Once upon a time you thought of a story that involved a character, setting, and plot. You went into your writing cave and you wrote said story. Emerging months or even years later, you copied said story onto a floppy disc, took it to a printer and got them to print the manuscript for you, then you posted said story to an agent or a publisher. After which you went back into your writing cave to write another story while your first story sat on a publisher's desk for six months. When I started out writing, it was very much like this. The internet was only new and no way would a publisher let a piece of technology dictate how it ran it's business. Every manuscript had to be posted. And I had to send a return stamped envelope if I wanted the manuscript back! Sometimes I had to send a standard stamped envelope if I wanted a reply. Some agents wanted a phone call first so you could pitch your premise to them and if they were interested they'd invite you send in a quer
science fiction and speculative fiction for avid readers