Question for our Author?

[Captaindemotion]

^ Joss Whedon turned you into a Nausicaan?

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

(My Terminator novel is based, in part, on a rejected Firefly outline!)

Eh? I'm going to have to pull that book out of storage and read it again. Was the Firefly outline set during the war?

 

[Greg Cox]

Ooh, that was an interesting exchange. Firstly I didn't even know they make Terminator novels. I'll have to check that out - sounds like a good read sci-fi wise. Firefly and Joss Wheden just get me nauscious, but is that the Sarah Connor Chronicles? i liked the tv series and was sorry to see it go like I'm sure many other people were. Sounds like a good series to write novels for and alot of fun.
A cut of the profits makes alot of sense for them because it kind of insures they are getting a good product sort of and that the author has faith in his story ideas. So you guys are not seeing any profit cut if there is any? Weird. Very hired gunnish.

There's been a couple of generations of Terminator novels, based on the various movies. Mine was set in the world of Terminator: Salvation. (As far as I know, there weren't any Sarah Connor Chronicles novels, although those would have been fun to write, too.)

And, just to be clear, most tie-in writers do get advances and royalties. I was just saying that sometimes you have to write proposals and outlines on spec to get the job--and they don't always sell.

In other words, it's just like any other job. A car salesman or realtor doesn't expect to make a sale every time she talks to a potential customer or client. Same thing with writers.

 

[xortex]

So just out of curiosity, when was the last time you wrote 100,000 words that didn't sell. That would be an aweful let down, wouldn't it, except if you repurpose it of course for something original or different which is what tv does to as the various hundry franchises with similar premises get hungry. What was the name of your Terminator book since according to what I hear, that wasn't a hot movie, so I'm sure yours is better and more in line with what Terminator:Salvation should have been maybe. I often think that Trek's motion picture could have been better in the same way which makes me wonder now how many novels follow on the continuity of TMP? I know Chis Bennet's Ex Mechina follows up on the in between era as it were. How many more do that?

 

[Therin of Andor]

He didn't get paid because he didn't write the book.

I realise that, but there was an expectation that Sawyer should finish the whole thing for the editor before being offered a contract, and his writing colleague warned him not to proceed at that point. I thought Sawyer was a known quantity at that point, and that he wouldn't have been expected to keep writing, beyond that submitted set of sample chapters, without a contract, and before Paramount had even vetted the proposal.

Ultimately, he rejigged the proposal and created a whole new, original SF novel out of it.

 

[Therin of Andor]

What was the name of your Terminator book

Greg Cox's?

Two seconds on Google:
http://www.listal.com/list/terminator-novels

Scroll to the end.

which makes me wonder now how many novels follow on the continuity of TMP? I know Chis Bennet's Ex Mechina follows up on the in between era as it were. How many more do that?

Quite a number of early Pocket novels are set in the era between TMP and ST II, using the uniforms and tech: "The Prometheus Design", "Triangle", "Pawns and Symbols", framing sequence of "TOS: Kobayashi Maru", "Home is the Hunter", "Enemy Unseen", "Firestorm", the TMP-era part of "Mere Anarchy", "Ice Trap", "Shell Game", "Death Trap"... and others, morphing into ST II uniforms, ranks and tech at various points...
http://sites.google.com/site/stvotitimeline/

 

[Greg Cox]

So just out of curiosity, when was the last time you wrote 100,000 words that didn't sell. That would be an aweful let down, ?

Well, we're not really talking about 100,000 word novels here. We're talking about about outlines and samples chapters.

Just last year, though, I wrote an outline and 100 pages of a young-adult novel that my agent wants me to rethink before he tries selling it. I still hope to get to that someday, the next time I have a lull in the tie-work, but who knows? That was done purely on spec so there's no guarantee that it will ever pay off.

As for Terminator: Salvation: Cold War, the basic idea was scrappy band of rebels taking on a big armored convoy. Granted, by the time I switched it from the Firefly universe to Terminator land, and added a whole subplot about a Russian submarine, the finished book little resemblance to the original Firefly outline, but at least it gave me a starting point . . . .