Summer nuTrek novels pulled-TrekMovie.Com

[Dayton Ward]

It's a work-for-hire contract. The license owner is authorizing me to write a story using their intellectual property, for which they will acquire and retain all rights. For that work, I'm paid a mutually-agreed upon sum of money, as well as royalties on sales of the book in which my work appears.

I'm an adult, I can read, and nobody held a gun to my head and forced me to sign anything. Before I do sign, I'm free to contest anything in the contract with which I take issue, and I'm free not to sign it if my concerns/requests/demands/etc. can't be satisfied, but once I sign the contract, I'm bound by its terms. Once I cash the check, I've no right to bitch about any perceived slight.

And before you ask, yes, I've turned down writing projects because I did not agree with the contract terms. Not with Star Trek, but other tie-in properties.

 

[David Mack]

I was confused about Roberto Orci's statement. If he wants to read the novels, isn't he entitled to review them in manuscript?

No, that privilege belongs only to the editors and the licensing executive in charge of approvals. The Bad Robot team could ask to be kept in the loop as a professional courtesy, but the approvals process has been clearly defined for quite some time. Third parties have not been part of it since the death of Gene Roddenberry.

No offense, but that sounds spineless if that is really your opinion. Yeah, it's in the contract, but just because it's in there it's right?

It has nothing to do with "right," it has to do with legally binding. Try taking on a media conglomerate by yourself and find out what that means the hard way.

It's your manuscript,

Right there is the crux of your misunderstanding. Just because we write it, that doesn't mean we own it. We don't. We are workmen hired by a client to create something for them. From the moment we sign the contract and agree to its terms, the words we create in relation to that project belong to the client.

and someone else rewrites it for film and just because it's for film, he gets a much larger paycheck and you get nothing more (I'm theoretically speaking here, because I'm pretty sure this will not happen with those 4 novels and the new movie's script). I'd consider that being ripped off, no matter what the contract says. While I see that you have to live with what you get most of the time, I don't see why you have to accept it at the same time.

It's called being a grown-up and a professional. It sucks sometimes, but that's the way it goes.

 

[JarodRussell]

Well, I can only say that I myself would want royalities if they made a movie out of it.

 

[snakespeare]

"Want in one hand, crap in the other. Which gets filled first?"

(((sorry, it's a S. Dakota expression and I never got to use it before!)))

 

[Dayton Ward]

I'd rather have the money they'd have to pay me for the rights to one of my original stories.

 

[Christopher]

It's your manuscript, and someone else rewrites it for film and just because it's for film, he gets a much larger paycheck and you get nothing more (I'm theoretically speaking here, because I'm pretty sure this will not happen with those 4 novels and the new movie's script). I'd consider that being ripped off, no matter what the contract says.

Look at it this way: If you're a carpenter, and someone else pays you to build a house for them, and then once it's built they move in and live there instead of you, have you been ripped off? No, because you built it for them in the first place, and it belongs to them. So it's within their rights to live in it, remodel it, resell it, or even tear it down if that's what they choose to do.

 

[Therin of Andor]

which is why I ain't buying the explanation that was released for pulling the novels from the schedule.

This is not a new phenomenon.

This kind of thing happened often during the production of TNG. Even though the tie-in comics and novels were "not canon", the then-Star Trek Office and Paramount/Viacom Licensing often called for the tweaking, rewriting and/or cancellation of certain tie-in manuscripts - even though the TV series wasn't "locked into anything even if the novels were being published as scheduled".

There is always an attempt to ensure that media tie-ins do reflect the parent upon which they are based. Since it's still unclear exactly what the "Star Trek (2009)" sequel will cover, someone on high has decided it is not yet time for novel spin-offs.

How quickly could an omnibus of Cathedral, Lesser Evil, Unity and Rising Son be put together?

Since the previous two DS9 trade omnibuses had very disappointing sales, this may not be the appropriate choice.

 

[snakespeare]

Totally impossible, but wouldn't it be cool if... the writers had to fill the gap by filling the 5-year DS9 gap that we keep hearing about?

 

[thumbtack]

The whole question of the "nuUniverse" is speculation. The writers have not written the screenplay for ST XII, yet. Pulling the plug on these books doesn't mean it is true or false, but it does mean the writers / producers (who are one and the same people) have not decided what they want to do yet. And they do not want to be locked into anything based on the novels.

So I will not assume there is a "nuUniverse".

Perhaps the most irrationally bizarre example of wishful thinking I've ever encountered.

 

[DS9forever]

How quickly could an omnibus of Cathedral, Lesser Evil, Unity and Rising Son be put together?

Yes, this please.

Or just reprint the individual novels, because for some reason the previous two omnibus DS9 collections didn't sell as well as expected.

 

[Christopher]

But the fact that the omnibus collections didn't sell so well makes it unlikely that they'd reprint the original novels.

 

[Therin of Andor]

No major fan hopes dashed.

1-2% of the viewing audience. Small potatoes.

Totally impossible, but wouldn't it be cool if... the writers had to fill the gap by filling the 5-year DS9 gap that we keep hearing about?

Perhaps totally throwing out-of-whack the novel being written by David R George III.

Or just reprint the individual novels, because for some reason the previous two omnibus DS9 collections didn't sell as well as expected.

Volumes 3 and 4 of "Mission Gamma" were published with higher numbers than 1 and 2 because sales of the first two were bigger than expected.

Maybe the reason the omnibuses failed to sell was because most of us bought the MMPBs when they came out? And "Unity" has been released twice already, in hardcover, then MMPB.

 

[Thrawn]

Nah. We'll get omnibus reprints, if that, and I bet even if we do they won't manage to fill all four months' worth of MMPBs. This is really last-minute, in publishing-world-terms.

 

[snakespeare]

Perhaps the most irrationally bizarre example of wishful thinking I've ever encountered.

What I am saying is that there is no longer any reason to ASSUME that the "nu" will replace the prime.

 

[JoeP]

Joe, if I were Christopher I would be in a bad mood today. Wouldn't you? So, I will defer to him.

That's no excuse to be rude. He should know better.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Perhaps the most irrationally bizarre example of wishful thinking I've ever encountered.

What I am saying is that there is no longer any reason to ASSUME that the "nu" will replace the prime.

It already has. That's not an assumption.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It already has. That's not an assumption.

The prime universe continues in TrekLit.

 

[Defcon]

as well as something titled Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Untitled Paperback #1 (another TPB), which I suspect may be a reprint of the three Original Series SA books ("Saw the movie? Want to know how they met before The Original Series?")

This seems to be gone from the site now, while the two SCE/CoE books are still listed.

 

[Deano2099]

Look at it this way: If you're a carpenter, and someone else pays you to build a house for them, and then once it's built they move in and live there instead of you, have you been ripped off? No, because you built it for them in the first place, and it belongs to them. So it's within their rights to live in it, remodel it, resell it, or even tear it down if that's what they choose to do.

I can see a bit of an issue here though. I mean from what I gather most Trek books don't sell well enough for the royalties to be significant, so on a practical level it's not a big deal. But if the story is published as a book then the potential for those royalties does exist. But it wouldn't if it were turned in to a film?

 

[Therin of Andor]

I can see a bit of an issue here though... But it wouldn't if it were turned in to a film?

Correct, but that's the nature of writing for Star Trek - and any other - licensed media tie-ins. Always has been. The authors know exactly what they are doing when they sign their contracts. In 40+ years, no Star Trek novels have been turned into ST movies. "The Wounded Sky" inspired a TNG episode, but only because the original author, Diane Duane, pitched it as a TNG episode!

Or, they can choose not to sign, and attempt to write and sell an original novel. Which they can make big money on if their agent successfully on-sells the film rights.