How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek Novel

[Dayton3]

How many books does a writer generally have to have published before Pocket Books would seriously consider them for a Trek writing project?

Just curious.

I'm trying to complete my science fiction project combining football and time travel.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

There's no set number, or even a ballpark number. It doesn't work that way. It all depends on the writer presenting an idea that gets the editor's attention. You can do that with no prior publishing credits, or dozens.

There really is no one way to get an editor's attention. Since you're just starting out, the deck's naturally stacked against you. You have to have an agent to submit your proposal and sample chapters, and so on. The key is the same there, too: getting an agent's attention with a story they can get behind and work on your behalf to sell.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

How many books does a writer generally have to have published before Pocket Books would seriously consider them for a Trek writing project?

I seem to recall that John Ordover saying that a professional writer with two published SF novels under their belt was probably sufficient proof that they could write well in the SF genre and meet deadlines, but if their ST proposal doesn't meet with editorial or then-Viacom approval, then no number of previous credits was going to help. You still have to have something about you and your work to catch attention - of an agent and an editor.

However, before and since then, new ST writers have come on board with only SNW short story credits to their name, or no previous SF or regular novels, so the answer is there's no answer. And JO doesn't work there any more.

 

[Dayton3]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

Thanks guys.

I've been working on "A Strong Second Half" for two years now.

The first two thirds of my (admittedly somewhat short and probably poorly written) novel seem to work out well. But the ending is a major problem.

 

[Christopher]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

I've been working on "A Strong Second Half" for two years now.

The first two thirds of my (admittedly somewhat short and probably poorly written) novel seem to work out well. But the ending is a major problem.

Just goes to show... you can't judge a book by its title.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

I've been working on "A Strong Second Half" for two years now.

The first two thirds of my (admittedly somewhat short and probably poorly written) novel seem to work out well. But the ending is a major problem.

Just goes to show... you can't judge a book by its title.

Keep trying, Dayton3, the only limit is your persistence. I've written one crime novel that didn't work out, and I've just started on a second. I'd like to write a trek novel, but every science project I've started has been a non-starter, so to speak. One day, maybe I'll get lucky, but for now, I write trek fanfic and crime to get published.

The best we can do is to keep trying.

 

[Dayton3]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

I've been working on "A Strong Second Half" for two years now.

The first two thirds of my (admittedly somewhat short and probably poorly written) novel seem to work out well. But the ending is a major problem.

Just goes to show... you can't judge a book by its title.

Keep trying, Dayton3, the only limit is your persistence. I've written one crime novel that didn't work out, and I've just started on a second. I'd like to write a trek novel, but every science project I've started has been a non-starter, so to speak. One day, maybe I'll get lucky, but for now, I write trek fanfic and crime to get published.

The best we can do is to keep trying.

Thanks I appreciate that.

Isn't there a saying somethere that everyone has at least one good book in them?

 

[Trent Roman]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

Yep. The key is getting it out in the narrow timeframe before the stomach acids make it unreadable.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Geoff Thorne]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

Let's ask Mr. Owl.

"Mr. Owl. How many professional credits before being hired to write a Trek novel?"

"Let's see. One... Two... Three."







Three.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

You left out the *CRUNCH* and "The world may never know" parts.

 

[William Leisner]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

This thread has got me to wondering which Trek authors had the most non-Trek credits on their resumes prior to being invited into the Trek Lit club. Obviously, folks like James Blish and Alan Dean Foster, who had solid careers before Star Trek ever hit the airwaves, would be right up there, but a lot of the current stable of writers either started there (), or could count their previous credits on one hand. So, who is it who has the best pre-Trek resume?

 

[ronny]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

I was thinking Greg Cox but I looked at his web site and he had a couple ST novels that were a lot earlier than I remembered so he had only a couple books out pre-trek, I was thinking half a dozen at least, but he did have about a dozen short stories published which makes for a good track record.

 

[ATimson]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

Obviously, folks like James Blish and Alan Dean Foster, who had solid careers before Star Trek ever hit the airwaves, would be right up there, but a lot of the current stable of writers either started there (), or could count their previous credits on one hand. So, who is it who has the best pre-Trek resume?

Of the writers still actively working on Trek, probably Peter David. Of the "recent" writers new to Trek ("recent" being old enough to include KRAD and Wardilmore)... probably James Swallow or David A. McIntee or S.D. Perry.

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

I was thinking Greg Cox but I looked at his web site and he had a couple ST novels that were a lot earlier than I remembered so he had only a couple books out pre-trek, I was thinking half a dozen at least, but he did have about a dozen short stories published which makes for a good track record.

Glad that bibliography came in useful!

And, yeah, I had only written two books and a bunch of short stories before I co-wrote my first TREK book with John Betancourt. Of course, it helped that I used to work with John Ordover at Tor Books . . . .

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

Obviously, folks like James Blish and Alan Dean Foster, who had solid careers before Star Trek ever hit the airwaves, would be right up there, but a lot of the current stable of writers either started there (), or could count their previous credits on one hand. So, who is it who has the best pre-Trek resume?

Of the writers still actively working on Trek, probably Peter David. Of the "recent" writers new to Trek ("recent" being old enough to include KRAD and Wardilmore)... probably James Swallow or David A. McIntee or S.D. Perry.

Well I'd had, what, a dozen Dr Who's and a couple of other novels, plus three dramas produced and two nonfiction books...

 

[KRAD]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

Prior to the publication of Fatal Error (my first Trek prose), I had five novels to my credit (Gargantua, Spider-Man: Venom's Wrath, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Xander Years, Young Hercules: Cheiron's Warriors, and Young Hercules: The Ares Alliance), as well as nine short stories (in The Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimate Silver Surfer, Magic: the Gathering: Distant Planes, Doctor Who: Decalog 3: Consequences, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Urban Nightmares, Did You Say Chicks!?, The Ultimate Hulk, and X-Men Legends), and I'd also co-edited five anthologies (The Ultimate Alien, The Ultimate Dragon, OtherWere: Stories of Transformation, Urban Nightmares, and Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester).

 

[ATimson]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

Prior to the publication of Fatal Error (my first Trek prose), I had five novels to my credit

Huh. That's about four more than I'd remembered.

 

[KRAD]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

S'okay, Andrew, I really don't expect you to remember my bibliography in that much detail....

 

[ronny]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

Prior to the publication of Fatal Error (my first Trek prose), I had five novels to my credit

Huh. That's about four more than I'd remembered.

Yeah, me too. And I've read a bunch of your non-ST stuff. I was just confused about when it all happened.

 

[James Swallow]

Re: How Many Professional Credits Before Being Hired To Write A Trek N

Obviously, folks like James Blish and Alan Dean Foster, who had solid careers before Star Trek ever hit the airwaves, would be right up there, but a lot of the current stable of writers either started there (), or could count their previous credits on one hand. So, who is it who has the best pre-Trek resume?

Of the writers still actively working on Trek, probably Peter David. Of the "recent" writers new to Trek ("recent" being old enough to include KRAD and Wardilmore)... probably James Swallow or David A. McIntee or S.D. Perry.

Before Day of the Vipers came out, I had seventeen books to my credit, plus a bunch of short stories and a few scripts.