2018 Releases
- Thread starter aventinelover
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Yeah, it's starting to look more like other than the Discovery and Voyager books, there may not be many books at all in 2018 for S&S. You figure, even once the contract is signed and completed, they have to figure out what books they want to do and the authors have to write them. I imagine that takes some time, not only to write the book but go through editing, publishing, and just production. Even if they signed a deal today, I would guess any new books unannounced would at least take until late in the year to get on the shelves.
Well JMO it's getting more puzzling as the days go by why a company which supposedly wants to make money from publishing Star Trek books, or any other kinds, would be taking this long to get a new agreement done to publish said books that it might be a year before new product can get on the market. (Besides a few exceptions, Voyager delayed novel(s) and Discovery, of course.) Now naturally the company in question has other types of books to make hopeful profits from, but the various reasons proffered here for this continued delay not withstanding, it appears that Star Trek books might not be of that great importance to TPTB in charge of making this new contract happen, otherwise seems it could get done in a timely enough manner. Does S&S want to publish new Trek novels or not?
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That's a nagging fear of mine about S&S, that they just decide to bag the novels, maybe put out some Discovery novels and maybe some original series books here and there, but jettison TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise (and their associated series) lines. I know others have said my fears are unfounded, including some authors. They have said a number of times that won't happen....but, this does seem unusual. Even this year there were some missed months (some of that is due to the delays to Discovery and to Beyer's Voyager book), and there was obviously the missed months when the Abramsverse novels were pulled (though that was a specific issue). This is the first time I can remember since the 80's frankly that there have been multiple months without any Star Trek novels. What is it about this particular negotiation that is causing the delay? I don't recall this ever being an issue in the past. I figure Discovery will have a market since it is new, and the original series will always have a market I'd imagine.
But are the spinoff series profitable for S&S? Does DS9, or Voyager, make enough money from their novels that Pocketbooks continues to produce them? I honestly don't know. I know I buy them, but are others in significant numbers still reading them? It's not much to go buy but when I go into Barnes and Noble sometimes I see the same Star Trek books on the shelf waiting for homes months, sometimes years after they were released. Should I be concerned about that?
But are the spinoff series profitable for S&S? Does DS9, or Voyager, make enough money from their novels that Pocketbooks continues to produce them? I honestly don't know. I know I buy them, but are others in significant numbers still reading them? It's not much to go buy but when I go into Barnes and Noble sometimes I see the same Star Trek books on the shelf waiting for homes months, sometimes years after they were released. Should I be concerned about that?
Have you actually been reading what people are posting? Dayton has already explained twice what is causing the delay.
It's also worth keeping in mind that these kinds of business deals tend to be pretty complicated, especially when you have as many different companies involved as you would for something like Star Trek. If Pocket was done with Star Trek we probably would have heard about it by now and someone else probably would have already picked it up.
It's also worth keeping in mind that these kinds of business deals tend to be pretty complicated, especially when you have as many different companies involved as you would for something like Star Trek. If Pocket was done with Star Trek we probably would have heard about it by now and someone else probably would have already picked it up.
There's also the english translations of the Prometheus books.
Yes, have been reading the various reasons mentioned here about the longer as time goes on and on delay, that was referred to in my recent post, if was noticed. PS And of course as we know the English language Prometheus novels are not being published by Gallery/ Pocket Books.
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As Dayton already explained, the delay was largely due to a change of leadership higher up in the company. That wasn't about Star Trek specifically, it was something that caused delays companywide, with the impact on the ST license just being a side effect. That combined with the added complexity of this particular Trek license renewal (thanks to the negotiations to include Kelvin and Discovery stuff) to make the renewal process extra-long. Nobody wanted it to take that long, but circumstances conspired to slow it down.
Anyway, publishing is a slow-paced industry. It typically takes a year or two from the acquisition of a book to its publication. So people in the business are used to things progressing slowly. A delay of a year is not a cataclysmic thing in this industry.
Huh? No, just the opposite. If a book isn't selling well, it will be returned or discarded to make room on the shelves for other books. If a book is still on the shelves after years, that would indicate that it's still selling strongly enough for the store to keep it in circulation.
I don’t think the Discovery novel is relevant as it was a Gallery TPB and not part of the Pocket MMPB schedule.
When the Titan novel comes out later this month there will have been nine MMPBs published in 2017.
The gaps are May, August and December which were the months when the Voyager novel was originally scheduled and then rescheduled.
Being optimistic, that may mean that there are two completed novels waiting to be announced. (Those originality planned for the end of 2017,)
Ok, ok, you've convinced me. I guess part of it is just disappointment that 2018 appears like it's going to be a bit dry in the book department. I guess I've gotten used to my monthly Star Trek fix. Glad to hear about books remaining on the shelves being a good thing. One I remember seeing just recently was Mack's Cold Equation books, which are probably the oldest I've seen at the store recently. I was thinking, uh-oh, why are they still here...but apparently that's a good thing.
Well, as I mentioned last month in this thread, these days "Pocket Books" is just the name of Gallery Books' mass-market imprint anyway. So, yeah, a TPB isn't part of the MMPB schedule, but the difference in imprint names is essentially meaningless.
As noted before, twice now, and the first time even quoted, HAVE read all the reasons for now it appears that the new Trek novels contract(s) seem to be dragging on, and appreciate those who are trying to explain what's causing the longer as each day passes without an announcement delay. But if the new leadership permits perhaps no really new Trek novels, with the exception of Discovery, for maybe a year, which isn't a usual happening, then seems readers still might wonder what's up. We're the consumers and to us no new product for a fairly (as we see it) long time for after years of reliable availability, for whatever various reasons, is not something to be overlooked without some concern.
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That's positing a cause and effect that doesn't exist. The only Discovery novels upcoming within the next year are those that were commissioned under the previous contract. Remember that Discovery's premiere was delayed repeatedly, so the books are coming out later than originally expected. As far as the new license negotiations are concerned, there is absolutely no reason to believe that Discovery is being treated differently from any other series. As Dayton said already, a licensor doesn't do separate negotiations for each series, but negotiates for all the series it wants to license at the same time. It's a single contract, it's just taking a frustratingly long time.
I am well aware of that.
Just pointing out that, IMO, the delay in publishing the Discovery novel was not responsible for the gaps in the MMPB schedule this year.
I see what David is getting at. We here were made aware of the behind the scenes footwork being done with future novels regarding contracts and licensing. But there may be novel fans out there who just don't know (I didn't know until I just happened upon this website a few weeks ago, and I've been a Trekkie for years). There will probably be fans that don't see many books for a while and may figure, oh, well, I guess they aren't doing Star Trek novels anymore. Now the hope is once new books start appearing again they'll be back. But still, you take the chance of losing some consumers if they lose interest.
In fact, when you do a search about future Star Trek novels on the internet, there is precious little information elsewhere. This is the only, and I mean the only site that I saw that had any information at all. Their is obviously nothing official and even other fan run Star Trek sites have nothing at all, not even speculation.
So OK the next Discovery novel isn't a really new one either, well that just means perhaps unless there's an announcement soon, and I truly hope there is, there might be NO actual new Star Trek novels in 2018 unless maybe later in the year (though the average reader might not know the DSC & VOY novels aren't from a new contract which could be a positive), so that seems an even worse imagined scenario. (Though guess producing a Gallery trade novel might not take a year, those seem to get done quicker.) Even so, with all the reasons cited, having no really new announced Trek novels for a year IS unusual. And all the explanations cited for that occurrence don't change what appears not to be happening, yet.
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One thing Pocket might conceivably do is to reprint older novels. When the Kelvin-timeline novels we did were cancelled in 2010, it left a 4-month gap in the schedule, and Pocket filled one of the vacant slots with a reprint of Nightshade, an old TNG novel written by Laurell K. Hamilton before she became hugely successful with her original fiction. I'm not sure there are other authors whose names would sell reprint books in that way, but there might be other ways of selecting older books to reprint. Maybe books that have some vague connection to Discovery's characters and time frame could be reprinted -- say, Sarek, Vulcan's Forge, The Final Reflection, things along those lines. But I'm just speculating, of course.
Yeah, until there is an announcement regarding the novel line all discussion here is pretty repetitive.
Either Pocket will continue or it will not continue, and I'm pretty certain how often the same infos and arguments are exchanged here will have about zero influence on that ...
Either Pocket will continue or it will not continue, and I'm pretty certain how often the same infos and arguments are exchanged here will have about zero influence on that ...
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