Question about Star Trek Ebooks.

[sojourner]

For the Trek writers here. Is it generally easier to get an ebook "published" in the Star Trek setting? Is there a process of any kind for submitting ideas/projects for consideration?

This comes up from reading articles about some current ebook only authors on Kindle and Nook. I was just interested to see if the Star Trek franchise is adapting to new technology.

 

[Christopher]

For the Trek writers here. Is it generally easier to get an ebook "published" in the Star Trek setting? Is there a process of any kind for submitting ideas/projects for consideration?

The submission process would be the same regardless of publication format. Anyway, Pocket isn't currently publishing original Trek eBooks, although that could change in the future.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I was just interested to see if the Star Trek franchise is adapting to new technology.

Simon & Schuster was an early venturer into the realm of original eBook fiction ("Starfleet Corps of Engineers", followed by a TOS mini-series and a TNG mini-series), and their efforts were critically acclaimed. There was also the non fiction book, "The Magic of Tribbles: The Making of ST: DS9's 'Trials and Tribble-ations'."

A few years ago, S&S walked away from their original eBook division because it wasn't making enough profit.

 

[BrotherBenny]

^In today's high eBook sales, Pocket should reconsider - as long as they keep the eBooks at a low price, they'd make enough I would think.

 

[JD]

Wasn't Dayton Ward's The Aliens Are Coming, also an ebook exclusive?

 

[Defcon]

The Aliens Are Coming was first printed in SNW III and then republished as an eBook by Ordover to tie-in to Greg Cox's Eugenics Wars novels IIRC.

 

[JD]

Was there stuff added to it or was it exactly what was in SNW III?

 

[Defcon]

I have no idea since I have read neither version, but this is what Dayton has to say about the eBook version on his website:

Can you believe this?

Originally published in Strange New Worlds III in 2000, Greg Cox saw fit to give this story a passing reference in the second volume of his Trek novel opus, The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh. John Ordover at Pocket Books then took it upon himself to pull this tale out of the anthology and rechristen it as an "Untold Story from the Eugenics Wars," offering it extended life as a standalone e-Title. Ain't that some weirdness or what?

Hey, you wanna give a guy an ego boost, all you have to do is link his little piddly short story with one of the coolest Trek novel ideas to come down the pike in...oh...forever. Worked for me! And to convince those of you who still might think I'm smokin' serious weed and just makin' stuff up, check out Simonsays.com for all the gory details!

 

[Therin of Andor]

^In today's high eBook sales, Pocket should reconsider - as long as they keep the eBooks at a low price, they'd make enough I would think.

Well, they pulled out just as many other publishers started getting into it, and it seems like there's hardly anyone left in the S&S eBook division. Their jobs were culled.

What's your evidence for "today's high eBook sales" of original material, though? It's my understanding it's still a very small sector of the book-buying market, especially original eBooks. S&S is still doing eBook reprints (and parallel publishing).

 

[Ktrek]

What's your evidence for "today's high eBook sales" of original material, though?

Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble recently reported that ebooks have surpassed hardcover sales. I think it's reasonable to assume that much of that is original material.

Kevin

 

[BrotherBenny]

^In today's high eBook sales, Pocket should reconsider - as long as they keep the eBooks at a low price, they'd make enough I would think.

Well, they pulled out just as many other publishers started getting into it, and it seems like there's hardly anyone left in the S&S eBook division. Their jobs were culled.

What's your evidence for "today's high eBook sales" of original material, though? It's my understanding it's still a very small sector of the book-buying market, especially original eBooks. S&S is still doing eBook reprints (and parallel publishing).

What's your evidence for "today's high eBook sales" of original material, though?

Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble recently reported that ebooks have surpassed hardcover sales. I think it's reasonable to assume that much of that is original material.

Kevin

All traditional publishers are now moving into parallel publishing, releasing hardcovers and eBooks at the same time, but some of the small independent presses are releasing new books in eBook form only at least to start with, and the rest are doing parallel publishing.

I think that a resurgence of the Corps of Engineers eBooks would work but S&S have to release the last couple of anthologies in eBook as well as print for those that haven't read them to catch up before they start doing new ones. Additionally, I think other "original material" could work, maybe Gorkon/Klingon Empire eBooks, Starfleet Medical Corps., maybe an Alien/Planet Spotlight eBook miniseries like IDW did. A DS9, VOY or ENT miniseries might also work.

ePub and AZW (Kindle) are much better formats than PDF for eBooks and now that eBook readers have flooded the market (between $99 and $199 for the majority of them such as Kobo, Nook, Sony, Kindle) more and more people are reading eBooks. If the content is available at the right price, people will buy them. Price is important. S&S are going to sell nothing if the eBooks are $3.99 as you can buy full length novels for that or less. $1.99 or $2.49 is probably the best price for them to make them buyable for most people. Whether that kind of price point would make them financially viable for S&S I don't know, but I think it's worth another look.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble recently reported that ebooks have surpassed hardcover sales.

At the same time, ST hardcovers have gone to trade paperback.

 

[JD]

What's your evidence for "today's high eBook sales" of original material, though?

Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble recently reported that ebooks have surpassed hardcover sales. I think it's reasonable to assume that much of that is original material.

Kevin

I wouldn't say that at all. I just went through the top 100 ebooks on B&N and only 2 (#70 and #100)of those were only available in ebook, and one of those appeared to be one of their pubit self published ebooks (#100).