^I've asked this question a lot--and the answer, as of now, seems to be:
"Get yourself established as an 'original' writer first, and then, after you've established your credentials, Pocket willl be more open to you...."
It has something to do with keeping in check the number of wannabe writers they have to check out daily, or something....
No, it doesn't. It's sensible advice for anyone who hopes for a career as a writer. A
Star Trek prose story can only be sold to one publisher, so if it gets rejected, you're sunk and have nowhere else to go (unless you can rework it as a comic and convince IDW or TokyoPop to take a look, but there again, your options are severely constrained). If it's an original story, you have a lot more options. If it gets rejected one place, you can try it in another and another and another.
And rejection -- a lot of rejection -- is something every writer must face as part of the learning process. It takes time to get good at this, and rejection letters telling you what doesn't work are a great way to home in on what does work. If you react to rejection as some kind of conspiracy on the part of the publishers and editors to exclude you from their clique, then you'll never amount to anything. But if you embrace the rejections as learning opportunities, acknowledge that you still need improvement and strive to raise your level still higher, that's how you get good enough to sell.
So the editors aren't trying to reduce the quantity of writers they get pitches from, but to improve their quality. Write, submit, reject, repeat is the best way to learn this business, and so a narrow focus on
Star Trek alone is not the best approach to take. It's self-limiting. This advice is for
your benefit, not just the editors'. Just as a sports team will look at you more seriously if you work out diligently and get yourself in peak physical condition beforehand, just as a university will look at you more seriously if you study hard and get good grades beforehand, so an editor or agent will look at you more seriously if you get a lot of practice at writing, and at honing your writing for professional markets. You have to go through training to reach a professional level, in this as in any other career.
Now, to respond to
Joel_Kirk:
As long as the submission guidelines are still up on the publisher's website, you can assume they're still valid. However, since the remaining editors have just had a lot more work dumped in their laps, it'll probably be a while before they're in a position to look at those submissions.
Also, even if your submission through standard channels catches an editor's attention, don't expect to sell
that particular novel pitch. Think of it more as a demo reel, to show your abilities. (Or a spec script in TV terms.) If they like your work, they might go for what you pitched, or they might ask you what else you've got.
One hundred???
