So with the Trekcollective no longer up to date, I'm wondering what, if any, new books/e-books are coming out in March/April/May, or where to check. I looked through the Amazon listings but they're not in order and I know David Mack's Discovery novel is now bumped back because the series is delayed, so are we going to go a few months without any new titles coming out?
I'd say the best place to get this info currently is Defcon's blog. http://defcons-treklit.blogspot.de/p/blog-page.html?m=1 As far as we know there's not going to be a May novel at all. Honestly there's not much info to go on. Pocket really needs a better system of reaching out to us with info and announcements. It's honestly pretty unprofessional the way they do things considering the current social media age that other companies have embraced. ETA: I just looked threw their Twitter for the entire month of Feb. One hundred and nine tweets about steamy romance novels. TWO tweets about Star Trek. And they weren't even very interesting. Just reminders that The Long Mirage comes out this week.
StarTrek.com has started doing more stories about Trek books. They usually post the cover and blurb after they first come out, and then again when it's released. It is still a shame that Trek hasn't really embraced their books the same way Star Wars has. StarWars.com is constantly doing stories related to the books. As for a release calendar there's also Memory Beta.
Yes Star Wars is basically what I'm comparing things to. They have a stellar social media team and really treat their books as big events. Pocket's treatment of Trek books is pretty dismal in comparison.
From the looks of things, in addition to a dry-spell in May, nothing for August, and nothing listed for November or December, though it may be a bit early to see them listed.
I would say that both CBS and Paramount's treatment of tie-ins for Trek is pretty abysmal. Especially when you see in the ice cream aisle Star Wars popsicles. Why no Star Trek popsicles?
So I am not that up to date on the pace at which Pocket comes out with new material. I took a long break from reading trek novels and there is a lot to catch up on, I can tell you that much. . When I stopped reading, years ago, the number of new publications wasn't two per month, but the average had to be something like 15-16 a year. I'm just wondering if the May gap and the potential gaps in the fall are something new? Or have their been other "open" months? Peace, JB
I think there might've been a gap left when the Abramsverse novels were cancelled? That was a while ago so I can't remember for certain. But other than that, I can't think of any anytime recently, no.
Yeah, this is the first time since 2010 we've had any months with no publications at all. Well, 2011 did have a couple of months without new content but they had reprints issued then, so there was still some presence.
Yeah, I believe they pulled other novels in from further on during the year to fill most of the gap, and reprinted a really old novel (possibly Mission to Horatius?) to compensate that time. I suspect there were due to be more Discovery novels, aside from the one we already knew was pushed back, and they don't have much in the way of back-catalogue. Memory Beta does show two as-yet-unscheduled non-DSC novels for 2018 though nothing that looks likely to be a 2017 release.
May does have a TNG book coming out. I should also point out that publishing dates are fluid and change constantly, which is why we see so many non-specific release dates. It's really up to the author as to when a book gets released. The publisher does set the deadline, but it's not a hard-coded set deadline. Edits, storyline changes, and illness are just three things that can change the publish date.
When people say "the May book", they mean the book that would be coming out at the tail end of April, because that's how publishers speak of them. There is no May book because that was when the first Discovery tie-in was going to come out to be released alongside Discovery itself. As far as I know, for Star Trek it is a hard-set deadline barring extreme external circumstances like what happened for Discovery's release date. The authors here can confirm or deny this, but that's how it's always sounded to me when people have spoken about Trek book release dates. Maybe it's different in other tie-in lines. @Greg Cox, can you speak to that from the editorial side? Because that doesn't sound right at all.
Not so with Star Trek novels. For the past twelve years there has almost always been a new paperback novel (or re-print) released the last Tuesday of every month, with the only exceptions until now being the four month gap in 2010 where the Kelvin Timeline novels were supposed to go.
I suspect May was left open to leave room for the Discovery novel since that was supposed to premiere then but has since been pushed back.
Well originally it was the next Voyager novel but that was delayed because of Discovery production. The Discovery novel was supposed to be a bonus.