On a related and contradictory note, I submitted a script to Paramount

once,

and was invited out to a meeting with Ron Moore, the (then) producer of

Star

Trek: DS9.  I spent some time with him one evening and have a standing
invitation to go back.  I learned a lot about writing for Star Trek that
evening.  Here is one interesting fact regarding "self-insertions" in a
non-anime genre:  Fully 90% of all manuscripts submitted to Pocket Books

for

Star Trek novels (which, as one female friend of mine puts it, are
essentially "fanfiction gone pro") 1) are written by females, 2) have a
female guest star who 3) invariably graduated at the top of her class

and/or

is the youngest person ever to attain/obtain some notable
accomplishment/reward/distinction, 4) immediately hits it off with the

crew,

5) wins the hearts and minds of the main cast, 6) saves the day for

everyone

in the end, and usually has 7) an affair along the way with the author's
favorite male character.  These stories have been labled, "Mary Janes,"

and

are immediately and unceremoniously dropped into the wastebasket.

Except of course for Dreadnought and Battlestations, which were published
by Pocket, did very well, and had Diane Carey, aka Piper as the star.

--SG
--gives hope for the rest of us...^_^