Yeah, I know. It just would have been nice to see a show where everyone, tie-ins included, stayed on the same page (I don't expect 100% consistency--after all even on screen canon has been know to be contradictory from time to time). But we'll see how things go.
Historically, tie-ins that have purported to be canonical have only really succeeded if they were written or plotted by the actual showrunners themselves, ideally after the original series had ended (so that the showrunners would be able to spare the attention to them, and so there was no other ongoing canon to contradict them). After all, creativity is a personal thing; no two creators will envision a universe in quite the same way. "Canon" is really just a shorthand for the stories told by the original creators (or their authorized successors).
Currently,
Star Wars is trying to be an exception to that rule, with the Lucasfilm Story Group closely coordinating with all the creators in all media and theoretically keeping them all consistent. But that's only feasible because Disney is a huge corporation and can afford the investment of effort such an undertaking would require. And it remains to be seen whether they'll really stick to it in the long run. We've seen Easter eggs from
Rebels and
The Clone Wars show up in recent movies, but I don't think anything from the Disney-"canon" novels or comics has been acknowledged by a movie yet.
I guess the other thing was we're not talking about a long ago written novel, but one written pretty recently along with the show with some input by people involved with the show. It's a bit disappointing that it sounds like some of it was jettisoned (I'll have to make my own judgment when I see the 2nd season how much is irreconcilable).
Involvement by creators doesn't guarantee consistency, since creators often work in multiple different continuities. Continuity is just a storytelling device within a narrative, not a higher priority than the narrative itself. So different versions of a series in different media can require different continuities, and thus it's not always a creator's priority to reconcile those different versions. Look at, say,
The Expanse. The writers of the books are part of the writing staff of the TV show that's adapting the books, but they freely make changes to the show's version of the storyline.
It is amusing in a way...sometimes we the readers are more protective of book stories then the authors. I know being in the business you know how things work and all and you all take it pretty much in stride.
You readers are watching from the audience, while we writers are directing the show from backstage. So we see the artifice of it all more clearly, and thus we aren't as invested in the "reality" of it. Or rather, we want it to feel real to the audience, but we understand that's just an illusion -- and that different versions of what we're creating have different (if overlapping) audiences, so the priority for any single version is its own internal needs, not its relationship with other versions.
But I wonder sometimes, do any authors still feel just a touch of disappointment when one of their stories is rendered moot. Say they do something that makes one or more of your Rise of the Federation books inconsistent and irreconcilable with canon. Or say the Borg reappear in the nu-TNG show rendering David Mack's Destiny trilogy impossible in canon. Is there just a little, tiny feeling of disappointment from you guys?
Oh, yes, definitely. I pride myself on the fact that all of my published Trek works are consistent with one another and are all still part of the overall novel continuity (although that wouldn't be the case if my Kelvin-timeline novel had been published). I know I'll be disappointed when that streak inevitably comes to an end. But that's the occupational hazard of any science fiction writer -- eventually, real scientific advances or the march of time will render all our conjectures obsolete.
What will help ease the inevitable disappointment is my original fiction.
Star Trek is fun to play with, but it's someone else's toy that I just get to borrow. So I don't get to do everything I'd want to do with it (though I'm amazed at how many of my wishes I have gotten to fulfill). But my original universes are all mine to do with as I please. And their continuities don't change unless I decide they need to. I've gotten more of my original fiction into print in recent years, with more to follow, so if that continues, it should help ease the disappointment when new TV Trek finally invalidates some of my Trek fiction.
I imagine the reverse is probably true, if something from a book someone wrote is incorporated in canon, even if it's minor, you'd feel a bit flattered. "Hey, that's from one of my books
"
I think that's already happened once.
Discovery has described Saru as a "first contact specialist," which may have been based on the term "contact specialist" that I coined in my novels for Deanna Troi's role on the
Titan and T'Ryssa Chen's on the
Enterprise.
