NuTrek lit?

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Jiraiya, Jul 1, 2009.

  1. Jiraiya

    Jiraiya Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    With the smash success the new film has proven to be, I am surprised that there isn't news of novels and comics based off of it.

    Has anyone heard anything?

    J
     
  2. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    There are comics. Spock Reflections is another movie prequel, while Nero fills in Nero's missing 25 years after the destruction of the Kelvin.

    I expect that there will be novels set in the film's continuity. It's possible that Pocket might have something announce at Shore Leave next week. But I wouldn't really expect to see any until the latter half of 2010 at the earliest.
     
  3. Rush Limborg

    Rush Limborg Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^ I agree. After all, it generally takes a while, as far as I know, for Trek books to make the journey from initial proposal to publication. And...assuming any writers have proposed anything NuTrek-wise around now, and calculating the amount of time the typical writing process takes--and then the publishing process....

    I'm guessing...2011.
     
  4. Garrovick

    Garrovick Guest


    There must be audiobooks.
     
  5. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Why assume the proposals would have waited until now? The movie's been out nearly two months. And the writing and publishing process generally takes more like a year. Sometimes more, but the start of 2011 is fully 18 months away, and novels usually don't take quite that long.
     
  6. Rush Limborg

    Rush Limborg Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Ah. As ye say, lad.

    I was giving a...shall we say...conservative estimate?:)

    But that's certainly good to know, that it doesn't take that long. Sweet!

    Here's to 2010, then!
     
  7. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    I'm hoping for some solid nuTrek lit, I won't lie. That would be extremely exciting.
     
  8. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Me too. The only problem with them is that they'd probably be back to planet of the week type stories, although it could be kinda fun to get smaller single missions between all of the big stories that the movies will probably do.
     
  9. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    What's wrong with "planet of the week" stories? That's Star Trek's bread-and-butter. :)

    Personally, I'd like to see more of that -- in both the 23rd-century and the 24th-century. If anthologies sold better, that would be the ideal format. Imagine a book called something like Star Trek: 2381 that told the smaller-scale, episode-like stories in the post-Destiny timeframe, using characters from all the series. Here's a Titan story, here's an Enterprise story, here's an Aventine story. Let the novels do the big, epic, earth-shattering. movie-scale stuff, and if you want to dip your toes in for a day-in-the-life, boldly-going type story, then the anthology is your bag.

    That's what I'd do. We've had big and bold and epic for so long, something smaller scale would be a nice change of pace. :)
     
  10. Deranged Nasat

    Deranged Nasat Vice Admiral Admiral

    I find this idea intriguing... :)
     
  11. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Actually nothing. When I switched over to "although it could be kinda fun" I was changing my mind mid post. I just didn't feel like erasing the other part.
    That would be really fun.
     
  12. Rush Limborg

    Rush Limborg Vice Admiral Admiral

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    YES!!!

    Hey, while we're at it, why not make it open to all, like SNW?

    Would be a nice opportunity to open a door for the aspiring folks, who wanna start their writing careers with Trek....

    Such as...moi? :)


    No arguments here. When I first got into the novels, you don't know HOW MANY TIMES I picked up DS9 relaunch books and New Frontier books while having NO KNOWLEDGE WHATSOEVER of the beginnings of the arcs....

    And those beginnings were long since out of print. I had to scour the library for the first New Frontier books--and scour the used bookstores for Avatar 1 and 2. *sigh*

    Yeah. A few TRUE stand-alones would be nice....
     
  13. shanejayell

    shanejayell Captain Captain

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    Alan Dean Foster has a sequel book to Star Trek in the works, as I understand it.
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2009
  14. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    ^Ha! I like the reason for your last edit. :lol:
    As is being discussed in this thread...

    http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=97855
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    SNW wasn't a particularly ideal model. It lost money and it was complex and difficult to make it happen. Also it was a contest, so it had restrictions that prohibited authors outside the US from contributing, so it wasn't really "open to all."

    The basic submission process for Trek novels already is open to all, and I'm fairly certain you've had that explained to you before on this very forum. As for the Trek anthologies, they're generally by editorial invitation like most anthologies, but they've occasionally included first-time authors who managed to get the editors' attention.

    And if you really want to start a writing career, then you shouldn't try to start it with Trek. You're better off trying to sell original fiction. If a Trek proposal gets rejected by Pocket, you can't do anything else with it (unless you can rework it into a comic book and get IDW or TokyoPop interested). But with an original story, you can just submit it to a different market and keep on trying. So your chances are better. Also, the broader your portfolio, the better it'll be for your career.
     
  16. Thrawn

    Thrawn Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    ^ It is true, though, that an awful lot of Trek authors either are only published in Trek or are only published in Trek and other tie-in properties. David Mack's first original novel is only now coming out, you've had a few original short stories, KRAD has had one original novel published also well after he began tie in work, Dayton has had two original novels published also after he began his career with Trek (far fewer than the number of his tie-in novels), and the list goes on.

    I believe your advice to be correct, but I think one could be forgiven for seeing all of this and assuming the way to get to be a professional Trek writer is just to write Trek and nothing else.
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^It's not just about career success, though, it's about the breadth and variety of one's own work. If all you ever do to develop your craft is Trek, Trek, Trek, then you don't really bring anything fresh to the franchise if you do get hired to write Trek fiction. Keep in mind that most of what a novice author writes will never be sold. Most of it will end up being for practice rather than profit, for honing one's craft and discovering one's voice. I've written a whole lot more original fiction than I've sold, and the experience I gained and the concepts I developed in the process have been an important part of my voice and style as a Trek author.
     
  18. Rush Limborg

    Rush Limborg Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^Thanks for the tips, Chris! I'll take it to heart.
     
  19. Extrocomp

    Extrocomp Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Maybe NuTrek will be like the Marvel movies. Apart from novelizations and the occasional comic adaptation or comic prequel, they don't have an expanded universe.

    Or NuTrek might be like Star Trek Nemesis. Nemesis came out in 2002 but the first post-Nemesis novel came out in 2005.
     
  20. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Somebody just posted about the first nuTrek novel 7 posts up.