Comic-con news

[Ktrek]

And since Pocket is cutting back on their hardcover releases, the likelihood that my next hardcover will be a Trek novel is slim.

Well, at least now you're on equal footing with PAD because I don't foresee any Trek hardcovers from him either in the near future if ever again. Granted he has developed a following but it seems as if the faithful are becoming less and less these days at least in Trekdom. I also think you're more popular than you give yourself credit for KRAD. I mean am I mistaken or are you getting to where you will have more Trek books than PAD here very soon?

Kevin

 

[KRAD]

I mean am I mistaken or are you getting to where you will have more Trek books than PAD here very soon?

Hardly. I've written 14, and Peter has me beat with NF novels alone, with 20 more besides that. If you count other Trek stories, yeah, I've written more eBooks and we're about even in short stories, but I've got literally years to go before I'll even come close to matching Peter's comic book output.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I don't foresee any Trek hardcovers from him either in the near future if ever again.

It's my understanding his last three "New Frontier" hardcovers sold extremely well. Why would Pocket suddenly go back to doing NF as MMPB?

 

[Defcon]

^I'm not sure but doesn't he have a contract for three hardcovers anyway, of which only two were published yet? Or am I misremembering something?

 

[KRAD]

^ Generally -- though not always -- the contract doesn't specify what format the book will be published in.

 

[Defcon]

^ Generally -- though not always -- the contract doesn't specify what format the book will be published in.

O.K., seems as if I misrembered that part, but I really thought there was the word hardcover in the post when his three-book-deal was made public.

 

[Sci]

Though it does seem lame and arbitrary to give authors a lower royalty for the simple virtue of their books being printed in a format other than HC.

It's not. Royalties are a percentage of the book's cover price. Paperbacks have lower cover prices than hardcovers. Nothing "arbitrary" about it at all.

I had no doubt that there was some rationale in place, but my comment was solely in reference to Therin's statement that HC authors receive higher royalties, the criterion for that division wasn't readily apparent to me.

I made no claim that there was no reason to the system, only that it was not obvious to me. Even now, the selection process for which books are produced in hardcover, thereby providing the author the opportunity for greater royalty earnings, are unclear and seemingly arbitrary to me.

A hardback book is more expensive to produce, therefore its price is higher -- both in terms of compensating for the production expense, and in terms of the percentage of profitability of the book being higher. Ergo, the publisher stands to make more money from a successful hardback than paperback. Why shouldn't, therefore, the author also receive a higher royalty percentage? Why should the publisher stand to make more money from the author's work in this format, but the author himself/herself not make more money, too?

 

[fleetcaptain]

^^Not sure why you're asking KRAD that, since the question apparently arises from the description for my Greater Than the Sum that's in the Pocket Books catalogue. Besides, I expect his response wouldn't be too different from mine, to wit: if there were a chance, do you really think we'd tell you?

Sorry about that Chris. I thought I would go to KRAD since he can be a very helpful guy at times. But didn't hurt to ask anyways. I thought maybe I would also get a hint to it. I tried.

 

[ATimson]

A hardback book is more expensive to produce, therefore its price is higher -- both in terms of compensating for the production expense, and in terms of the percentage of profitability of the book being higher. Ergo, the publisher stands to make more money from a successful hardback than paperback. Why shouldn't, therefore, the author also receive a higher royalty percentage? Why should the publisher stand to make more money from the author's work in this format, but the author himself/herself not make more money, too?

If the percentage of the manufacturing costs in terms of the cover price are lower, then yes, raising the authors' royalty makes sense. I must admit that to be an assumption that I hadn't made, however.

 

[Man of Steel]

I so wanted to attend CC this year but it fell on Passover this year and I am at the Friar Tuck Inn for the holiday. Ah well... There's always next year.

Anyway, a great bunch of titles on the way. Any chance we can get Mere Anarchy as a MM instead of a TP?

Nice to see Mike Friedman returning to Trek writing. Is it possible that one of the stories in the Mirror Universe will be a Stargazer one?

That Titan novel came out of nowhere. Let's hope it is better then the last one...

Just one ENT novel?

Is the LE series finally done with?

Is the new VOY novel a relaunch? Wasn't it relaunched once before?

What is the death count in Destiny? How many main characters die (aside from Mr Android)?

I know there's some more questions but for now, this will do..

 

[Defcon]

Any chance we can get Mere Anarchy as a MM instead of a TP?

I doubt it. Mere Anarchy contains six novellas, that would be a hell of a MMPB.

Nice to see Mike Friedman returning to Trek writing. Is it possible that one of the stories in the Mirror Universe will be a Stargazer one?

Everything's possibly since nothing has been revealed yet about his story, but Michael Jan Friedman isn't limited to writing Stargazer, he has written for other trek series before and after Stargazer.

That Titan novel came out of nowhere. Let's hope it is better then the last one...

Wow. Never thought I actually would agree with something you say.

Just one ENT novel?

The schedule has only been anounced until May '09 so there is a chance there will be more in the later half of the year. but to be honest I'm not to keen on even more ENT at the moment.

Is the new VOY novel a relaunch? Wasn't it relaunched once before?

How about actually reading the thread before posting? Beyer's book will begin where Golden's last book stopped, and then will move the VOY-R story forward until after Destiny. So it's not a re-relaunch, but rather a wrap-up of Golden's story and than a "fast forward" for a few years.

What is the death count in Destiny? How many main characters die (aside from Mr Android)?

Huh? Destiny is set quite some time after Nemesis, so I doubt that Data (I assume you mean him with Mr. Android) will "die" in Destiny since he already is dead.

 

[KRAD]

Anyway, a great bunch of titles on the way. Any chance we can get Mere Anarchy as a MM instead of a TP?

No.

Is the LE series finally done with?

No.

Is the new VOY novel a relaunch? Wasn't it relaunched once before?

No, it's picking up where Spirit Walk left off -- you know like it says right there in the post.

What is the death count in Destiny? How many main characters die (aside from Mr Android)?

Marc, you've been posting on the Trek lit boards for quite some time, so I gotta ask what, in all that experience, leads you to think that anybody would actually answer this question?

 

[JAG]

Marc, you've been posting on the Trek lit boards for quite some time, so I gotta ask what, in all that experience, leads you to think that anybody would actually answer this question?

Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers too.

 

[Steve Roby]

you've been posting on the Trek lit boards for quite some time, so I gotta ask what, in all that experience, leads you to think that anybody would actually answer this question?

The fact that someone posts here doesn't mean they've actually been reading, paying attention, and learning. Like that doofus the other day who asked a question about the convention giveaway sampler that had already been answered (though said doofus at least tries not to make a habit of that kind of thing). For some people, though, it seems that paying attention and learning are options rarely exercised.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

That Titan novel came out of nowhere. Let's hope it is better then the last one...

What do you mean it "came out of nowhere"? It's not like Sword of Damocles brought the series to a conclusion. There's no indication that that was going to be the final book. So why wouldn't there be another Titan novel on the schedule?

Is the new VOY novel a relaunch? Wasn't it relaunched once before?

I once said that the next Voyager novel would be "the 'Voyager Relaunch' Relaunch," and given that it's been so long since Spirit Walk, it wouldn't surprise me if Full Circle were more of a fresh start and a new beginning than a continuation of what went before, something that acknowledges the past without being slavishly beholden to it. If that makes sense.

Or I could just be, like Cliff Clavin, talking total nonsense.

 

[Christopher]

I once said that the next Voyager novel would be "the 'Voyager Relaunch' Relaunch," and given that it's been so long since Spirit Walk, it wouldn't surprise me if Full Circle were more of a fresh start and a new beginning than a continuation of what went before, something that acknowledges the past without being slavishly beholden to it. If that makes sense.

If you mean something that makes cursory reference to what came before while going in a wholly independent direction or even contradicting aspects of it (like I gather the Incredible Hulk movie is supposed to be), I don't think that's the case. Full Circle will pick up the story where Christie Golden left it off and advance it from there. Of course, with new authorial and editorial minds behind it, the story will no doubt develop in new directions, but it's still meant to flow naturally out of what came before. Think of it in terms of a new season of a show that's gotten a new showrunner, like Manny Coto taking over ENT. Except that the show's been on hiatus for a few seasons.

 

[Man of Steel]

As for VOY, I haven't been keeping up with the series and I remember someone saying that it was relaunching with the Homecoming/Further Shore books though I could be wrong....

As far as the Mirror books, it was announced that these books would focus on the books rather then the serious which is how I wondered about Stargazer. Besides, if PAD has a story in there, and I can almost guess it to be NF, who's to say Mike won't do it with a Stargazer story. And I am interested in seeing this as a mirror as it can be pretty neat.

I believe my question for Destiny should have been: What is the total death count? More gorier (?) then Time to Kill/Heal?

LE series isn't done according to KRAD so wondering if we would ever see one featuring Kirk between the time of the end of the 5 year mission until TMP.

 

[Defcon]

As for VOY, I haven't been keeping up with the series and I remember someone saying that it was relaunching with the Homecoming/Further Shore books though I could be wrong....

Huh? Of yourse the TV-series was relaunched with Golden two duologies. Your question's regarding Voyager where indicating that you were wondering if Beyer's book would be a relaunch of Golden's relaunch, which it only is in the sense that it most likely won't take the same road it would have taken with Golden at the helm.

As far as the Mirror books, it was announced that these books would focus on the books rather then the serious which is how I wondered about Stargazer. Besides, if PAD has a story in there, and I can almost guess it to be NF, who's to say Mike won't do it with a Stargazer story. And I am interested in seeing this as a mirror as it can be pretty neat.

And no one disputed that it could be a Stargazer story, it's even extremly likely. All I said above was that the fact that MJF is writing a story in the anthology doesn't mean that it has to be a Stargazer story.

LE series isn't done according to KRAD so wondering if we would ever see one featuring Kirk between the time of the end of the 5 year mission until TMP

That wouldn't be a Lost Era novel, since the timeframe for Lost Era novels was made pretty clear: the time between Kirk's presumed death on the Enterprise-B and Encounter at Farpoint. Beside that there a quite a few TOS novels set in the timeframe you mentioned.

 

[Trent Roman]

Full Circle will pick up the story where Christie Golden left it off and advance it from there. Of course, with new authorial and editorial minds behind it, the story will no doubt develop in new directions, but it's still meant to flow naturally out of what came before.

The name alone is a pretty clear indication of that; while I imagine Full Circle will probably have multiple meanings beyond the literal, it's the name of the project from the VOY-R books concerned with stripping and studying the advanced Borg-fighting technology Voyager brought back with it. For which I'm actually glad, because I've long said that somebody needed to deal with the obvious destabilizing effect on the local-galactic balance of power of the Federation suddenly having a twenty-five year advance in offensive and defensive technologies.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[ialfan]

LE series isn't done according to KRAD so wondering if we would ever see one featuring Kirk between the time of the end of the 5 year mission until TMP

That wouldn't be a Lost Era novel, since the timeframe for Lost Era novels was made pretty clear: the time between Kirk's presumed death on the Enterprise-B and Encounter at Farpoint. Beside that there a quite a few TOS novels set in the timeframe you mentioned.

I'm hoping the next Lost Era novel whenever it is (2009? ) will be that rumored Sisko/Tzenkethi War novel.