Although there was a time when Pocket was offering more opportunities for people to demonstrate that experience, using Strange New Worlds and the S.C.E. eBooks as recruiting grounds for new writers. Dayton got started through SNW, as did a couple of others like Ilsa J. Bick and Geoffrey Thorne, and I got my first Trek break from Keith DeCandido when he took SCE pitches from me (after I'd spent years establishing myself on this very BBS and the old Psi Phi board as a professional writer with extensive Trek knowledge, so that I was already something of a known quantity to the editors who frequented those boards at the time). But I already had two novelettes in Analog to my name at the time. However, that was at a time when the line was expanding and there was greater interest in recruiting new talent. These days, with fewer books being published, the preference is to stick with proven, reliable quantities.
After SNW and when I landed my first novel contract, the novel wasn't even placed on the schedule until I'd turned in a manuscript and the editor (John Ordover, at that time) was sure it would pass muster with CBS (actually Viacom, back then). All I had to my name were the SNW stories, so I wasn't even swimming in the same lanes as the other writers at that point. I delivered my ms. in the fall of 2000, but the book wasn't published until January 2002. Even then, and though I was working with Kevin for our SCE novellas by that point, it still took two years after delivering that first novel ms. before I was approached about another full-length novel. As Jim says, this sort of thing tends to be a long game.
I've sent MS's to so many agents I don't even recall who all I have and haven't sent to. I sent to anyone who was accepting open submissions and looking for MS's like mine. But that was fantasy I was writing. I know it's a long game. One I took too long a break from. Time to get back at it. I'll probably never write a Star Trek novel, but I do hope one day to be a published novelist.
I'll say this much; this thread has reminded me of my very first attempt at writing fanfic. Was it bad? The worst. I called it Echoes of Yesterday because I thought all Trek novels had to have pretentious-sounding titles. Spoiler: Story idea It was about the Enterprise-D being sent back through time and having to work with Kirk's Enterprise to get back to their time. Meanwhile the race they were both sent to make contact with (Kirk historically failed, Picard was supposed to succeed) attack them and risk them never getting home. I had only the barest understanding of science, and the tricks they pulled to get back were laughable. I also thought it would be cute to mix up the casts; I had Kirk and Beverly end up in a situation together where Kirk was flirting with her, and she wasn't too disinterested, and I had her deliver the line "He's dead, Jim". Iddn't it coot. What makes all this even more sad is that I truly thought when I was finished I would send it in. There's about a hundred reasons that would have gone absolutely nowhere.
Trust me, we all have stuff in our closets. When I was clearing out my parents' old house a few summers ago, I discovered a whole cache of Marvel Comics fanfic I wrote back in junior high--and a decades-old rejection letter from Marvel telling me to keep at it. (That dated back to my college days, I believe.)
I have an entire novel, titled BLOOD YOGURT, that's been sitting in the back of various closets since the mid-eighties at least. I keep meaning to reread it, but can't quite work up the nerve.
Sounds like something Riker would have for breakfast. (see my sig ; Riker is basically the opposite of Mikey, the little boy in the cereal commercial who "hates everything.")
Because, unlikely as it is, that could count as a story idea. @trampledamage should decide though as she's the designated responsible person around here.
Yes, I believe that's so. But once again, it's worth pointing out that this pretty much never ever happens (usually), it's like a black swan event kinda thing...
Oh I fully understand. One of pet peeves is the use of reached out when someone was obviously contacted. I've had a fair few recruiters start with "I've reached out to you........" and I tend to reply "Thanks for contacting me, but......."
Sure; and in the past Big Finish have offered similar opportunities to people who wanted to pitch Doctor Who or Blake's 7 stories, and Black Library have done it with the Warhammer franchise... But those opportunities are rare and heavily contested. Gaining experience and credits elsewhere mean that a writer can approach a publisher outside of those opportunities and stand more of a chance of being considered for work on an IP.
@Ensign Ogahd Ahmganadai Dimesdan is correct. We have to have strict rules in this forum about posting specific story ideas because we have authors who write Trek Lit professionally and it's a whole can of worms for them to come into contact with other people's story ideas. Take a look at the Moderator Notices thread We do have a fanfic forum on the BBS - they'd be more than happy to welcome you to discuss original ideas and writing. I have put your fanfic inside spoiler code. In future if you're posting a story idea or something you aren't sure if it'll cross the line into a story idea, wrap it in spoiler code. That way anyone who's interested can still see it, but it's not displayed all the time.