I want to write a Star Wars book. Who do I contact?
I get variants of this question a lot, so I thought a public, Google-able answer might be helpful.
A warning, though: This post probably isn’t what you’re hoping to hear. I’m sorry about that, but I think it’s my job to tell aspiring writers the truth. Keep reading and I hope you’ll wind up encouraged by the end.
First off: There is no way to submit something you’ve written related to Star Wars for consideration. Every book/short story/etc. about our favorite galaxy far, far away is produced as part of a licensing agreement between publishers and Lucasfilm/Disney. For legal reasons, neither Lucasfilm nor those licensed publishers will consider outside submissions.
Don’t blame Disney for that – it was true before Disney bought Lucasfilm, and it’s true for any other entertainment franchise too.
It’s also true for me – please don’t ask me to read your fanfic, critique your idea, etc. I’d be putting myself and others in legal jeopardy by doing so. I can’t and won’t do it.
OK, so if you can’t submit your Star Wars idea, how do you become one of the authors who does this work?
Well, if your STARTING goal as a writer is to get a Star Wars book published, stop. I got really lucky and even then it was years and years before I got to write anything in that setting, let alone tell stories of my own. If you start off with that goal, you’re almost certainly going to wind up disappointed because it will take so long and so much has to go right no matter how hard you work.
On the other hand, if you want to be a writer and Star Wars would be a dream come true but there are other things that would make you happy, then full speed ahead. Write all you can and read all you can. Think about why a particular bit of storytelling works for you or doesn’t. Start figuring out your own stories and characters and bringing them to life – you’ll get better and better the more you read and think about what you’ve read and create and revise. You’ve got to put in the work – it’s going to take countless hours and hundreds of thousands of words, so get going!
Can fan fiction be a part of that work? Definitely – particularly if you write as part of a community where you can share stuff and get feedback on it. The same goes for original stories/novels, of course – and they should be in the mix somewhere, because writing “from scratch” will force you to develop settings and characters and everything else a writer needs to learn.
If you want to be a professional writer, you’ll need to develop a track record – a crucial factor in getting published is being able to show a potential publisher that you have experiencing producing good work, meeting deadlines and being easy to work with.
I got my start in the galaxy far, far away with assignments for the Star Wars Insider in 1999, and I got that gig because I had several years of newspaper experience. Yes, I was a Star Wars fan – but that was essentially a coincidence. It was my professional background that got me the shot, not my fandom.
The good news is it doesn’t particularly matter what you do to get that track record – you can work for a local newspaper, write for magazines, be an online correspondent, etc. Editors are much more concerned with seeing that you can write and that you’re reliable than they are with the subject matter.
Write because you love writing, not because of any one specific goal. It’s the love that will sustain you through the hard work of getting that track record, and carry you through successes and failures and good luck and bad. If things go well and you get some breaks, you might eventually be offered the chance to play in someone else’s universe, whether it’s a galaxy far far away or something else. And if not you’ll still be having fun and hopefully seeing a little success.
For more writing/career advice, a couple of recommendations:
* My fellow Star Wars scribe Chuck Wendig has a terrific blog called terribleminds that’s full of great advice. Chuck’s books on writing are also crammed with stuff you need to know. (Just be aware that Chuck loves his profanity.)
* John Scalzi is an ace writer and a very wise blogger. You should read Whatever. If you’ve got a question about non-Star Wars writing as a career, John’s probably answered it better than I could, so get to Googling.
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