you're competing for, and they have a hundred more queries to look through.
But, luckily for you, Pocket Books has started what appears to be an annual contest for Star Trek short fiction, open at least to Americans, where you can submit and hope to sell an original piece (for a good per-word price, too). Thank John Ordover. It's called Strange New Worlds, and you can check out their guidelines. If you're just dying to do Star Trek and get paid for it, and you're a first-time novelist, this is the route to go. If you can tell an agent at the beginning of your query that you have sold a story to Strange New Worlds, they're far more likely to finish reading about your Star Trek novel idea.
But if you're really seeking to make it in publishing, then I advise that you write your own story, set in your own universe.
That may sound funny coming from a guy who has a web page of Star Trek fanfiction, but I don't write fanfiction under any illusions that I can sell it, or that it will bring me fame or fortune. I have other reasons for writing it, do it in my (copious) spare time, and put up the stories gratis so that folks who love Star Trek can enjoy them. The work I do for sale has first priority, is thoroughly my own, and doesn't go up on the web. (NEVER, NEVER put a story publicly on the web if you hope to sell it.) I was writing my own stuff long before I made any forays into fanfic, and I knew very well what I was getting into.
So, what do you do with that unsellable Star Trek novel? Why not post it to alt.startrek.creative, so others can enjoy your efforts? Barring that, put it on a shelf and let it gather dust until you're a multiply-published author yourself with some hope of actually placing it (probably after revising the hell out of it). But if you want to write Star Trek fiction specifically, then either write short stories in hopes of getting them into Strange New Worlds, or be content with fanfiction.