7 Ways to Get your Novel to a SF/F Editor

-- in no particular order

1. Go to Clarion or Clarion West. The summer I went, two TOR editors attended; even if they don't buy what you were working on there, they may well remember your name and you can drop them an e-mail years later saying "Hey, remember me from Clarion '97? I've got this novel, finally..."

2. Sell to magazines. Sell a good story that wins a Nebula and that's damn likely to make a difference when you're sending out your novel. Sell a story to someone who remembers you and mentions you to a book editor. Sell a story that's immensely popular with readers...or a series of stories. Sell stories that are set in the world of your novel. Sell excerpts, dangit.

3. Go to conventions. Schmooze. I wish I knew a nicer way of putting it, but the human fact is that people are more likely to buy from people they know. Even with the best of intentions, most editors simply pay more attention to people they've met face to face (or gotten drunk with, or whatever). When an editor has a thousand and one pulls on hir attention, any edge helps -- it helps them distinguish you from the crowd.

4. Participate in workshops with good writers (or possibly good teachers). You never know when one of them will sell a novel, make it big, and maybe remember you. Or they mention this anthology that they've been asked to submit to and suggest you might want to drop Editor So-and-so a note, 'cause that story you workshopped last week was perfect for it... (and of course, you might even improve your writing...)

5. Participate in appropriate newsgroups, such as misc.writing or rec.arts.sf.composition.

6. Then there's pure blind luck. Random chance. You happen to date someone and find out she's Marion Zimmer Bradley's secretary. Or Tad William's little brother. It won't guarantee a damn thing, but you might run into someone appropriate... (though if you're planning to actually deliberately sleep your way to the top, I'd recommend trying Hollywood instead. More of an established practice, and higher likelihood of profit.)

7. And while you're doing some or all of the above -- keep it circulating in the slush. You can always withdraw it from TOR if Del Rey's editor meets you at a cocktail party, sounds intrigued and asks to take a look.