your photoshop-fu is... weak...
The Struggle Within cover
- Thread starter 8of5
- Start date
More like non-existent.
I threw it together on MS paint. Don't worry, I know how objectively awful it is. It was a joke, is all.
Odd, when I search for "The Struggle Within" in the .com kindle store the book is the first one listed.http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...&field-keywords="The+Struggle+Within"&x=0&y=0
Great, Amazon is conspiring against me it seems! It shows up on Amazon.de no problem, all the other amazons though I get nothing. I've searched logged in and not, on different browsers; so odd!
Just did a search from my Android device (not Data) & Christopher's ebook was the first choice.
More like non-existent.
Don't worry, I know how objectively awful it is. It was a joke, is all.
I love it. The creature looks like something you'd see in a D&D game.Hey Christopher, is it too late for you to send this in as a proposed alternate cover?
I need to get a life...
If only novels did variants comic-style!
Sorry, the twin Worf mouths kinda creep me out...
As others have stated the cover is pretty bland but it goes with the Typhon Pact theme of promoting the characters so I guess meh. I'm looking forward to the book. Christopher, I did have a question, I was browsing on Amazon Canada and saw a listing for a book called "Star Trek: Seek a Newer World" that is listed for Dec 31,2030!! They usually do this when a book hasn't been officially given a release date. My question was, and apologizes if you've mentioned it before, have you discussed this book before? Was this one of the canceled JJ Trek books?
Yes, it was.
The 2030 date is pretty much the standard date for canceled books at Amazon it seems. I'm not sure if they're still in the system, but the other three books had that date as well (The Hazard of Concealing (Greg Cox), More Beautiful than Death (David Mack), Refugees (Alan Dean Foster)).
^ Ah. I thought as much. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
I'm still kinda bummed that this is only being offered as an eBook. I remain hesitant to switch over to that format. I'm much happier actually holding a physical book in my hands. Since this is a novella and not a full-length novel, I guess one shouldn't expect Pocket to publish this as a paperback anytime soon. I do wonder if we'll get another Typhon Pact novella or two down the road. Maybe then they could publish them together as a paperback compilation?
^Whether there's a paperback compilation at some point in the future probably depends on whether this eBook sells well enough to convince Simon & Schuster to do more Trek eBooks. So really, if you want to see The Struggle Within published in paperback, your best bet is to buy it as an eBook.
And who says you have to "switch over?" There are still plenty of paperback and hardcover books available. Reading the occasional eBook doesn't require giving those up. It's not switching over to anything, it's just broadening your repertoire. Heck, if you try reading TSW as an eBook and find that reading my prose in electronic form is somehow less satisfying, then you can just wait until next fall when my first original novel, Only Superhuman, comes out as a nice, hefty hardcover, and maybe that will make up for it. Deal?
And who says you have to "switch over?" There are still plenty of paperback and hardcover books available. Reading the occasional eBook doesn't require giving those up. It's not switching over to anything, it's just broadening your repertoire. Heck, if you try reading TSW as an eBook and find that reading my prose in electronic form is somehow less satisfying, then you can just wait until next fall when my first original novel, Only Superhuman, comes out as a nice, hefty hardcover, and maybe that will make up for it. Deal?
I like that title much more. The Struggle Within isn't nearly as original.
I violently hate this practice. I want a copy I can put on the shelf next to all my other books. I was reading through this thread thinking how nice this cover will look next to the others, and now I see that will not be the case after all. I am NOT pleased.
That would seem to me to support further eBook-only offerings, not to encourage a physical printing. If people are willing to pay for just a download, why bother actually printing anything?
I have tried e-reading multiple times. I just don't like it. So, if the publishing world is trending toward it, I'm going to miss out on more and more books that I really want to read. It sucks.
And it frustrates the collector in me, because my purchasing of Trek Lit is as much about collection and display as it is about reading.
Yeah, my best friend has a Kindle. I didn't last five minutes. Besides, I don't want to have to buy another gadget to be able to read my books. I want to read actual books. I guess I'm just too tactile for my own good. There's something about watching the proportions of the pages read to the pages unread change as I make my way through a book. I'm always looking for that halfway point, where there are more pages past than yet to go. I love my bookmarks. I love my shelves and shelves of double-stacked books. I don't just love reading. I love the books themselves.
^ It's interesting, because all that described me, too, but I got used to using the little percentage bar at the bottom spatially very fast, and after a couple years with the Kindle I just ended up taking all my physical books to a used bookstore.
Sort of what happened to me with iPods. I used to love looking through my collection of CDs, but once digital music happened, I realized that what I actually liked was... music. And the rest was just a symbol.
There are so many advantages of Kindle - being able to take all my books with me at all times, so I can read on vacations (I read like a demon, usually 3 or 4 books a week minimum, two a day if I have nothing else to do), being able to buy books instantly, etc.
I get loving the books themselves, I'm not trying to dissuade you, I'm just sharing. It really surprised me how much of the whole tactile experience I ended up not missing at all when I switched. To the point where I found myself buying Kindle versions of books that were already on my shelf, just because it was more convenient.
Sort of what happened to me with iPods. I used to love looking through my collection of CDs, but once digital music happened, I realized that what I actually liked was... music. And the rest was just a symbol.
There are so many advantages of Kindle - being able to take all my books with me at all times, so I can read on vacations (I read like a demon, usually 3 or 4 books a week minimum, two a day if I have nothing else to do), being able to buy books instantly, etc.
I get loving the books themselves, I'm not trying to dissuade you, I'm just sharing. It really surprised me how much of the whole tactile experience I ended up not missing at all when I switched. To the point where I found myself buying Kindle versions of books that were already on my shelf, just because it was more convenient.
Well, The Courage of Conscience is not an original phrase either. It's a phrase that's been in use for a long time, particularly within the nonviolence movement. There's even an award by that name.
But those aren't mutually exclusive goals. Think about it. This is a novella-length story. There is essentially zero chance that it's ever going to be published by itself. The only way it's ever going to be printed on paper is as part of a compilation. The most likely way for that to happen is if there are more e-novellas published in the future. The most likely way for that to happen is if The Struggle Within sells well enough to convince S&S that it's profitable to do more.
That's an odd question. Look at how many Trek e-books have already had paperback reprints. Look at the routine practice of doing paperback reprints of hardcovers. Look at DVD releases of movies. It's not a zero-sum game where buying something in one format hurts its chances of appearing in other formats. Just the opposite -- if something is profitable in one format, that increases the chance of its being released in a different format, because doing so will let the publisher/distributor make even more profit from it.
And sure, I love books too, but that doesn't mean I'm closed to alternatives. I love chocolate, but I still like vanilla. I love Star Trek, but I also love Doctor Who. I'll never understand how people get from "I love the feel of books" to "I absolutely refuse to read an e-book ever." It's not like converting your religion or something. You don't have to give one up when you start doing the other.
And speaking as an author, I love the potential of e-books. I'm better at hefty novelettes and novellas than I am at short stories, but there's very little market in print magazines for anything over 10,000 words. And of course it's not very profitable for publishers to produce standalone novellas. But in e-publishing, those limitations don't exist. The rise of e-books means more markets for novellas, more freedom of format. I welcome that.
Well, I hope I didn't come across as someone who refuses to read an e-book ever. I will say I'm not terribly inclined to buy them, though. I downloaded a pdf of The Skies of Pern years ago when electronic books was a new concept being tried out. I was so excited to be able to read it early. But boy howdy, was I quick to buy a physical copy when it was available.
I think e-books are just fine. I just don't like it when books are ONLY offered in that format. There are still SCE books waiting for paperback reprints, aren't there? SCE is a line I'm way behind on because of its e-format. I have the feeling we'll never see them in physical print. And that's a real shame.
ETA: And for what it's worth, I'm not at all opposed to alternate formats. I LOVE audio books. And I have absolutley no problem paying for those and downloading them. They, along with e-books, have a real place in the broader literary realm. They're both great for accessibility too - making books available to people with disabilities who otherwise couldn't enjoy them. As you said though, it shouldn't be an either-or proposition.
I think e-books are just fine. I just don't like it when books are ONLY offered in that format. There are still SCE books waiting for paperback reprints, aren't there? SCE is a line I'm way behind on because of its e-format. I have the feeling we'll never see them in physical print. And that's a real shame.
ETA: And for what it's worth, I'm not at all opposed to alternate formats. I LOVE audio books. And I have absolutley no problem paying for those and downloading them. They, along with e-books, have a real place in the broader literary realm. They're both great for accessibility too - making books available to people with disabilities who otherwise couldn't enjoy them. As you said though, it shouldn't be an either-or proposition.
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Yeah, my best friend has a Kindle. I didn't last five minutes. Besides, I don't want to have to buy another gadget to be able to read my books. I want to read actual books. I guess I'm just too tactile for my own good. There's something about watching the proportions of the pages read to the pages unread change as I make my way through a book. I'm always looking for that halfway point, where there are more pages past than yet to go. I love my bookmarks. I love my shelves and shelves of double-stacked books. I don't just love reading. I love the books themselves.
You know, it's funny. I love physical books, but I actually hate that, just because it's a sort of spoiler to me. It's like watching a TV show and seeing that there's only 21/40 minutes left, so you know things will have to wrap up soon. That's the one thing about physical books I've always wanted to avoid, because I don't really like knowing how much is left in a piece of fiction beyond just the feeling that the arc of the fiction gives me. (For the same reason, whenever I'm watching a TV show, I always keep myself from checking the clock, and when I'm watching something on my computer, I always avoid looking at the time remaining.) I know it's just a goofy quirk of mine, but I never thought that someone would actually see it as a good thing; I just figured most everyone else didn't think on it at all, with a few weirdos like me.
Personally, I liked Douglas Hofstadter's solution to that from GEB: end the book early. But since blank pages would both give it away to flip-to-the-enders and be a waste of resources, have the prose keep going. In a sloppy manner completely contrary to the style of the rest of the book. So that if you're reading closely enough, you can tell that the plot's already ended and the rest is just fake.
(Yeah, he meant it as a joke, but still!)
Well, like I said, the best way to ensure that The Struggle Within is not forever limited to that format is to buy it as an e-book. Good sales for the e-book means more e-books means more chance of an eventual trade paperback. It's as simple as that. If you did it for the Pern book, you can do it for this one.
There are still SCE books waiting for paperback reprints, aren't there? SCE is a line I'm way behind on because of its e-format. I have the feeling we'll never see them in physical print. And that's a real shame.
There's no reason to assume that. The remaining CoE novellas and Slings and Arrows are a reserve of "new" print material that Pocket/Gallery can draw on the next time they have a gap in the print schedule. That's valuable to them. It's always good for a publisher to have reserve material like that. Heck, the e-books certainly came in handy back when the Abramsverse novels were abruptly pulled, leaving a huge gap in the schedule. They were able to fill that gap in part by publishing two consecutive CoE trades, Out of the Cocoon and What's Past. (And keep in mind it's only been one year since What's Past came out.) So it stands to reason we'll see more reprints next time there's a gap in the schedule.
And as it happens, every e-book that was published under the Star Trek: S.C.E. title has now been reprinted in trade. What's Past contained the final six of them. The only e-books left to be published in trade are the eight novellas published under the "relaunched" Star Trek: Corps of Engineers title and the six installments of Slings and Arrows. So there's really not that far to go, only 2-3 trades' worth of stuff. Plus TSW and whatever new stuff might follow it.
Personally, I liked Douglas Hofstadter's solution to that from GEB: end the book early. But since blank pages would both give it away to flip-to-the-enders and be a waste of resources, have the prose keep going. In a sloppy manner completely contrary to the style of the rest of the book. So that if you're reading closely enough, you can tell that the plot's already ended and the rest is just fake.
(Yeah, he meant it as a joke, but still!)
As I recall, not a sloppy manner-- a manner close enough to the real style that only an attentive reader would be able to tell the book was over by reading straight through.
I suspect it was a joke inasmuch anything he says is a joke.
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