Fan-made Star Trek 50th e-book

[BrentMc]

I know we are not supposed to post story ideas, but isn't that so that authors on here cannot get sued by a poster who says they came up with the idea?

I was just thinking it would be fun to make a by-the-fans, for-the-fans Star Trek 50th Anniversary e-book. It would be not for profit to avoid legal issues and just to make it about the love of Star Trek and not about making money. Maybe hundreds of fans could each do a page, so it wouldn't be a big job for anyone but the editor.

Does anyone like the idea? Do you think CBS would ignore it and not make us take it down?

 

[BillJ]

Sadly, it would probably turn into an Abrams vs. Prime timeline pissing match like everything else. Neat idea though.

 

[Christopher]

The place to discuss this would be in the Fan Fiction forum.

 

[DimesDan]

I
Does anyone like the idea?

It would be an interesting idea.

The place to discuss this would be in the Fan Fiction forum.

Although I agree with this sentiment, if I was a writer and I saw a thread with this title, I wouldn't come in here let alone comment on the bleeding obvious.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Sounds a bit like the old Best of Trek collections. I loved their weird mix of subjects, and would love something similar I could read on my phone

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I know we are not supposed to post story ideas, but isn't that so that authors on here cannot get sued by a poster who says they came up with the idea?

I was just thinking it would be fun to make a by-the-fans, for-the-fans Star Trek 50th Anniversary e-book. It would be not for profit to avoid legal issues and just to make it about the love of Star Trek and not about making money. Maybe hundreds of fans could each do a page, so it wouldn't be a big job for anyone but the editor.

Does anyone like the idea? Do you think CBS would ignore it and not make us take it down?

There was a rash of unauthorized Doctor Who books about the series and what it meant to fans (in other words, non-fiction books) for its 50th-anniversary. Honestly, I don't see any reason why an unauthorized Star Trek non-fiction book about the series and fans' love of it wouldn't be viable -- or why CBS would overly care. (Yes, I'm aware of The Joy of Trek incident. That was fifteen years ago. The landscape has changed.)

The place to discuss this would be in the Fan Fiction forum.

I'm not sure I agree. If the book being proposed were a book of fan fiction stories, sure. But the OP is vague about what he's suggesting. If it's a non-fic book, I think it's valid fodder.

Sounds a bit like the old Best of Trek collections. I loved their weird mix of subjects, and would love something similar I could read on my phone

Bingo.

 

[BillJ]

The place to discuss this would be in the Fan Fiction forum.

I'm not sure I agree. If the book being proposed were a book of fan fiction stories, sure. But the OP is vague about what he's suggesting. If it's a non-fic book, I think it's valid fodder.

I feel the same way. It feels like what is being proposed is a non-fiction collection of fan essays.

 

[BrentMc]

The place to discuss this would be in the Fan Fiction forum.

I wasn't sure where it would go, as it is not a work of fiction, and it does not offer up any ideas that fans could sue an author claiming it is theirs. I am happy to talk about it wherever the mods feel is appropriate.

 

[BrentMc]

(Yes, I'm aware of The Joy of Trek incident. That was fifteen years ago. The landscape has changed.)

I didn't know about that. I just looked it up. I certainly don't want to do anything that would cause legal trouble, but when they seem to let fans do what they want, especially if they do not profit from it, it makes it seem like they are OK with letting the fans have fun.

 

[BrentMc]

I feel the same way. It feels like what is being proposed is a non-fiction collection of fan essays.

I was thinking like an electronic "coffee table" kind of book.
Lots of pictures and sketches, and text as long as the writer can keep it interesting. I would have sections both in-universe and real-world. Actors, characters, species, ships, etc., but I wouldn't try to make it encyclopedic.


My question is, there are so many star trek websites with pictures, but if we put them in a non-for-profit book will CBS allow that?

I also don't want to step on the toes of professional writers. Larry Nemecek is nice to answer my trek questions on twitter, as well as the authors here, and I don't want to compete with their books, or copy stuff from them and give it away.

What I am proposing is a group made book just for fun to celebrate our love of Star Trek.

I doubt this will fly, but I wanted to see what other people thought.

 

[BillJ]

I was thinking like an electronic "coffee table" kind of book.
Lots of pictures and sketches, and text as long as the writer can keep it interesting. I would have sections both in-universe and real-world. Actors, characters, species, ships, etc., but I wouldn't try to make it encyclopedic.

It is a great idea, but one of the rules would have to be to leave the axe grinding at the door.

My question is, there are so many star trek websites with pictures, but if we put them in a non-for-profit book will CBS allow that?

There are so many talented artists out there who love Trek, that I doubt you'd have any issues of getting donations of brand new material.

I also don't want to step on the toes of professional writers. Larry Nemecek is nice to answer my trek questions on twitter, as well as the authors here, and I don't want to compete with their books, or copy stuff from them and give it away.

I don't think that would really be an issue.

What I am proposing is a group made book just for fun to celebrate our love of Star Trek.

It could be fun.

 

[trampledamage]

So long as you keep to discussing non-fiction and the concept of the book, it can stay here.

 

[vegaslover62]

I'm still not entirely aware of how the publishing world works. Is "non-profit book" an oxymoron? The book is going to cost SOMETHING to buy, and the money will go to SOMEBODY, i.e. SOMEBODY is going to profit from it, and CBS will have something to say about it, won't they?

 

[Timewalker]

I'm still not entirely aware of how the publishing world works. Is "non-profit book" an oxymoron? The book is going to cost SOMETHING to buy, and the money will go to SOMEBODY, i.e. SOMEBODY is going to profit from it, and CBS will have something to say about it, won't they?

A few decades ago, fan publications (whether fiction or essays) were nonprofit, yet cost money to buy. The reason is that every single copy of every single issue of those old publications is a physical object made of paper, ink, and staples, and was physically cranked out page by page, either on a Xerox machine, or in the case of newer 'zines, a photocopier. So the editors of these publications dealt with a lot of office supplies, and charged buyers just enough to allow them to recover their printing and postage costs. They were not allowed to charge any more than that.

What the OP is proposing would not involve any costs whatsoever for printing or postage, since it's available online (please correct me if I'm wrong on this). While most people who upload ebooks would likely expect to be paid, there is no requirement to ask for money. So there's no profit involved, and anyone who contributes would be expected to do so for free.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It is a great idea, but one of the rules would have to be to leave the axe grinding at the door.

I don't know - axe grinding made for some very entertaining BoT articles, raging against everything from the Klingons in TMP, to Trek being dumbed down into a mindless action movie for WoK, to Diane Duane's Vulcan history from Spock's World daring to differ from someone's headcanon.

 

[JD]

I would think as long as it's kept non-profit and fan published it probably wouldn't run into any trouble. Just look at all of the fan films being produced now. I find it hard to believe CBS is unaware of them, although I wouldn't be entirely surprised if some of the really high profile ones involving Trek actors and writers had some kind of deal going with CBS.

 

[BrentMc]

I would think as long as it's kept non-profit and fan published it probably wouldn't run into any trouble. Just look at all of the fan films being produced now. I find it hard to believe CBS is unaware of them, although I wouldn't be entirely surprised if some of the really high profile ones involving Trek actors and writers had some kind of deal going with CBS.

Maybe we could just name the author as "by the fans."

I was also thinking we could use Google docs, dropbox, or something similar to share the document between the contributors.

It would be a free e-book, with no cost to the readers, or the contributors other than their time.

I want it to have a lot of pictures and short, to-the-point text.

I see full page pictures with the text right in the pictures.

The idea is it would not be a huge effort on anyone's part, because there would ideally be many people doing a few pages each.

Is anyone interested in working on it?

There is too much arguing and negativity among Star Trek fans. I have seen people make fun of other Star Trek fans in Star Trek facebook groups.

I want volunteers to agree to just go with the flow and keep it fun and all in the name of loving Star Trek.

The question I am asking myself now is do we need this book? I have many Star Trek books and magazines.

I think the important thing is to think what this would do that sets it apart.

Finally, yes I realize that this is probably not going to happen. Maybe I will make a few sample pages of what I am thinking.

 

[BillJ]

I could probably toss in an essay on what Star Trek has meant to me over the years. Though I'm not much of a writer.

 

[Steve Roby]

I'm still not entirely aware of how the publishing world works. Is "non-profit book" an oxymoron? The book is going to cost SOMETHING to buy, and the money will go to SOMEBODY, i.e. SOMEBODY is going to profit from it, and CBS will have something to say about it, won't they?

There are many publishing worlds. If you have people willing to contribute their work for free, including someone organizing/compiling/editing the material, you can make it available for free.

You can use free software to create a pdf or epub document. You can upload it to lulu or other retailers as a free ebook. If it's on lulu, you could also set it up to allow people to buy a print on demand copy that costs only what lulu charges to print and ship a copy, which can be quite reasonable. You can do similar things with Amazon's Createspace.

It's the 21st century. People have been making content easily and freely available across the Internet for decades now.