Ask Steve Perry

[steveperry]

I have a question, but it's more of a general question regarding the book publishing process...I'm sure it's been a long time since you were in this situation, so please bare with me...

How exactly does an unknown person, with no connections in the business, get about to having a manuscript published?

What are the steps? Does one need an agent first or do you bring your work straight to a publisher and hope for the best?

Forgive my ignorance on this, but I'm an avid hobby writer and I'm looking to possibly bring it to the next level. Any information you could share with me on this would be greatly appreciated.

If you want to write an original story or novel in a genre, you write it, make it as good as you can. Some markets will accept it over the transom, some won't. Pick up a copy of Writers Markets and it details how to submit material, what form it needs to be in, and how to go about getting an agent. There are places online you can learn about agents. Generally, if you want one, you send a query letter to somebody on the list who is taking new clients. You tell them who you are and what you have written, and what you want them to read. If they are interested, they'll have you send it to them. If they like it and think they can sell it, they will agree to represent you. Having an agent makes it easier, but it's no guarantee of a sale.

If you are looking to write in a shared-universe, like Aliens or Star Trek or Star Wars, it's a buyer's market. A lot of folks want to work there, and the publishers can pick and choose. Almost always, they pick writers who have other credits in the field. That way, they know they are hiring somebody who has an idea of how to work on a book, can finish it, and knows how to deal with deadlines and rewrites.

Most of the Aliens/Predator writers have science fiction and fantasy credits. Even somebody like John Shirley, who does a lot of horror, has written a bunch of SF.

Best way to get into that arena is to write your own original material, get it read and published, and then have your agent ask the powers-that-be if they'd consider you as a writer.

Newbies with no pro credits rarely ever get hired to do shared-world material. There are risks in working with total newbies. Most publishers don't want to take those on. 

[War Wager]

I haven't read any of your novels so far, but did you invent any new Predator weapons? Also, have you progressed what Predators can do (show different behaviour etc?)

[SiL]

I do know it, but I still think it's crap.

The fact Alien takes its futuristic technology for granted makes it all the more realistic. It doesn't beat you over the head with the flashy doo-dads like Aliens does; you're on a space ship, in space, there's a lot of retro-lookin' technology around, let's get on with it.

Alien was a horror movie first and foremost, so it plays to those conventions. Why bother setting it in a space ship? Why not? The science fiction element allows for such great exotic locales such as LV-426 and the derelict, things which burned in our memories forever, and things which you couldn't get in a haunted house. Frankenstein's pad was funky in the 30s, but it's been done - You want pretty locations, look to the stars.

Even then, what do you see as science-fiction conventions? If we follow the conventions laid down by the 50s Cold War sci-fi schlock, Alien is essentially one great big amalgam of everything that came before it. Look at It! The Terror From Beyond Space, The Thing From Another World, Forbidden Planet - Alien takes from all of them, not to mention the incredibly long list of other pulp and classic sf and horror.

Aliens was a war movie and a science fiction film, and Cameron decided to balance them both. Alien was a horror movie and a science fiction film, and played up the horror aspects moreso than the sci-fi ones. How is it worse than Aliens for doing that? Typically people applaud those who shy away from conventions and try to do something at least a little unique, not say they're a failure at what they never truly set out to do.

Alien wanted to scare the shit out of you, and it did. And iin that regard, above all others, it was perfectly written.

[steveperry]

I do know it, but I still think it's crap.

No, you don't know, you don't have a clue. If you did, we wouldn't be having this debate. You're blowing smoke and waving mirrors, but it isn't working. You might be able to fool a lot of folks here, but I ain't one of 'em.

[Corporal Hicks]

Save your money. If you didn't like the old ones, I wouldn't expect you to like the new one.

Never said I didn't like them all. Only the first and that's due to it's age showing. I tend to find that older novels don't feel as fresh. I rather enjoyed Nightmare Asylum but then, that's the only other Alien/Predator novel you didn't write with your daughter. So...*shrugs*

Don't you think you've evolved as a writer over the years? And besides, I wont be paying for it. Press copy.

[steveperry]

Think it comes from the fact that your Alien novels are old. And with that age comes the blandness in your writing. Looking back, Earth Hive isn't a very inspired or well written novel compared to some of the new ones. Same goes for most of the old A/v/P novels. You're best work in said franchise were the team ups with Stephani or Diane, whatever she's going by these days?

I'm looking forward to reading Turnabout to see how you've developed.

Let me ask you a question: I dunno what kind of work you do, but for the sake of argument, suppose you like doing it, and you think you are good at it. Suppose somebody shows up at your job and tells you that what you do is bland, uninspired, and badly-executed. But that they'll check back later to see if you've gotten any better.

You gonna be thrilled to hear that? Gonna make your day better, you think?

You figure that kind of comment is apt to get you to consider what else he might have to say in a particularly good light?

I mean, yeah, I think I'm a better writer now than I used to be. Then again, when I look back a few years, I don't consider the books I did bland, uninspired, or poorly-written. Of course, I wouldn't. And I don't see anything there to apologize for. 

Telling a writer, "Hey, you used to do crappy work but I'm looking forward to seeing if you have gotten any better." I can't see any way to take that as any kind of compliment.

As with SiL, you are certainly allowed to like stuff or not; and allow to say so in public. But even though most writers develop a thick-skin over the years. offering disrespect for their skill isn't the way to gain their affection ...

And it's "Danelle ..."

[Corporal Hicks]

With age comes experience. I used to write fanfiction as a kid. I've also spent the last few years writing scripts - It's what I'd like to do, be a TV writer - and I shall freely admit that my first attempt sucked ass. But over time, I got better. It's inevitable for anything. I am by no means calling you an awful writer, I'm saying I didn't enjoy you're first entry into the franchise as I did the rest you wrote. You obviously round you're ground with Nightmare Asylum and very much left your mark with Prey.

It's like...say, you know Star Trek right, you've seen it? Well, on average it's taken each show 3 seasons to find it's ground. To find it's place of comfort. Since when do people get it right on the first attempt?

[steveperry]

Thing is, I had experience before I wrote the first Aliens novel. I had almost a score of novels published.
And yeah, I was working with the comics, and that required I stick fairly close to them, to keep Fox happy, so there were some constraints, but I'm not blaming anybody for what showed up in the books.

I was pleased with how they came out. So were my editors, Dark Horse, and Fox. It got me more work, some of it very high profile.

Taste is what it is, and I'm the last guy to tell you you should or shouldn't like something. A lot of folks enjoyed those early Alien novels. My mail/email ran nine-to-one in favor, those who did and those who didn't. So nine out of ten, I'm happy with that. Can't please everybody.

If you want to be a writer, you need to choose your words with care. Saying you don't like something is one thing; outright insults are something else. You might not have meant that, but that's how it came across. If you didn't, fine. If you did, that's okay, too.

Better to know to whom you are talking than not.

[Corporal Hicks]

Of course I didn't mean it as an insult. The internet is horrible for such interpretations. Like I said, I enjoyed Nightmare Asylum alot. In your opinion, what do you think of Earth Hive, looking back at it now and comparing it to the other Alien novels you did.

I mean, surely different things effect how the novel turns out. For example. Genocide, the 4th novel. I love it. It's one of my favorite Alien novels. But Hunters Planet, which Bischoff did too, is IMHO the worse Alien/Predator novel there is. One author, two books, two totally different opinions.

[SiL]

offering disrespect for their skill isn't the way to gain their affection ...

I was offering no disrespect for the profession itself. I like writing, I know writers.

No, you don't know, you don't have a clue.

Here we've got option A and option B, and I've never heard someone say option B was better than option A because of how closely it follows one set of conventions, while in the same breath tearing down option A for its use of a different set of conventions, while ignoring the fact that it still follows a different subset of the same type of conventions used in option B.

I'm not saying you should think Alien is better than its sequel, but I am asking for something a little bit more than 'I'm a writer, I've asked writers, of course we know, please shut up'. Even if it's just an elaboration of what you mean for those of us who aren't privileged enough to be let into the great wealth of knowledge that comes from being published, so that I could at least understand where the heck it is you're coming from.

The whole argument seems very ill-defined anyway. You seem to be looking at it from which script is a better science fiction movie - I'm looking at it from the perspective of which is just plain better written, genre be damned.

I'm not attacking you, Mr Perry; just confused as hell about where you're coming from.

[steveperry]

SiL --

You haven't demonstrated that you know what science fiction is, much what constitutes good science fiction. Nor have you shown me that you know enough about the craft of writing to be expounding on what genres are, and how best to serve the material. Those eight words? You want to tell me what they are? Simple. You've said you know this stuff but consider it crap. I don't believe you know it. Simple.

As far as I'm able to tell, most of the writers who have written either the comics or the novels have background in science fiction and fantasy. That's who they hire, because that's the audience.

Yeah, John Shirley writes a lot of horror, but he's also written reams of science fiction.

If your cat has kittens in the oven, that doesn't make them biscuits. Calling a rabbit a smerp doesn't make it an alien. Dressing a western up in science fiction clothes makes it a Bat Durston story, not science fiction. (I'll wait while you go check the wiki ...)

Star Wars is not science fiction. Star Trek ... ? Iffy, at best. Wagon train in space. The first Alien movie is not science fiction, for reasons I've already laid out -- if you can remove the science and still works just fine, it's not science fiction, its something else in skiffy drag. And it only works because the players always make the wrong choice, every time.

Anybody living the real world, soon as they realize there's a nine-foot-tall monster on the ship killing people is not going to go about their jobs like usual. If one of them needs to pee, they all go pee.
Nobody goes off alone to let the monster chow down unless they are idiots. That's the horror movie convention. You start rooting for the monster because the people are too stupid to live!

That  you didn't know what the difference between science fiction, fantasy and horror were until I just pointed it out tells me that you aren't the guy to be offering literary advice. You know what you like, fine, welcome to say so. You don't know how to write at a professional level, and without that kind of craft, anything you have to say about it is theoretical, and needs to be taken with a boxcar of salt.

No shame in ignorance, that's easy to cure. Pretending to knowledge you don't have? That's just bullshit, and in this arena, I know it when I hear it ...

[steveperry]

I haven't read any of your novels so far, but did you invent any new Predator weapons? Also, have you progressed what Predators can do (show different behaviour etc?)

Can't say that I came up with any new toys. I did lay out the yautja with my daughter and people have played with that since, but the next novel doesn't go down that road.

[Corporal Hicks]

Only other novel to use them was War, the true sequel to Prey.

[SiL]

Okay, now care to answer why the film's poorly written?

You can remove the science? Alright. You can do that for Aliens, too.

You've yet to explain why you think it's poorly written outside the fact it's a horror movie dressed up different. And even then you've yet to explain how that, in itself, is bad.

[Kimarhi]

No doubt Alien has its share of stupid character moments.  But they had their reason.  And reasons that were used well enough too cover the stupidity of their actions.  They weren't the characters in Halloween or Freddy that I feel were stupid (lets pass out on the front porch with a madman stalking the streets).  I did root for Freddy/Jason/Meyers in that series, but not so much the original film.

That said, Cameron ALSO gave his characters a reason to cover their stupid actions.  Overreliance on tech, and overconfidence in that tech to be the primary reasons.  Yet I don't hear many people calling actions like leaving your only link (dropship) to the Sulaco undefended "stupid" when your comrades deaths are being broadcast over air, or the fact Ripley went back to the colony with the Company stupid, or the fact that Apone is trying to follow the orders of an incompetent commander so intently he's dropped by an Alien (ask my WWII vet Grandfather how that REALLY would've went down:f**k him, we are leaving), or the fact that despite listening to both Ripley and her disc, the characters still unleash loads of ammunition at targets still near friendlies knowing the creatures were full of acid.  

If you look past the characters logic, and boil down how the plot works, of course its going to look formulatic.  But thats the thing with writing and film, you cover that up with the actions of the characters, give them motives as to why they act that way, etc etc etc.  Simply adding for the effect of fear on the human psyche can cover up alot of bullshit actions by the characters.  How many completely lucid people do you see walk away from a car wreck?  As long as the reasons for their actions can be explained with any sort of validity, I feel the "idiot plot" tag is a little out there.

The overreliance on tech is a theme directly carried over from the first film.  The only two characters with a military history left after Kane burst are subsequently the only two people that attack the Alien head on until Ripley finishes it off in Alien.  As a writer, you don't think the fact that they were former military had anything to do with their mindset?  It helps explain the rationale behind Dallas and Parker's motives don't you think?

And there are plenty of times in Aliens the, "You don't go anywhere alone," incident happens as well.  Ferro and Spunkmeyer in the dropship.  Ripley's initial forays into the vents, Burke's trying to escape from the marines and Aliens (as well as his sabotage with the facehuggers), etc etc etc.  

Since both films are identified as being cross genre (and I'm not pulling that out of my ass, check the critic reviews on imdb, or the page for the movies themselves), you can't judge them souly as science fiction/horror films.

They all have elements of thrillers, fantasy, drama, comedy (in Alien Res's case) as well as horror and science fiction.

I would actually go so far as to say that the Alien series is actually "hard" science fantasy.  Since bad technology (evidenced in every movie INCLUDING Aliens) takes a backseat to human/creature interaction and interpersonal conflicts.

Of course, I wouldn't think it, but this is looking at it from a film students perspective, maybe we look at it differently since we see written stories translated on film.  Our terminology might be different from that of the stories that are told on paper.