In Germany 16€ is just two bucks more than standard price for Trek books.
2018 Releases
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So far it seems as if Discovery is getting the Trade Paperback treatment vs the Mass-Market treatment for the other series. Of course I guess that if these were Hardcover, the price would probably be near $40 US/$50 CAN.
How much is a movie ticket these days? $8-10? Plus whatever you spend on transportation and concessions? A typical novel contains maybe twice as much story as a movie.
The thing is, mass-market paperback prices haven't gone up in over a dozen years, so their price is actually disproportionately low. If their price had gone up as much in the past 12 years as they had in the 12 years before that, they'd be $11.60 by now. So $16 for a trade paperback hardly seems unreasonable -- especially considering that it's the same price Pocket has charged for TPBs for the past decade. Hardly "out of control."
To be fair, I've got quite a backlog to catch up on so as long as they come back eventually, actually doing me a favour...
So if the license is still in negotiation, consider we’re almost half way through December 2017, we may not see a new book until 2019/2020.
The process can be expedited when necessary -- for instance, Alan Dean Foster's novelization of the '09 Star Trek film was put together in just a few months.
Although that's obviously based on a pre-existing idea (even if it's just the script rather than the film itself). Is it common for Trek writers to have ideas waiting to go, or basic premises to draw upon when needed, etc rather than starting from scratch when a commision is confirmed?
It's true that a novelization can be written fairly quickly, since the screenwriters have already done most of the heavy lifting, but it's possible to write an original novel in thirty days or so. I've done it a few times! As for getting an outline approved, that can take awhile or be fast-tracked, depending on the circumstances.
Speaking only for myself, while I might have some high-concept ideas for future novels bouncing around in my head, or even some brief notes I quickly jotted down somewhere so I could revisit them, that's as far as I'll take it until I'm ready to prepare a formal pitch, or else I'm contracted to submit something.
When one is used to $7.99 or a little less for a new Star Trek eBook, $16.99 is expensive. Think about it. What is special about the this Discovery book as an eBook vs other eBooks? The answer is nothing. It’s made the same, the container is the same, and the content could maybe be less than other eBooks. So as far as eBooks go, yes it is expensive.
The point is, the fact that you're still used to $7.99 books after a dozen years means you should count your blessings. Compared to what most forms of entertainment cost these days, $16.99 for a novel's worth of content is closer to the norm (e.g. about twice a movie ticket for about two movies' worth of content). It's the $7.99 that's the exception to the pattern.
I certainly get where you're coming from, but at the same time a movie is a highly collaborative process involving hundreds (if not thousands for Hollywood productions) of people working on the same project. As much as I like to support my favourite authors and local high street book shops, and realise that there is obviously a whole team of editors, publishers etc who work towards publishing the book, the cost to produce it won't be twice that of a movie. (especially in terms of marketing and distribution).
I also get that tie in fiction is more of a niche market and so publishing a hardback a year before paperback isn't always viable, but I don't understand why the Discovery books are printed in just a bigger paperback version.
I'll admit I'm not an expert, but I've seen quite a few people put off by this, and would think they'd make more money and sell more copies by having more people spending less (on a book that's surely also cheaper to produce and distribute)?
Trades are still seen as more of a prestige format than MMPB, and so since Discovery is the new show they apparently see them as a bigger deal and worth of the format.
Hell, some ebook versions of making of/art books I've seen are around $30.
As long as I'm paying for the same thing as the paper book I don't mind paying the same price.
Trekcore has posted an article about the lack of books next year, which does include some of the comments made here.
The majority of the time the ebooks are the are around the same price as the paper version. Sometimes there might be a bit of a difference, but usually it's not more than $5, for instance Amazon has the hardcover version of Star Wars: Leia, Princess of Alderaan is $11.33 for the hardcover and $10.99 for the e-book, and Star Wars: Canto Bight is $14.99 for the ebook and $17.00 for the hardcover.
Hell, some ebook versions of making of/art books I've seen are around $30.
As long as I'm paying for the same thing as the paper book I don't mind paying the same price.
Trekcore has posted an article about the lack of books next year, which does include some of the comments made here.
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I seem to recall reading on Amazon when looking at ebooks, they sometimes say ‘the price has been set by the publisher’.
Since paper copies are usually discounted that could explain why sometimes the ebook is more expensive than the paper version.
Since paper copies are usually discounted that could explain why sometimes the ebook is more expensive than the paper version.
I wouldn't be totally shocked if the ST books were trade paperback-only when they come back in 2018 or 2019. The publishing industry has been moving away from mass market paperbacks for years now. Recently Stephen King's publisher confirmed that they were phasing out the mass market editions of many of his books. Trade paperbacks are a higher-margin format, so they're much more appealing to publishers. E-books have become the new mass market format.
Again, I don't know if this is likely, but it would not be a huge surprise, as it seems to be the way the industry is moving:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw...mass-market-dying-or-just-evolving-again.html
Again, I don't know if this is likely, but it would not be a huge surprise, as it seems to be the way the industry is moving:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw...mass-market-dying-or-just-evolving-again.html
That's my shelf neatness out of the window then....
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