Frustrations with Trek lit...

[JD]

There wouldn't be ay Trek novels.

Well, not as we know them. Another publisher could get the license. It's unlikely that it'd continue from wherever Pocket left off (logically, if in this hypothetical, CBS was happy with how the Trek books were going, they'd just have Pocket keep the license).

As I recall, "Cold Equations" was initially concieved as a grand finale to the novelverse, when Pocket's license was nearing its end.

Titan seems to be the go to company for tie ins right now, so I wouldn't be surprised if they got the license if Pocket lost it. Their magazine division even publishes or published the Star Trek Magazine so they already have a bit of a Trek connection.

 

[Stevil2001]

@Jarvisimo's post makes it sound like S&S was who didn't want to renew, not CBS. If that was the case, I'd be very surprised if other publishers didn't try to pick the license up.

 

[DimesDan]

I know @David Mack has discussed this sparingly over the last few years, but I was just wondering, how possible was it that the license was going to discontinued and has he (or are you) willing to discuss the outline of the story if it was the final adventure of the LitVerse?

 

[Christopher]

@Jarvisimo's post makes it sound like S&S was who didn't want to renew, not CBS. If that was the case, I'd be very surprised if other publishers didn't try to pick the license up.

What Dave's comments actually said was that S&S was considering letting go of the license. That doesn't mean they wanted to; there are plenty of reasons to consider doing something you'd rather not do. I'm just guessing, of course, but this was in 2011, just a couple of years after S&S had been hit hard in the global economic crisis and had to downsize quite a bit to avoid bankruptcy. Given that, it stands to reason that they would've still been in the process of recovering from that and would've carefully considered every expenditure before deciding whether it was needed.

 

[David Mack]

^ This. As I understood it, it was prompted by economic concerns. Star Trek is an expensive license to renew, and after the global economic meltdown everyone was being careful with spending. In the end it was determined that despite its cost, the Star Trek publishing program was at that time still a profitable one for S&S, so they renewed their license.

 

[Stevil2001]

What Dave's comments actually said was that S&S was considering letting go of the license. That doesn't mean they wanted to; there are plenty of reasons to consider doing something you'd rather not do. I'm just guessing, of course, but this was in 2011, just a couple of years after S&S had been hit hard in the global economic crisis and had to downsize quite a bit to avoid bankruptcy. Given that, it stands to reason that they would've still been in the process of recovering from that and would've carefully considered every expenditure before deciding whether it was needed.

I don't think this disagrees with anything I said except in the most pedantic of ways. I was just pointing out, that contra statements like, "However, Pocket/Simon & Schuster is owned by CBS Corp., and there are advantages to keeping it 'in the family,' so I'd be surprised if the license went elsewhere," it wasn't CBS potentially deciding to send it out of the family, but S&S. If doesn't matter if there are advantages to keeping it in the family if the family doesn't want it.

 

[Greg Cox]

But, just speaking about tie-ins in general, passing on a license (or failing to renew it) doesn't mean you didn't want it. More often, it's a matter of how much do you want it and how much are you willing to pay for the privilege?

I can't speak to Pocket's internal dealings, but I've chased after lots of licenses for Tor that I eventually gave up on because they got too pricey or because, ultimately, we couldn't come to terms regarding territories, translation rights, royalty rates, permissions, and other legal sticking points.

True story: I almost bought the book rights to one TV series--until I found out, as the contract was being drawn up, that we would have to pay extra to use the likenesses of the actors on the book covers. At which point, I withdrew my offer and the books never happened.

It's seldom as simple as "do we want this license or not?"

 

[jaime]

Titan seems to be the go to company for tie ins right now, so I wouldn't be surprised if they got the license if Pocket lost it. Their magazine division even publishes or published the Star Trek Magazine so they already have a bit of a Trek connection.

Titan used to be the UK publisher for all the Trek books, it's was their imprint that brought over the older Trek books. I don't know when that stopped being the case, and mainly read ebooks now.

 

[DS9forever]

Was this why DS9 was destroyed in 2012 as well?

 

[USS Firefly]

That was a big mistake in my opinion to destroy DS9

 

[DS9forever]

Raise the Dawn would have been an okay conclusion to the Pocket DS9 line.

 

[JD]

Titan used to be the UK publisher for all the Trek books, it's was their imprint that brought over the older Trek books. I don't know when that stopped being the case, and mainly read ebooks now.

Isn't London one of the cities listed under locations for Pocket books? If so I would assume that would mean they would handle the UK releases themselves.

 

[jaime]

Isn't London one of the cities listed under locations for Pocket books? If so I would assume that would mean they would handle the UK releases themselves.

That's now, maybe...like I said, I haven't checked recently.
In the nineties Titan distributed the pocket novels, and I think even redid the jackets for some or had a line of their own. Alistair Pearson was an artist that made the jump from Who projects to Trek projects for at least a bit that way. It's also how at least one of the novels was given away with the Star Trek magazine back then. I am certain I have Pocket novels with the Titan imprint logo on as they published them here.

 

[DimesDan]

That's now, maybe...like I said, I haven't checked recently.
In the nineties Titan distributed the pocket novels, and I think even redid the jackets for some or had a line of their own. Alistair Pearson was an artist that made the jump from Who projects to Trek projects for at least a bit that way. It's also how at least one of the novels was given away with the Star Trek magazine back then. I am certain I have Pocket novels with the Titan imprint logo on as they published them here.

I've just checked my old and tatted copy of Vendetta and it has the Titan logo on the spine and back of the book and checking the copyright page, it was published by Titan. Of course I got that copy in either 1994 or 1995 from WHSmiths in Bath, (not sure why I remember where I got it from) which was over two decades ago now.

 

[Stevil2001]

That's now, maybe...like I said, I haven't checked recently.
In the nineties Titan distributed the pocket novels, and I think even redid the jackets for some or had a line of their own. Alistair Pearson was an artist that made the jump from Who projects to Trek projects for at least a bit that way. It's also how at least one of the novels was given away with the Star Trek magazine back then. I am certain I have Pocket novels with the Titan imprint logo on as they published them here.

Alister Pearson of Doctor Who fame did the covers for Titan's reprints of the Bantam novels from 1993-95, which were branded as Star Trek Adventures.

MA's main article on Titan indicates Simon & Schuster UK took over the Pocket novels in 1993. (Maybe that's why Titan did the Bantam novels then?)

 

[jaime]

Alister Pearson of Doctor Who fame did the covers for Titan's reprints of the Bantam novels from 1993-95, which were branded as Star Trek Adventures.

MA's main article on Titan indicates Simon & Schuster UK took over the Pocket novels in 1993. (Maybe that's why Titan did the Bantam novels then?)

There you go. If I had googled instead of my usual reliance on memory xD

 

[Unimatrix Q]

For the whole i really like the actual star trek novels. I just wish we would finally get at least a novel or a trilogy about the Sheliak.

 

[C.E. Evans]

That was a big mistake in my opinion to destroy DS9

Seconded. I think what made Deep Space Nine--the series--unique was that it wasn't a Federation-built setting. It was an alien and not entirely ideal place: it clashed with both Starfleet and Federation sensibilities, and it was very much a rustic frontier town in space where not everything worked the way it should all the time. It's casual destruction and replacement with a new state-of-the-art facility might have gone over better with me if the new station had some kind of "soul" or something that made it more than just simply "okay, it's there," IMO.

 

[jaime]

Seconded. I think what made Deep Space Nine--the series--unique was that it wasn't a Federation-built setting. It was an alien and not entirely ideal place: it clashed with both Starfleet and Federation sensibilities, and it was very much a rustic frontier town in space where not everything worked the way it should all the time. It's casual destruction and replacement with a new state-of-the-art facility might have gone over better with me if the new station had some kind of "soul" or something that made it more than just simply "okay, it's there," IMO.

Come on prophets 'all is not as it should be' 'a change has been made and must be undone' wave hands and there is the original station. Everyone surplus plonked on Bajor. Q style. Do eeeeeeet.

 

[Tuskin38]

Come on prophets 'all is not as it should be' 'a change has been made and must be undone' wave hands and there is the original station. Everyone surplus plonked on Bajor. Q style. Do eeeeeeet.

That is what Star Trek Online did with Earth Spacedock. They replaced their dumb looking 25th style version with the 23/24 century style one saying Q did it, lmao