OT: I wish Pocket would do something like this

[ryan123450]

http://http://delreystarwars.fancorps.com

Del Rey, the publisher of Star Wars tie in novels, recently launched the Star Wars Action Team. It's a community where you receive points for posting about Star Wars books on Facebook and Twitter, reviewing Star Wars books on retailers sites like Amazon, and posting pictures of yourself with Star Wars books.

I've been diligently working towards a free copy of the Star Wars Essential Readers Companion. It's really pretty easy if you don't mind your friends knowing how big a nerd you are.

I wish Pocket would do something like this for the Star Trek line. If there are any editors or Pocket higher ups listening, this seems like a pretty good way to enlist us Lit fans to promote the books. I would sign up in a heartbeat!

PS- Apologies if this is too far off topic.

 

[Vendikarr]

It will all come down to money. If Del Ray sees a rise in sales that they can attribute to this campaign, there's a chance other publishers may try something similar.

I wouldn't expect anything until the numbers come in, whenever that is.

 

[Kevman7987]

Meh. I stopped reading the Star Wars EU as soon as VII was announced. What's the point when 90% of novel/comic continuity will be erased?

But yeah, it'd be cool if they started something like this for the Star Trek EU.

 

[Christopher]

Meh. I stopped reading the Star Wars EU as soon as VII was announced. What's the point when 90% of novel/comic continuity will be erased?

Nothing's going to be "erased." It's just not going to be agreed with. All the old stories will still be there. And the point is enjoyment. It's not like you're studying for some test where you have to get the "right" answers to avoid failing. The end result of reading fiction is not to have the continuity right. The end result of reading fiction is to enjoy the story. All fiction is imaginary anyway, after all. The movies are just as made-up as the books. They're just stories for fun. They don't stop being fun just because they don't fit together.

 

[ATimson]

They're just stories for fun. They don't stop being fun just because they don't fit together.

For some people, yes; for others, not so much.

 

[Christopher]

But the question was "What's the point?" And that's based on the false and frankly rather bizarre premise that the only possible purpose of fiction is to catalog continuity, rather than to tell entertaining stories. It's getting the cause and effect backward. Continuity is a secondary consideration. It can enhance enjoyment; it is not more important than enjoyment. It is not "the point" in and of itself.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Meh. I stopped reading the Star Wars EU as soon as VII was announced. What's the point when 90% of novel/comic continuity will be erased?

Star Trek fans were giving this as their reason for not reading the first batch of Pocket Books novels and DC Comics when I first found fandom in 1980. I was enjoying the tie-ins very much, but few of my new friends were interested because the adventures "weren't real".

What's the point, you ask? Well, I was having fun. And they (presumably) weren't.

it'd be cool if they started something like this for the Star Trek EU.

I've never been terribly interested in contests that give prizes out that I've already bought at retail the day they were published. And I'm not going to pass up buying and reading a book in the hope that I can score enough points to win a random back issue.

 

[Christopher]

I was enjoying the tie-ins very much, but few of my new friends were interested because the adventures "weren't real".

But canon isn't real either, so why weren't they equally uninterested in that? That just makes no sense.

 

[ryan123450]

Meh. I stopped reading the Star Wars EU as soon as VII was announced. What's the point when 90% of novel/comic continuity will be erased?

Star Trek fans were giving this as their reason for not reading the first batch of Pocket Books novels and DC Comics when I first found fandom in 1980. I was enjoying the tie-ins very much, but few of my new friends were interested because the adventures "weren't real".

What's the point, you ask? Well, I was having fun. And they (presumably) weren't.

it'd be cool if they started something like this for the Star Trek EU.

I've never been terribly interested in contests that give prizes out that I've already bought at retail the day they were published. And I'm not going to pass up buying and reading a book in the hope that I can score enough points to win a random back issue.

I wish I had that much money to spend on Trek stuff.

 

[surak-toc]

i would really like it if they would do a prequel book series to the first film, that being on the kelvin with George kirk and so on

 

[Therin of Andor]

But canon isn't real either...

They were saying it long before Richard Arnold popularised the concept and gave fans a name for it.

And, I guess, up to 98% of audiences could be of similar mind?

 

[ryan123450]

Or just not interested enough.

 

[Sci]

I suspect that some people don't want to read something that's non-canonical because they feel like the emotional consequences of the stories will be rendered moot, which undermines audience investment in the stories and undermines verisimilitude.

 

[Relayer1]

Meh. I stopped reading the Star Wars EU as soon as VII was announced. What's the point when 90% of novel/comic continuity will be erased?

Nothing's going to be "erased." It's just not going to be agreed with. All the old stories will still be there. And the point is enjoyment. It's not like you're studying for some test where you have to get the "right" answers to avoid failing. The end result of reading fiction is not to have the continuity right. The end result of reading fiction is to enjoy the story. All fiction is imaginary anyway, after all. The movies are just as made-up as the books. They're just stories for fun. They don't stop being fun just because they don't fit together.

Intellectually I have to agree. I stopped reading the Star Wars EU a good while before the new movies were announced (during the Vong war) simply because I wasn't enjoying them.

However, I have slogged through the occasional Trek novel I didn't like just to keep up with continuity and I probably won't read the Khan prequel comics as they dont fit with Greg's novels.

I like a coherent universe, but I've got to enjoy the stories too...

 

[Christopher]

Sometimes I enjoy books more because they aren't in continuity with other books or with later canon -- because they offer an interestingly different take on a concept and thus add variety to my experience of the franchise.

 

[JD]

^That's one of the main reasons I'm planning on reading the Rihannsu books, Federation, and The Final Reflection. The idea of seeing different versions of stuff that was addressed later in the shows/movies really has me curious.

 

[ATimson]

I suspect that some people don't want to read something that's non-canonical because they feel like the emotional consequences of the stories will be rendered moot, which undermines audience investment in the stories and undermines verisimilitude.

That's a far better phrasing of my attitude than anything I ever came up with. Thanks, Sci.

(It's not that I won't read anything non-canonical. But I definitely have preference for Trek books that fit into the Marcokradiverse. The lack of emotional consequences is precisely why I didn't find Crucible fulfilling.)

 

[Sci]

I suspect that some people don't want to read something that's non-canonical because they feel like the emotional consequences of the stories will be rendered moot, which undermines audience investment in the stories and undermines verisimilitude.

That's a far better phrasing of my attitude than anything I ever came up with. Thanks, Sci.

(It's not that I won't read anything non-canonical. But I definitely have preference for Trek books that fit into the Marcokradiverse. The lack of emotional consequences is precisely why I didn't find Crucible fulfilling.)

Which, to be honest, is not something I can experience myself -- I found Crucible to be a powerful, emotionally moving experience all by itself, in the same way that I might find, say, The Once and Future King to be a powerful novel all by itself, without needing a sequel for it to fit with.

 

[Corran Horn]

I suspect that some people don't want to read something that's non-canonical because they feel like the emotional consequences of the stories will be rendered moot, which undermines audience investment in the stories and undermines verisimilitude.

That's a far better phrasing of my attitude than anything I ever came up with. Thanks, Sci.

(It's not that I won't read anything non-canonical. But I definitely have preference for Trek books that fit into the Marcokradiverse. The lack of emotional consequences is precisely why I didn't find Crucible fulfilling.)

Some people only have so much time and money. Would you rather read the next installment post-Typhon Pact (presuming you'd gotten the other ones), or a standalone TOS?

 

[Sho]

I really don't like this sort of PR campaign. It's creepy to think that enthusiastic fan support on the net may not be genuine but essentially bought by way of free swag. It's like they found a way to get away with astroturfing by just doing it out in the open.