2024 book releases

[The Wormhole]

There won't be more TP novels a year. Part of what influences how many novels are published as well as how much time there is between releases is the knowledge that the average consumer is living on a budget and at the end of the day, novels are more a luxury item than a necessity. Novel releases for these kinds of franchises that do multiple novels a year, at least in modern times, tend to be staggered so as not to be a burden on the consumer's finances when combined with other things they may need or even just want to spend their money on. And in light of 2020s economy where everything is substantially more expensive than it was five years ago, combined with the fact that many people aren't making as much money as they were due to either losing their jobs in the pandemic or having their salaries cutback because of it or other measures enacted either because of the pandemic or the turn the economy made afterwards. And that's before you factor in things like Simon & Schuster's situation being bought out by someone else, or the fact that Paramount itself is currently being looked at by other companies looking to buy it out.

Bottom line, for the foreseeable future, we'll be getting fewer Star Trek novel releases, not more.

 

[USS Firefly]

Maybe we get lucky and they cancel all the Star Trek shows this year and we get more novels next year

 

[Tuskin38]

Maybe we get lucky and they cancel all the Star Trek shows this year and we get more novels next year

That wouldn't get us more novels.

 

[BillJ]

That wouldn't get us more novels.

I imagine it would lead us to getting less. I'm fine with the current schedule. If I need a fix, there are always legacy novels that I haven't read.

 

[David cgc]

How did we end up in this predicament where more Trek on TV means fewer novels, but less Trek on TV also means fewer novels?

 

[BillJ]

How did we end up in this predicament where more Trek on TV means fewer novels, but less Trek on TV also means fewer novels?

Math. And, I'm not good at math.

 

[Ronald Held]

Broken record poster still thinks ~6 a year is not unreasonable.

 

[Greg Cox]

Maybe we get lucky and they cancel all the Star Trek shows this year and we get more novels next year

Pretty sure it doesn't work that way.

 

[USS Firefly]

Pretty sure it doesn't work that way.

I am sure you are right but it is my dream so

 

[Ronald Held]

Even I do not want those shows cancelled for some extra novels a year.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

In my ideal world, we’re getting multiple shows of up to twenty-six episodes and seven seasons, with no less than three books and at least three video games per year.

Of course, in my ideal world, finances aren’t an issue for anyone, me or production. *sigh* It’s nicer there, wish I could do more than visit.

 

[The Wormhole]

Personally, I think if we ever go back to twenty-six episode seasons again, it'll be too soon. Seriously, that many episodes are exhausting on rewatches.

Just my completely off topic two cents.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Personally, I think if we ever go back to twenty-six episode seasons again, it'll be too soon. Seriously, that many episodes are exhausting on rewatches.

Just my completely off topic two cents.

I say “up to” just because that’s where I’m calling the maximum range. But I tend to think that some of the problems and issues with modern Trek, or at least MY issues, stem from the lack of breathing room in the episode order, having only ten episodes a season (thirteen for Discovery until this upcoming one), and not getting the time to stop, take stock, spend some time on lower stake aspects.

So I could accept a “happy medium” in the eighteen to twenty range, sure. But I won’t turn down going to the heyday production numbers, either. I’m willing to be flexible on this, is all.

 

[Tuskin38]

Some actors have also said they prefer working the shorter seasons.

Personally, I think if we ever go back to twenty-six episode seasons again, it'll be too soon. Seriously, that many episodes are exhausting on rewatches.

Just my completely off topic two cents.

Yeah I'm trying to rewatch Agents of shield and jeeze it feels like a slog.

 

[The Wormhole]

Some actors have also said they prefer working the shorter seasons.

For sure. Just compare how the shows were filmed in the 90s. They filmed from 7am to 11pm each day, and each episode took six days to film. They only took one day off between each episode, and they did this twenty-six times each year, with an additional two weeks off for Christmas. Even if they're still spending six sixteen hour days to film each episode, only doing so for ten episodes would definitely be much less exhausting than twenty-six.

 

[Christopher]

They filmed from 7am to 11pm each day, and each episode took six days to film.

I think by then it was often more common for an episode to take 7-8 days to film with a day off between episodes. That's why there were so many reruns within a season, taking around 39 weeks to release 26 episodes -- because it took more than one week per episode, so they inevitably fell behind.

Of course, during the course of TNG/DS9/VGR/ENT's run, most other network and syndicated shows dropped from 26- to 22-episode seasons, with Trek being one of the last holdouts (indeed, the only holdout I'm aware of) sticking with 26-episode seasons as the norm.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Maybe we get lucky and they cancel all the Star Trek shows this year and we get more novels next year

Tie-ins always sell better when there are shows actually running, as an ongoing free publicity machine for public awareness.

 

[Christopher]

Tie-ins always sell better when there are shows actually running, as an ongoing free publicity machine for public awareness.

Which is often a problem for getting a tie-in line off the ground, since publishers may be hesitant to do one until a show proves it has legs, so by the time the books see print, the show may already have ended. That's why so many shows have gotten only a couple of novels late in their runs.

And yes, it's rare for a tie-in line for an ended series to be viable. Those have only worked for things that have really loyal fanbases -- Star Trek, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Babylon 5, Stargate, Buffy, Firefly. Alien Nation got eight tie-in novels after its cancellation (and before/during its TV-movie revival, though they were all written before it), but I think they were sort of riding on the coattails of the Trek line, which had the same publisher and editor.

 

[The Wormhole]

I think by then it was often more common for an episode to take 7-8 days to film with a day off between episodes. That's why there were so many reruns within a season, taking around 39 weeks to release 26 episodes -- because it took more than one week per episode, so they inevitably fell behind.

I based my numbers off an interview Bill Mumy once did where he talked about guest starring on DS9, where he said he was there for the episode's entire six day shoot from 7am to 11pm each day. Given The Siege of AR-558 isn't exactly a bottle episode, I assumed if that was done in six days, that was probably the norm at that time. Though, yes, I have heard that back in TNG it took eight days to film an episode.

 

[KRAD]

Pocket got the Alien Nation novel license because one of the editors at S&S was a fan and the license was dirt-cheap, so it was an easy sell to the publisher to pay for it.