Linda wrote:Slush piles are a very long shot these days. You need an agent. Learned this at a writer's conference I went to last spring. Short stories you might be able to get published more easily. Look through directories of publishers to see if they accept 'over the transom' stories. Thats for writing in general.
Pocket Books (Simon and Schuster) has a monopoly on Star Trek. They have dropped by half (at least) the number of ST novels they are publishing a year, since no TV series is in production. Check Simon and Schuster website for their policy on submissions. They have many established ST writers but certainly are not using most of them right now. They are not accepting any new writers of Star Trek in any form now, since the Strange New Worlds contest ended over a year ago.
Yeah, I'd say that's a really long shot right now too. But if you have something ready to go I'd keep a sharp eye out for what happens to the ST movie and how that rubs off on the other fandoms because they could decide to gear up again and if so they'll want to pump it through the pipeline fast.
For regular fiction, yeah, you probably need one. With fiction, even if you get in the door without one, you should probably get one just to negotiate the deal, because that advance may well be the only money you ever see. But you really
don't always need an agent to get considered, especially for nonfiction and sometimes for genre fiction, or whenever you have another way to get your foot in the door and contact an acquisitions editor (or her boss) directly.
Years ago I worked as an acquisitions editor for a small Prentice Hall division and I think I only dealt with agents a few times -- thank God. They were a pain in the ass on the teachers' professional reference books we published, and I very much doubt the little tweaks they sometimes won to the boiler plate contracts we used were worth the 15% commission they were getting.
And good luck finding an agent who even wants to deal with short stories. You'd have to have a big name or an award-winning anthology ready to go or an agent who is unusually dedicated to literary work. There's hardly any paying market left for short stories. However, there are plenty of options for submissions on your own if you want. Good luck. I think there are more writers than readers in the short story market. In fact, I know a local independent bookstore owner who is convinced there are more writers than readers in ALL literary fiction markets right now.
Good points about the editors and the rules about writting novels.
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I am an addicted book buyer. You could say that I am 'book poor' the way some people are 'land poor'. I will be shopping for reading material tomorrow for the long train ride to Rochester, New York for another family wedding this weekend. 