2018 Releases

[Damian]

I hope you are right. I'm just speculating. Frankly I've been nervous at the lack of any info on new novel releases. I was thinking, what if that's it? What if Pocketbooks and CBS just wants out of the novel business--or what if they just want to focus on Discovery and leave the other series to history now. It seems at least twice a week I'm checking Memory Alpha to see if there are any updates on their upcoming productions page.

 

[Christopher]

What if Pocketbooks and CBS just wants out of the novel business--or what if they just want to focus on Discovery and leave the other series to history now.

As stated, if either of those were the case, it would already be known. The lack of announcement presumably means that negotiations are underway but not yet finalized. There'd be no need to negotiate the ending of a license -- it would simply have been allowed to expire.

 

[ryan123450]

I’m guessing what this all boils down to is dealing with Bad Robot. We know they weren’t an easy fit for a relationship with Pocket originally and now that they are definitely part of the new deal, that’s probably what is making this time more difficult than past contract renewals.

 

[RonG]

As stated, if either of those were the case, it would already be known. The lack of announcement presumably means that negotiations are underway but not yet finalized. There'd be no need to negotiate the ending of a license -- it would simply have been allowed to expire.

But would that be the case if CBS (or any rights holder) wants to bring in a new licensee (such as Titan books)?
wouldn't a formal announcement be required, at least to investors, etc?

 

[Christopher]

But would that be the case if CBS (or any rights holder) wants to bring in a new licensee (such as Titan books)?
wouldn't a formal announcement be required, at least to investors, etc?

If that were the case, then I and the other writers would probably have heard about it by now, and I've heard nothing of the sort.

 

[RonG]

If that were the case, then I and the other writers would probably have heard about it by now, and I've heard nothing of the sort.

at the very least, that's good to know. Thanks Christopher!

 

[Damian]

That makes me feel a bit better. Also good to know they are trying to bring Bad Robot on board. I can't help but notice we are closing in on TNG, Titan and DS9 to 2387, when Romulus is supposed to be destroyed according to Star Trek (2009). I'm curious how that will play out in the novel universe, esp. since Romulus is a key ally in the Typhon Pact. Though I'm still disappointed that there will be few books to start off next year. There was a nice mix of novels the last 2 or 3 years, with the original series, TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise all represented, along with Titan. I'd like to see that continue, along with more Seeker books and I'd love to see the continuation of New Frontier. I also enjoyed the last DS9-Gamma book and would love to see more for that, and the last Enterprise book was good as well, there's still lots of stories to tell there.

 

[Reanok]

I went to Amazon.com to check for new Star Trek novels another Discovery book is listed The Light of Kahless by Mike Johnson coming out May 8,.2018 another large Trade paperback for 14.70 on their site. There are n't any new updates about the other Star trek book series but at least there a new book listed. It looks like 2018 is mostly Discovery books right now.

 

[David Weller]

I went to Amazon.com to check for new Star Trek novels another Discovery book is lister The Light of Kahless by Mike Johnson coming out May 8.2018 another large Trade paperback for 14.70 on their site. There are n't any updates about the other book series but at least there a new book listed.

I believe that is a collected edition of the comics from IDW

 

[Reanok]

That's what I thought too I know Mike does Star trek comics for IDW.

 

[Defcon]

Yes, that's a comic trade paperback which has been listed on Amazon for a quite a while already.

 

[JD]

I was wondering, is it possible the S&S just don't find printing Star Trek books all that profitable anymore. It's sad to think, I love reading all the Star Trek novels. I find it interesting that even this year, there were a few times there were no Star Trek books. Is it possible S&S was just fulfilling their final contracts? Maybe they'll just release 2 or 3 Discovery books a year while the show runs and that's it. I'd hate to think that is the case, that I read my last TNG, DS9 and Enterprise books. There's still a VOY book out there but that's basically a holdover (plus one more after that, but who knows if that ever gets printed at this point). David Mack is one of the more prolific writers and I see in none of his posts any Star Trek books in the pipeline.

One other point in favor the books continuing that no on else mentioned is the fact that several of the books from the last few years have made it on to bestsellers lists, so they have been selling pretty well in the last five years or so at least.

If that were the case, they'd drop the license and that would already be public knowledge. It has been confirmed they are renegotiating, therefore Trek novels are profitable enough.

There are various reasons for that. Kirsten Beyer's involvement with Discovery meant her Voyager novel got postponed a few times, and Discovery itself getting postponed meant David Mack's tie-in got moved around the schedule.

IIRC, he's got his own original novel series in the works now.

Yeah he choose to focus on Dark Arts, his historical/modern(ish) fantasy series. The first book, The Midnight Front, will be out in January.

I’m guessing what this all boils down to is dealing with Bad Robot. We know they weren’t an easy fit for a relationship with Pocket originally and now that they are definitely part of the new deal, that’s probably what is making this time more difficult than past contract renewals.

I've had this thought too. We know they were the ones who stopped the Kelvinverse novels that Pocket had set to come out after the first movie, so I could see them being a bit harder deal with than CBS has been.

 

[The Wormhole]

IIRC, there's been bad blood between Pocket Books and Bad Robot related to Pocket's tie-in novels for Alias, which has allegedly been a factor in the restrictions placed on the Kelvin timeline for the novels, despite the fact that everyone else is allowed to cover it. Even Titan Books was able cover stuff from the Abrams movies in the autobiographies of Kirk and Picard (much more so in Picard's).

 

[Greg Cox]

IIRC, there's been bad blood between Pocket Books and Bad Robot related to Pocket's tie-in novels for Alias, which has allegedly been a factor in the restrictions placed on the Kelvin timeline for the novels, despite the fact that everyone else is allowed to cover it.

That may be so, but I wrote three of those ALIAS books and I don't remember any issues at all. From where I was sitting at least, the Bad Robot people were always a pleasure to work with. Outlines and mss. were approved easily, with only minimal (and quite reasonable) changes, and Bad Robot took pains to keep me up-to-date on coming events on the TV show, even sending me advance copies of the TV scripts.

If there was "bad blood" between Pocket and Bad Robot regarding those books, this is news to me. It certainly didn't percolate down to me on the writer level. Creatively, the process always went very smoothly and the folks at Bad Robot were nothing but helpful and cooperative.

EDIT: It's perhaps worth noting as well that none of STAR TREK editors--Marco, Margaret, Ed--had anything to do with the ALIAS books That was a whole other department with a completely different staff.

 

[Damian]

I had heard that the Abramsverse novels got pulled primarily because they weren't sure where they were going with the next movie. Sometime after STID came out, one, or maybe even two of the authors that wrote the books said their novels would not have worked based on STID, one would have required basically a totally new story. I'm not sure why Pocketbooks hasn't tried again. I remember reading at one point that the issue has to do more with CBS vs. Paramount, since Paramount owns the movie rights, as opposed to Bad Robot or Pocketbooks being the problem. I find it interesting that there was never a novel for Star Trek Beyond.

 

[Christopher]

I had heard that the Abramsverse novels got pulled primarily because they weren't sure where they were going with the next movie. Sometime after STID came out, one, or maybe even two of the authors that wrote the books said their novels would not have worked based on STID, one would have required basically a totally new story.

No, the one has nothing to do with the other. I did say that about my novel, but I never, ever suggested it was the reason for the cancellation. It was something I said years after the cancellation in response to wishful musings about whether the books might someday be un-cancelled -- basically just a way of saying "Don't hold your breath."

Besides, the theory doesn't make a lick of sense. If it had been a matter of continuity, we could've just rewritten the books. And plenty of Trek books have been published and then gotten contradicted by new movies or episodes anyway.

 

[Defcon]

Well, one theory making the rounds back then was that Bad Robot wanted more direct creative control over the whole novel line (even going so far to demand to stop all non-Kelvin timeline novels) than Pocket Books was willing to give them.

 

[The Wormhole]

I'm not sure why Pocketbooks hasn't tried again.

That's because they don't have the rights to the movies, which they are now negotiating.

I find it interesting that there was never a novel for Star Trek Beyond.

The story I heard was that Alan Dean Foster was contracted to do a novelization, but backed out because of constant script revisions being sent to him saying that had to be the script he based the novel on.

Well, one theory making the rounds back then was that Bad Robot wanted more direct creative control over the whole novel line (even going so far to demand to stop all non-Kelvin timeline novels) than Pocket Books was willing to give them.

That one never made sense to me, considering they're okay with IDW continuing non-Kelvin timeline comics.

 

[Damian]

two different things I heard. I should have been more clear. I had heard at the time that it was Paramount who wanted them pulled, and then I read your comments about your book probably a year or so after they were already pulled. The main point I wanted to make was that I had heard Paramount was the main stumbling block, not Bad Robot, or even Pocketbooks. I remember reading comments from Bob Orci on another site that he was disappointed they were pulled. Since he was part of the Abrams team, if Bad Robot had blocked them somehow he wouldn't have been disappointed.

 

[Damian]

Sorry, my computer hiccupped on me and I lost part of my comment. I started off that I was sorry, that I combined two different things I heard. I read about Christopher's comments significantly later about his book, so that had nothing to do with them being pulled. It was after the fact.