This is true, but I had other credentials coming into the process. First, by the time I got the go-ahead to write my first solo work of Star Trek fiction, I had 10 years of professional experience as an editor and as a freelance writer of nonfiction articles for magazines and newspapers; I had co-written two produced episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; I had spent six years working as a freelance slush reader and uncredited reference-material writer for Pocket Books; and I had worked on a number of Star Trek CD-ROM and computer games. My ratio of Star Trek-specific experience to general writing experience was about 1:1.^ It is true, though, that an awful lot of Trek authors either are only published in Trek or are only published in Trek and other tie-in properties. David Mack's first original novel is only now coming out (...)
Also, my résumé tends to be the exception rather than the rule in these matters...
