First Novel - Category?

Science fiction trumps military adventure in this case. Besides, it's the larger market.

Actually, there's a solid market for military SF, which is what it would be called.

(says the person who's writing one right now)

I called my first work military sci-fi and got friction from some of my readers. I don't know your work but just because it has a war in it, doesn't make it military sci-fi. I suppose Starship Troopers would be the best example of mil sci-fi. But do what you think is best, as long as your query is good enough to grab their attention I think you'll be alright. But what to I know being unpublished. ;-)

You have military S.F. and the biggest publisher for this is Baen Books.

Just remember that most of your readers will be in the military or have served. Baen has donated thousands of their books to those in active service. Many of their top writers are ex-military.

My best friend's hubby is a retired Army major and utterly hooked on Baen books for his e-reader. He's also super-nit-picky on accuracy. If you've not served, have someone who has proof your book for military details. Even if it's in the far future, certain things are going to be the same!

Check out their website, hang out in Baen's Bar and get to know everyone. It's totally cool!

http://www.baen.com/

Which is why for my military SF, I'm doing a futuristic cavalry unit. I figure those years in the 3rd ACR might be good for something.

Weapons and tactics may change, but a cav trooper's going to be pretty much the same no matter what, whether its 1876, 2006 or 2206.

High five! Hope Baen can work for you then.

There's a story from some years back when a woman submitted her MS to Jim Baen. It was military S.F. back when there wasn't even a name for the genre. He sent it back with "Women can't write convincing military books." Apparently to him back then girls had cooties or something.

The writer shot back with "Sir, you've just insulted a United States Marine."

Too true. She'd served with honor in Viet Nam.

Baen apologized, read her book, and accepted it.

Later Elizabeth Moon went on to be a multiple award-winner and one of the most popular writers with Baen.

Success stories like that kept me going back in the day.

Sounds like John Ringo's been drinking from the same cup that Jim used to use *evil grin*

And, I had the honor of being on a couple of panels with Elizabeth at NASFIC last year. She is not only a damn fine author, she's a fun person just to hang around with.

I second having a vet read your work. I had a great reader for a few battle scenes who was an expert on soviet tactics. I never knew what he did exactly, (we meet over a war gaming group) but he played chess with NASA scientists and before 9-11 he stopped responding to all emails... hmmmm.

Depending on the work, I sometimes recreate battles with computer games to flush out the battle rhythm and try to get an estimation of the time frame. For one work that took place with WWII era level weapons, I made a few of the battles in Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord (www.battlefront.com) I highly suggest this if you are into war gaming. Its a top notch game based on the "we-go" principle. The later games in that series get even better.