Pocket or Tor
- Thread starter xortex
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An original novel is easier to sell because you have multiple markets. If Pocket rejects your Trek proposal, you can't sell it to anyone else. But if Tor rejects your original project, you can keeping submitting it to Baen or Del Rey or Ace or Spectrum or Titan and so on . . . .
The SNW writing competition ran for ten annual print volumes. They'd be available through Amazon's second hand resellers:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%22strange+new+worlds%22+trek&x=14&y=18
Wait a minute. If Pocket rejects your proposal, they still "own" it anyway? You couldn't even post it up on the forum under Fan Fiction?
You misunderstand me. I'm not saying they would own the proposal. I'm just saying that only Pocket Books is allowed to publish Star Trek fiction, so you couldn't sell your proposal to anyone else if they pass on it. Whereas an original story could be published by any publisher, giving you more chances to make a sale.
Fan fiction is something else entirely.
The point is that CBS owns Star Trek, so no author has the right to sell a Star Trek story to anyone other than CBS's chosen licensee, Pocket Books (or IDW if it's a comic-book story).
Waht if they are able to retool it as an original sf novel?
Sure, that's fair game, as long as it genuinely is something original and not just a Trek story with the names changed. Editors get a ton of those in their slush piles and they don't respond well to them.
Bingo. Nobody wants to publish a thinly-disguised fanfic.
And, yes, I still remember the submission that began with the "Klargon" battle cruiser activating its "stealthing field." I think I read five pages before rejecting it.
And then there was the guy who submitted his Janeway/Seven of Nine slash story, but explained in his cover letter that it was okay because he had changed the names slightly .. . . .
OK, reread the original posts and these responses make more sense. Thanks, guys.
Also, get a agent. If your work isn't good enough to attract a agent, you might want to reconsider if it's good enough to publish yet.
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