A writer I met last week at a Writing Symposium told me that if publishing houses even see Science Fiction on a manuscript, they immediately toss it in the return to sender bin. Granted, this unpublished woman might be a little angry, having sent in three different Science Fiction novel synopses and sample chapters multiple times, which were always rejcted. This woman also told me that I wasn't killing enogh people, boasting that his novel killed 100,000,000 Chinese. Apparently he has no regard for the future when he kills that many. I described to him the myriad problems that would arise if, for instance, you saved Titanic from sinking.
Some publishers won't pubilsh sci-fi, some won't publish fantasy, some won't publish horror and some won't publish comedy. It all depends on who you sent the manuscript to. If you do a little research first and don't just sent it in at random, you have just as good chance to publish a sci-fi as everything else. And since when does any novel have a minimum bodycount? Is a novel where 50 million people only half as good as novel where 100 million people die? If you love your story, go ahead and write it. Of course you will be rejected a few times, but that's normal. If you are persistant and try hard enough, you will get your book published sooner or later. Just be patient.
Assuming for the moment that this isn't trolling or completely invented (since the person making the statements changes from a woman to a man in the original post)... Even a cursory look at the shelves in any Barnes and Noble will tell that nothing this woman/man said was accurate.
Science fiction is not doing very well these days, judging by what I see in the bookstores. However, I strongly doubt the situation is anywhere near as grim as your bloodthirsty acquaintence proclaims. It sure as hell won't deter me from writing science fiction. EDIT: Good catch. Yes, obviously a troll.
