2023 book releases

[F. King Daniel]

I'm still not over Pocket missing a huge trick in 2009, not re-releasing stuff like Final Frontier (because George Kirk) and Enterprise: The First Adventure (because this is how they came together the 1st time). It seemed like an obvious thing to do.

 

[tomswift2002]

I don't know about the latter, but used-book stores (I always spell it that way since it's the books that are used, not the bookstores) having trouble moving Trek books has been the case for decades, because there are just so darn many of them and a lot of the people who'd be interested in them already have them.

From what I’ve been told by some who’ve been in the used book business for years, they’ve never seen the sales as low as they are now. But they’ve also been finding that in general sci-Fi sales are at their lowest ever. Some of them have stopped taking Sci-Fi books altogether.

 

[drt]

From what I’ve been told by some who’ve been in the used book business for years, they’ve never seen the sales as low as they are now. But they’ve also been finding that in general sci-Fi sales are at their lowest ever. Some of them have stopped taking Sci-Fi books altogether.

Wow, that used to be the only thing they wanted.

I wonder if it's because scifi fans are more into computers, etc., so a larger percentage switched to e-readers and tablets.

 

[Christopher]

I wonder if it's because scifi fans are more into computers, etc., so a larger percentage switched to e-readers and tablets.

Plausible.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm still not over Pocket missing a huge trick in 2009, not re-releasing stuff like Final Frontier (because George Kirk) and Enterprise: The First Adventure (because this is how they came together the 1st time). It seemed like an obvious thing to do.

Same. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. @KRAD has pointed out -- not incorrectly -- when this has come up before, often by me, that the economy was melting down at precisely the moment Pocket could have put together a package like that together, and the Crucible collection didn't happen because of that (due to bookstores going super conservative with their orders), but it still feels like a missed opportunity.

 

[tomswift2002]

Wow, that used to be the only thing they wanted.

I wonder if it's because scifi fans are more into computers, etc., so a larger percentage switched to e-readers and tablets.

I don’t know, however, with all the controversy lately over publishers “updating” the wording in some books (I.e. the Roald Dahl controversy back in February), for some older books, the used physical market might be the only place to find those original “classic” books as the digital files will most likely be the “revised”.

 

[Jedi Ben]

Lately Star Wars has managed to fill the gap, so to speak, with trade paperback re-releases of their own discarded continuity novels with new cover art work. Seems like kind of a missed opportunity for Star Trek to not doing something similar with novels (maybe old TOS or TNG) that aren't impacted by the new shows (or even just adding the "Myriad Universes" label on ones that are, like Del Rey with their "Essential Legends" label). I'm sure there are probably good reasons why they aren't but I'd definitely re-buy some trade paperback reissues with new artwork. The MMPBs just don't hold up.

SW has been doing 4-5 books a year for the last few years. But it also has two companies doing the books:

- Del Rey handle the "adult" books, quotes as the term doesn't really fit.
- LFL Press handle the YA and Junior ranges.

Between them, they've put out a good amount of content.

 

[David cgc]

I've noticed eBooks are quietly revised and updated. I haven't seen a change-log accompanying them, but I've been prompted to download the updated version when I pull up an older book, and I've noticed certain typos and minor errors are no longer present when I revisit books later.

 

[Corran Horn]

I've noticed eBooks are quietly revised and updated. I haven't seen a change-log accompanying them, but I've been prompted to download the updated version when I pull up an older book, and I've noticed certain typos and minor errors are no longer present when I revisit books later.

kindles, at the very least, allow users to mark errors/typos and they're presumably reviewed somewhere.

 

[Ronald Held]

How would you find a change log for Trek Ebooks?

 

[mastadge]

For the academic crowd: A Different Trek: Radical Geographies of Deep Space Nine

This just shipped. Looking forward to reading it.

 

[JJMiller]

The suggestion that mass market paperbacks have been “replaced” by ebooks is misleading. In the late 2010s there was a sharp drop in MMPB sales due to the rise of ebooks, and following that supply-chain issues have dented their sales in because of the pandemic, but MMPBs sales have actually been climbing back up year on year. Their lower price point makes them appealing to certain genre readerships (romances and westerns are two good examples) and they retain popularity in markets outside the US. Arguably, MMPBs will probably never be as popular as they once were and ebooks have clearly consumed a good portion of their reader market share, but it’s incorrect to declare the format “dead”.

I'm not sure what the trends are overseas, but I can say that the U.S. mass-market paperback unit sales count dropped every year from 2013 to 2021, according to what I have seen from Bookscan. Dollars are down more.

 

[James Swallow]

I'm not sure what the trends are overseas, but I can say that the U.S. mass-market paperback unit sales count dropped every year from 2013 to 2021, according to what I have seen from Bookscan. Dollars are down more.

Yeah, even with the differences in UK/Euro/NZ/Aus markets compared to the US, even with any upticks, there's no denying that the glory days of MMPBs are past. I wonder if the format will 'level out' and find a niche where it'll hang on, like the way 'digest'-size magazines and comics still have their own place in the publishing ecosystem...

 

[drt]

I'm not sure what the trends are overseas, but I can say that the U.S. mass-market paperback unit sales count dropped every year from 2013 to 2021, according to what I have seen from Bookscan. Dollars are down more.

Interesting article.

It also has to be troubling to paperback publishers that half of the top ten MMPB (and four of the top five) in the bestsellers list are books that are most likely being assigned to kids to read. Those sales are most likely to be lost when more schools go completely digital.

 

[Eduardo]

Seems IDW is adding a "Day of Blood: Shaxs' Best Day" one shot to the crossover series:

https://twitter.com/TheTrekCentral/status/1666864627513163788

Edit:

“You’ve seen Captains Benjamin Sisko and Worf with their crews of the U.S.S. Theseus and Defiant stop the fascist, god-killing clone Kahless II from declaring war on non-followers across the galaxy in a brutal battle on Qo’noS. But you haven’t seen it from the eyes of the man, the myth, the legend, Lieutenant Junior Grade Shaxs!”​

The issue is written by Ryan North, who wrote the 2022 Star Trek: Lower Decks miniseries for IDW, with art by Derek Charm, North’s partner on the latter half of Marvel’s Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series. Charm and Robby Cook both provide covers.​

More info at: https://www.thepopverse.com/star-trek-shaxs-best-day-ryan-north-idw

 

[aventinelover]

Seems IDW is adding a "Day of Blood: Shaxs' Best Day" one shot to the crossover series:

https://twitter.com/TheTrekCentral/status/1666864627513163788

Edit:

“You’ve seen Captains Benjamin Sisko and Worf with their crews of the U.S.S. Theseus and Defiant stop the fascist, god-killing clone Kahless II from declaring war on non-followers across the galaxy in a brutal battle on Qo’noS. But you haven’t seen it from the eyes of the man, the myth, the legend, Lieutenant Junior Grade Shaxs!”​

The issue is written by Ryan North, who wrote the 2022 Star Trek: Lower Decks miniseries for IDW, with art by Derek Charm, North’s partner on the latter half of Marvel’s Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series. Charm and Robby Cook both provide covers.​

More info at: https://www.thepopverse.com/star-trek-shaxs-best-day-ryan-north-idw

HURRAY!! Shaxs is one of The Best characters to come out of the latest Treks!! LOTS to explore with him!!

 

[Markonian]

Shaxs is a furry and it’s canon.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Seems IDW is adding a "Day of Blood: Shaxs' Best Day" one shot to the crossover series:

Every time something about Shaxs' Best Day crossed my desk at work the last two weeks -- the solicitation copy, the covers -- I have busted up laughing. I am in. I am so in.

 

[GaryH]

We have a Seven Of Nine flashback Picard Novel in Feb 2024…

[URL]https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1668046350/ref=sr_1_1?crid=27I0QWJQ9QV49&keywords=Star+Trek+Picard+firewall&qid=1686492883&sprefix=star+trek+picard+firewall%2Caps%2C204&sr=8-1

[/URL]
Two years after the USS Voyager’s return from the Delta Quadrant, Seven of Nine finds herself rejected for a position in Starfleet…and instead finds a new home with the interstellar rogue law enforcement corps known as the Fenris Rangers. The Rangers seem like an ideal fit for Seven—but to embrace this new destiny, she must leave behind all she’s ever known, and risk losing the most important thing in her life: her friendship with Admiral Kathryn Janeway.

 

[ryan123450]

Amazing news! Hopefully this is the start of things getting back on track. And with the subject and author that I’d most love to see!