As I understand it, Paramount is very restrictive of STAR TREK authors, having its lawyers sending notes on "do this/don't do that" with their stories. When a story is basically "writing itself" and you've got this kind of outside interference, I'm sure it accounts for at least some of the mediocre novels that have been out for a while, already ...
You're quite a few years behind the times there. First off, the company that owns
Star Trek is named CBS Corporation now, not Paramount. Second, it's been many, many years since the studio licensing department has imposed such tight control over the tie-ins -- and it was never lawyers who were responsible for that. Back in the late '80s and early '90s, Gene Roddenberry's assistant Richard Arnold became infamous for the rigid restrictions and frequent interference he imposed on the novels, purportedly at Roddenberry's bidding. But Roddenberry died in 1991 and Arnold lost his job the very next day. It was a few more years before the novels began pushing the envelope again, but for about the past 15 years they've been free of pretty much any restrictions beyond the basic obligation of any tie-in work to remain consistent with the canon it's tying into. The folks at CBS have been very supportive and encouraging of our creativity.
The only people in recent years who've been in any way restrictive toward Trek tie-ins have been the folks at Bad Robot, who prefer to maintain close control over the tie-ins to the new movie continuity. That is, of course, their prerogative. But it has no bearing on the tie-ins to the original continuity.