So how does it make any sense not to try?
I never said don't try. I just said don't go wasting your time trying to get the mainstream to become interested, as it wont work and stops you focusing on your core audience.
How do you define the "core audience"? Is it only the people already inside the bubble of
Treklit? Is it
Star Trek fans who read (but may not necessarily read
Star Trek books)? Or is it
Star Trek fandom as a whole? The first is a small, finite, and dwindling number. (Dwindling because it's always easy for people to stop buying the books; maybe they lose interest, maybe they can't afford them any longer.) The second is larger than the first, perhaps by an order or two of magnitude. The third is much larger than the second by
serious degrees. You can draw the Venn diagram here; it looks like the Target logo. Possibly made out of pine cones and in negative colors.
The chance of getting someone outside the third to read a
Star Trek novel is, I admit, almost infinitesimal. (Though I'm curious to see how well the
Nightshade reprint sells this summer, because if any book is going to reach outside the
Star Trek bubble, it will be that one.)
So do you target the first group -- the people already reading
Star Trek novels -- or the second group --
Star Trek fans who read? If you target the first, sales will decline over time through natural attrition. If you target the second, you can capture new readers to replace the extant readers leaving the market.
Which group does Pocket target? I would argue that Pocket has decided over the past decade to entrench themselves in the first with books targeted specifically at a narrow pocket (pun unintended) of fandom, those
already reading the books, using niche concepts that lack a broader appeal. Pocket's business decisions over the past decade in regard to
Star Trek fiction, from abandoning the market prestige of the hardcover format to halving the publishing line to a greater emphasis on trade paperbacks (which have a different economic model than mass-markets and can tolerate lower sales because they have greater margin and profit), all indicate a line in financial decline. It's not inconceivable that Pocket could choose not to renew the
Star Trek license when it's up for renewal in the next few years because it no longer makes financial sense to them, even though the financial decline arguably rests on the creative choices made by those overseeing the line.
I had a similar discussion about comics and the fallacy of the digital dream on the scifi/fantasy board the other week. Some things just aren't meant for a large, general audience.
Comics
can appeal to a wider audience, but there are structural problems in the comic book market, from the collapse of newsstand distribution to price points that inhibit casual, spur-of-the-moment purchases.
