Classic Trek book reprints: 2020

[Willsky7]

So I was browsing bookdepository.com today and came across something strange. It looks like they are taking pre orders for reprints of many older Star Trek books. They will be published by titan books apparently. I tried to find out if this is confirmed or what's going on but can't find any information on it. Has anyone else heard anything about this.

This is the link for "Vulcan's Glory" but there were many other books I saw.

https://www.bookdepository.com/Vulcans-Glory-D-C-Fontana/9781852860981?ref=grid-view

 

[JD]

Hmm that is odd. Although it is just a reprint, so I doubt this has anything to do with the contract negotiations for the new books.

 

[Willsky7]

Hmm that is odd. Although it is just a reprint, so I doubt this has anything to do with the contract negotiations for the new books.

Well I thought that Simon and Schuster had the rights to them. They did do a reprint of vulcans glory and a couple other older books for the 40th anniversary. And they released most of the old booked as e books. So I'm kinda suspicious, but titan has always published the Star Trek books in the U.K. And book depository is based out of the U.K., so that might be it. But it is still a little strange, especially since you can pre order them 2 years in advance.

 

[tomswift2002]

Well I thought that Simon and Schuster had the rights to them. They did do a reprint of vulcans glory and a couple other older books for the 40th anniversary. And they released most of the old booked as e books. So I'm kinda suspicious, but titan has always published the Star Trek books in the U.K. And book depository is based out of the U.K., so that might be it. But it is still a little strange, especially since you can pre order them 2 years in advance.

Technically CBS owns the stories. If you look at the copyright page for any Trek book, the copyright belongs to CBS (or for the pre-2006 books, Paramount, and for pre-1968 books, Desilu). Simon & Schuster just licenses the right to write and publish books based on the different series, and in only in certain markets. Over the past two years it’s been pointed out how Cross Cult got permission from CBS to write and publish the “Prometheus” trilogy in German (and the story even maintains continuity with S&S’s line, and the trilogy was referenced in the Prey trilogy), and then Simon & Schuster had the option to pick up the English rights, but passed, so Titan picked up the English rights and currently has book 1 out with 2 coming in may and 3 in November. So it is CBS that controls who gets to print what, not Simon & Schuster.

 

[The Wormhole]

But it is still a little strange, especially since you can pre order them 2 years in advance.

Don't take the 2020 date literally. It's likely just a placeholder until an actual date is announced presumably sometime this year. This is quite common.

titan has always published the Star Trek books in the U.K. And book depository is based out of the U.K., so that might be it.

For what it's worth, several TOS reprints have been added to the Canadian Amazon as well.

 

[DarkHorizon]

Actually, I think there is an easier explanation than Titan suddenly randomly producing reprints of old Pocket books again (also, the Star Trek Interview Book, which would be even stranger...).

The listing for the "new" edition of the Vulcan's Glory release is identified as "First British Edition", which of course it wouldn't be, because Titan had the UK rights to publish these novels originally. Plugging the ISBN into WorldCat provides a publication date of 1989. And, that same ISBN corresponds to an entry in the ISFDB for that same timeframe.

In other words, I believe that these are entries for old Titan Books releases that were given an "unknown" date for publication when entered into Amazon's system, which I can imagine at the time defaulting to some far off date like... 1/1/2020. Now that advanced notice of new releases is stretching that far, these "unknown" dates are coming over the horizon and causing the confusion shown here.

 

[ATimson]

The listing for the "new" edition of the Vulcan's Glory release is identified as "First British Edition", which of course it wouldn't be, because Titan had the UK rights to publish these novels originally. Plugging the ISBN into WorldCat provides a publication date of 1989. And, that same ISBN corresponds to an entry in the ISFDB for that same timeframe.

Technically, these could be reprints of the same edition, thus using the same ISBN. (I don't think that's right, but it's not completely impossible despite those points.)