2022 book releases

[Mage]

Exactly. The last time I was fully caught up on everything Trek was July 2002, when I was doing a 2.5-hour commute twice a day. I ended up in a new job walking distance from my house - nd my now-towering "to read" pile has grown ever since.

During Sydney's last 106-day Covid Lockdown, the only "reading" I could force myself to do was serialising the "Coda" audiobooks while I attempted to replicate the content of my PT sessions, since I was banned from attending in person. Covid restrictions had slowed book arrivals, so downloading my Amazon Prime complimentary audiobooks was a godsend. (The good news, my fitness didn't go backwards and my PT was proud!)

I would like to point out, another reason I am very behind with the novels is money. After my divorce...
Well, three years ago my significant other and I broke up. She ended it. We weren't married, but bought a house together (loved that paperwork) and were trying to get pregnant. So yeah, I call it a divorce.
Anyway, money was tight so I couldn't really buy the books. They also got more expense, going from an average 8-9 euro to maybe 16. I've got a new job now and can afford a little more, but buying and reading everything is a bit daunting now. I already missed some books before the break up, and some I can't find anymore.

 

[mastadge]

I actually had more time to read last year -- just less energy to do so. Ended up reading less than usual despite having resources like time and money.

And as far as sales, it's really interesting because the collector's market exploded last year as some people were stuck at home with, apparently, more disposable income than usual -- and others jumping in hoping to profit on those with the income. I enjoy beautiful small press books occasionally, and the market has really gone wonky in the last couple year -- books sell out immediately, and are listed at multiple times retail price for resale even before they're released sometimes. Apparently similar things have happened in other collector's markets like cars. It's been very frustrating as a consumer who enjoys beautiful books occasionally but isn't interested in playing stressful games each time one's released, or competing with speculators to get one at retail price.

 

[SurvivorJoe]

I actually had more time to read last year -- just less energy to do so. Ended up reading less than usual despite having resources like time and money.

I can so relate to that. When the pandemic first started, I figured we were looking at a pretty significant new-Trek drought for quite awhile, what with all the productions shut down. I was working from home but less hours, so I figured it would be the *perfect* time to really dive-in to the Trek litverse. I even had this grand plan of digging out my old "Junior Astronomer" star projector from when I was a kid (still works!) and listening to some of the Trek audiobooks while laying under the "stars". I never ended up doing that even once. I'm only just now finally getting around to reading some Trek literature, which is insane because with Christmas and my job getting back to normal, I'm busier than I've been in years.

Apparently similar things have happened in other collector's markets like cars.

Yeah, I do TV commercials and one of our clients is a big local automotive dealer, and they haven't done any television advertising for months because they said every car they get in is already sold by the time it comes off the truck, so they have no inventory to advertise.

 

[Markonian]

Coming back to books, with only PIC announced, it looks like we will only have 1 Trek novel in 2022. I guess some tie-in fiction just can't thrive when the on-screen franchise flourishes.

 

[Brendan Moody]

I doubt the Picard novel will be the only book in 2022. There may not be many more— David Mack talked in a recent interview about the line being down to six books a year— but I imagine the reason we haven’t heard about anything else is that the releases are clustered nearer the end of the calendar year, as was the case in 2021.

 

[Reanok]

I hope we get a few novels besides the Picard Raffi novel.Even if we only get six books next year.

 

[The Wormhole]

ut I imagine the reason we haven’t heard about anything else is that the releases are clustered nearer the end of the calendar year, as was the case in 2021.

Indeed. With only planned for 2022, that means there's only five others planned for the year. IIRC, no publisher has announced anything after July yet. As it turns out, after July there are exactly five months left of the year, meaning the remaining releases will likely be in August through to December. Which isn't too different from 2021's lineup, The Dark Veil was out in January, then nothing until May and from there on there was a monthly release for the rest of the year.

 

[mastadge]

I wonder, with the line being down to six books a year -- how they decided on, presumably, 1 book in Q1-2 and then roughly monthly in the second half of the year. I wonder if that decision was built around the release timeline of the shows, or whether books tend to sell better in the summer and into the holidays than in the first half of the year, or whether it just kind of worked out that way based on writer's contracts and deadlines and so forth this year and they'll try to get it to a more regular schedule going forward.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I wouldn’t be surprised if pandemic production issues are also a factor - fewer books on the schedule to hedge against resource scarcity, maybe.

I mean, it’s speculation on my part, but that feels like something to keep in mind as well.

 

[Elwro]

(I don't understand why we can't get a few ebook novellas...)

 

[The Wormhole]

I wouldn’t be surprised if pandemic production issues are also a factor - fewer books on the schedule to hedge against resource scarcity, maybe.

I mean, it’s speculation on my part, but that feels like something to keep in mind as well.

Personally, I'm not going to be surprised if six novels a year becomes the standard from here on. It's roughly what other franchises do.

(I don't understand why we can't get a few ebook novellas...)

Have there even been any Trek e-book exclusives since the 2018 gap year? I would speculate e-book exclusives just aren't all that profitable given books are one form of media where the physical rivall the digital in sales. Indeed, everyone else who has done e-book exclusives seem to be moving away from that and most of them have made print editions of their e-book exclusives anyway.

 

[Elwro]

Well, it would seem to me that if physical-object-supply-chain-problems were really an important issue in why we're not getting as many publications as we'd like, going digital would at least take care of that...

 

[Christopher]

Indeed, everyone else who has done e-book exclusives seem to be moving away from that and most of them have made print editions of their e-book exclusives anyway.

Well, that's a shame, if it's true. E-book exclusives were perfect for the novella format, which there aren't many markets for anymore in print.

 

[The Wormhole]

Well, it would seem to me that if physical-object-supply-chain-problems were really an important issue in why we're not getting as many publications as we'd like, going digital would at least take care of that...

The common argument I hear against e-book exclusives as a solution to the current shortages is, they still have to spend the same amount of money regardless, so why limit the potential sales opportunities by only making it available to fifty percent of the market?

 

[Elwro]

The same amount of money? Without, you know, producing the actual physical books and paying for their distribution?

To be frank, I also don't see the point regarding the 'limiting of potential sales'. The sad current default is that no novellas are published. I'm not sure why publishing a few in ebook form would limit their potential sales :-)

 

[Ronald Held]

Broken record poster still wants a TOS novel, maybe from Christopher?

 

[Greg Cox]

The same amount of money? Without, you know, producing the actual physical books and paying for their distribution?

Those costs are just a small fraction of the cost of producing a book. You still have to pay the author, the editor, the copyeditor, the proofreader, the book designer, the cover artist, etc. The PP&B (paper, printing, and binding) costs are not where most of the expenses come from.

When you buy a book, you're not mainly paying for the paper and ink. You're paying for the labor of many individuals. And, in the case of STAR TREK novels, the cost of licensing the rights from CBS in the first place.

(Speaking as an author, I would not look kindly on being paid less money for the same amount of work -- just because it's "only an ebook.")

 

[Enterpriserules]

David talked a bit about this in the latest Literary Treks, they are down to 6 books a year so I think we'll get maybe 3 that tie into the series out now, a TOS book, TNG book and maybe one of the other series. The books will be inside the series again like they were before the litverse started.

 

[Brendan Moody]

Often overlooked in discussing ebook vs print costs is that the added costs of print don’t stop at paper, ink, and binding; warehousing, shipping, and returns are a decent chunk of change as well. But ironically they’re also the reason you don’t see ebooks priced lower. Even if you could make the same profit on a digital copy at a lower price, you’d be running the risk of undermining the salesflow of the print run.

In theory digital-only titles could bypass that calculation, but in practice it doesn’t seem to be happening or publishers would be doing more of them. I suspect that digital-only releases just don’t get the kind of visibility that would allow them to offset the creative-side costs (writer, editor, etc.) being the same as on a title you could sell to the print market.

 

[Christopher]

Often overlooked in discussing ebook vs print costs is that the added costs of print don’t stop at paper, ink, and binding; warehousing, shipping, and returns are a decent chunk of change as well.

Not that much, necessarily. If the print run is large enough, then economies of scale kick in and those physical costs only account for pennies per copy.