2018 Releases

[Damian]

And what is left at this point.

By my count there is one more Discovery novel coming out this summer and one more Voyager book by Kirsten Beyer in the works (not counting the Prometheus novels by Titan).

Is there any other novels in the pipeline we are waiting for under the old Pocketbooks contract?

 

[JD]

Given everything going on with Paramount and CBS right now, I have a feeling they aren't going to be doing anything with any publishers right now. We don't know that is the issue, but of all of the stuff that's been discussed it does make the most sense.

 

[Scout101]

Whole thing is just kinda shocking. I know it’s not Disney money or anything, but gotta still be a decent money maker here, no? They e just decided to not make money for a while? Not great business

 

[Christopher]

Whole thing is just kinda shocking. I know it’s not Disney money or anything, but gotta still be a decent money maker here, no? They e just decided to not make money for a while? Not great business

"Decided?" No. Negotiations can be delayed by any number of factors. Surely there have been times in your own life when you've wanted to do something but were forced to put it off by circumstances beyond your control.

Besides, Star Trek is just one of many, many things that Simon & Schuster publishes. It's a small part of their overall business. So they have plenty of other things to make money from while they wait.

 

[ATimson]

I'm starting to wonder if Pocketbooks will even be in the mix at this point. Are there any other publishers trying to make a run at Star Trek novels. The only one I can think of is Titan but only because of their overseas releases and not because of anything I've heard.

Among the SF&F imprints of the Big Five US publishers, both Tor and Del Rey publish tie-ins, so they would be good candidates for publishers who might bid. (Harper Voyager and Orbit generally don't, as far as I'm aware.)

Of course if a new publisher came to town I wonder how that would affect the various relaunches--would they continue or would a new publisher decide to go in a different direction....

It could go either way, but I can only think of one case where the licensor wasn't enforcing the continuity of the tie-ins and the new publisher continued it anyways. (Doctor Who, and even that's debatable - it depends on which of the authors you asked.) Based on precedent, it seems likely that if the license changes hands that there'll be a clean slate.

Heck, even if it doesn't, the editors still might rethink the publishing program in an effort to increase sales. I won't be surprised if the license comes back to Pocket/Gallery, but I will be surprised if we still get 12 books a year.

 

[Steve Roby]

Tor has a mixed track record with tie-ins. They only did three Farscape novels. The editor of their new Galactica tie-ins wanted to do a line of books by “real” SF authors instead of writers with experience writing tie-ins, and they didn’t last long or work well.

 

[The Wormhole]

Any news, rumors or anything about future Star Trek novels?

When there is news or a rumour or anything, it'll be posted in this forum, most likely in this very thread. It really is unnecessary to ask for periodic updates.

Is there any other novels in the pipeline we are waiting for under the old Pocketbooks contract?

No, none at all.

 

[Greg Cox]

Tor has a mixed track record with tie-ins. They only did three Farscape novels. The editor of their new Galactica tie-ins wanted to do a line of books by “real” SF authors instead of writers with experience writing tie-ins, and they didn’t last long or work well.

We also did Earth: Final Conflict, Andromeda, Freddy Krueger, Dark Shadows, Zorro, and (ahem) The Librarians. Not to mention publishing one CONAN book a season for ages. We've also done multiple novelizations over the years.

And we also did a FARSCAPE COMPANION to go along with the novels. And I'll cop to chasing after other licenses that I never quite managed to land. (Spent a whole year once trying to tie down the rights to MERLIN, but the deal fell through in the end.)

 

[Lonemagpie]

We also did Earth: Final Conflict, Andromeda, Freddy Krueger, Dark Shadows, Zorro, and (ahem) The Librarians. Not to mention publishing one CONAN book a season for ages. We've also done multiple novelizations over the years.

And we also did a FARSCAPE COMPANION to go along with the novels. And I'll cop to chasing after other licenses that I never quite managed to land. (Spent a whole year once trying to tie down the rights to MERLIN, but the deal fell through in the end.)

I'd have loved if someone had done a Da Vinci's Demons licence, but that never happened.

 

[JD]

I still think it's the CBS/Paramount drama that's slowing things down and not anything to do with the lisence itself. If that is the case, anybody familiar enough with the legal mumbo jumbo to guess how long this whole thing could take to be resolved?

 

[Greg Cox]

I'd have loved if someone had done a Da Vinci's Demons licence, but that never happened.

I was disappointed that nobody ever did COLD CASE books. The format of that show lent itself perfectly to tie-in novels.

 

[Starbreaker]

Pocket did a handful of CSI novels. I think I read one but never had any incentive to read another. Just see that @Greg Cox has one. Hmm... and @KRAD and Jeff Mariotte. I never knew.

 

[Defcon]

I was disappointed that nobody ever did COLD CASE books. The format of that show lent itself perfectly to tie-in novels.

You mentioned something similar in an interview we did years ago. Back then I hadn't seen any Cold Case I think, but since then I have seen most of the episodes and agreed with the sentiment from the interview ever since . Definitely a lost oppurtunity, they pretty much would have been able to do every time frame within in the 20th Century in the "past" segments.

Pocket did a handful of CSI novels. I think I read one but never had any incentive to read another. Just see that @Greg Cox has one. Hmm... and @KRAD and Jeff Mariotte. I never knew.

Actually Greg had two, Shock Treatment and Headhunter.

 

[JD]

I'm hoping Titan will do more NCIS: LA and NCIS: New Orleans and bring in writers like @Greg Cox or @KRAD.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Also there should have been Lethal Weapon tie-ins last year and this, IMO, but that's guaranteed to die a death when Seann William Scott replaces Crawford, so... never happen. (Historically I'm astounded there haven't been Mission Impossible ones, at least for the movie franchise)

 

[Dayton Ward]

I'm hoping Titan will do more NCIS: LA and NCIS: New Orleans and bring in writers like @Greg Cox or @KRAD.

I always wanted to do NCIS Original Recipe novels, but that was not to be.

 

[Christopher]

(Historically I'm astounded there haven't been Mission Impossible ones, at least for the movie franchise)

There were some print tie-ins for the original series. To quote Wikipedia [sic]:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission:_Impossible#Print

A number of original Mission: Impossible novels based upon the series were published Popular Library published the following between 1967 and 1969:

1. Mission: Impossible by Walter Wager as "John Tiger" (1967)
2. Code Name: Judas by "Max Walker" (1968); Walker was a Popular Library "house" pseudonym; the actual author has never been disclosed.
3. Code Name: Rapier by Walker (1968)
4. Code Name: Little Ivan by Tiger (1969)

In addition, two hardback novels for young readers were published by Whitman Books, both by Talmage Powell:

1. The Priceless Particle (1969)
2. The Money Explosion (1970)

Of the above, only the 1967 John Tiger novel featured the team as led by Dan Briggs; the rest all featured the Jim Phelps-era IMF.

Dell Comics published a Mission: Impossible comic book on a sporadic schedule that lasted from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. Only five issues were published before the series was canceled.

And Marvel did a one-shot comics prequel to the first movie in 1996.

 

[indianatrekker26]

Ive been taking advantage of the downtime and going back to older books I never read before. I'm currently on the eugenics wars volume 1 by greg cox. I put this series off for a long time, because I just thought it would be boring. I finally started it, and I'm really enjoying it alot. I didnt think following Roberta Lincoln would be interesting and engaging, but I was proven wrong.

 

[John Clark]

Pocket did a handful of CSI novels. I think I read one but never had any incentive to read another. Just see that @Greg Cox has one. Hmm... and @KRAD and Jeff Mariotte. I never knew.

I think I've read most of them. Max Allan Collins seemed to do most, but I do remember the @Greg Cox and @KRAD ones.

If we are going to other series tie-ins, I'd like some Agents of SHIELD/Agent Carter prose novels by some of the authors here. I know there's a Runaways novel but I'd like to see some other stuff too.

 

[JD]

They've started doing tie-in prose for the MCU movies, there's about 3 or 4 that have come out for Infinity War, so there's probably at least a slight chance they might expand that to the shows too.