So how do Trek authors work together (if at all)?

[Christopher]

I was actually staying with Dave when he told me that he was planning, in Cold Equations, to kill off a certain character whom he'd created but whom I was the first to write. (I'm probably being overly circumspect about spoilers here.) So I had a certain amount invested in the character, and thus I was rather upset by the news. But I recognized that I had no proprietary claim over the character and it was out of my hands. It was his choice, his book, so I didn't argue.

And Dave did consult with me closely to keep The Body Electric consistent with things I'd established in Ex Machina, and was very open to my thoughts and suggestions there, so that more than made up for my disappointment about the other thing.

 

[Greg Cox]

^^You just reminded me of something, David. During situations in which an author has created a specific character or has a certain affinity for writing about a particular race, how much freedom are other authors granted as far what they do with these characters or races? Obviously, major changes (i.e., killing off characters or promoting/transferring characters) have to be approved, but do authors have the freedom to veto a change to a character they created if they don't agree with it (different than Bashir's situation, of course, because he was created by DS9's production team).

Edit: Looks like another poster was thinking the same thing I was. LOL!

--Sran

Just to be clear, none of us have any actual veto power or control over any Star Trek character, regardless of whether we created it or not. Obviously, I wouldn't want to stomp all over another author's favorite creation--and the editors might object if I tried--but that would be just a matter of professional courtesy, nothing more. None of us have the power to overrule anybody else. Only CBS does.

It's all about playing well with others . . . .

 

[Idran]

To a degree it seems like Treklit as a cohesive universe wouldn't even hold together without that professional courtesy, at least from my perspective as a reader. I mean, I've always thought it was in large part because you guys liked each other and each other's works and writing ability enough that it makes it even more entertaining for you all to work together, even when it's not as actively cooperative as something like Mere Anarchy. That the very existence of a Treklit universe in the first place was as much from the desires of you all as writers to play in each other's sandboxes as it was from the editors.

 

[Christopher]

To a degree it seems like Treklit as a cohesive universe wouldn't even hold together without that professional courtesy, at least from my perspective as a reader. I mean, there's no real enforced dictate for any of you have to pay attention to or follow along with what anyone else does in your own works outside a single cohesive series, is there? Would the higher-ups care if all of you guys decided not to pay any attention to developments in one another's books, and go back to all stand-alones?

Well, don't discount the importance of the editors. They've been the ones responsible for coordinating the different books and deciding whether or not they should be consistent with each other. After all, an editor sees more of the big picture than any single author. So it's not purely up to the authors to keep their books consistent. That's mainly the editor's role. Though it can certainly make things easier on the editor if we coordinate with each other directly and avoid introducing inconsistencies.

 

[Idran]

Yeah, I realized I probably overspoke after I posted, so I edited my post some to tone things down; you must've caught it before I managed to get the change done.

Still, though, I can't imagine it would work nearly as well as it does if you guys didn't really enjoy intertwining your work together.