Two New "Adult" Doctor Who Novels On The Way!!

[ClayinCA]

I guess I did come off that way, but I didn't mean to - sorry Steve. It hasn't been a real great week, and I was probably just letting outside things get to me. Seriously, I do apologize. And if you and I differ on Gary Russell's writing, we can definitely agree that the Alistair Reynolds book is a Very Good Thing, yes?

 

[Stevil2001]

It's okay! I have a tendency to overstate things because it is more entertaining that way. And yes, whoo for Alistair Reynolds!

 

[23skidoo]

If I can put in my 2 cents on Gary Russell. I don't have anything against him myself, but for those who don't care for his work, remember he is working on something that originated from Douglas Adams, so I'd assume the strength of the source material is going to be key here. It's not as if they gave him one of the prestige "original" novel slots (though I'd love to see Terrance Dicks be given one for 2013).

Alex

 

[VDCNI]

I thought Gary Russell first came up in this thread because he wasn't writing any Doctor Who fiction right now?

Are you confusing him with Gareth Roberts who is adapting Shada?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Gary Russell has had an involvement in "Shada"; he wrote the wraparound scenes for the Big Finish production and got Adams' television script workable for audio. But as you say, VDCNI, it's Gareth Roberts who is novelizing "Shada," not Russell.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I think people have been taking his talking about a hypothetical novelisation a bit too seriously. The BBC couldn't afford to pay him the kind of money he gets for writing a book.

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet.

According to the latest Previews, Gaiman is writing a short story for the next Brilliant Book.

I do tend to agree that the BBC will never be able to pay Gaiman what he can command for a full novel, but clearly short stories aren't infeasible.

 

[ClayinCA]

On the other hand, Gaiman (in various interviews, blog posts and the like) has displayed a considerable excitement about the notion of writing such a novelisation, and may well be willing to take a lower fee for such a thing. He's certainly got to know that his usual price is higher than BBC Books is likely to pay - he's not stupid.

 

[Sindatur]

On the other hand, Gaiman (in various interviews, blog posts and the like) has displayed a considerable excitement about the notion of writing such a novelisation, and may well be willing to take a lower fee for such a thing. He's certainly got to know that his usual price is higher than BBC Books is likely to pay - he's not stupid.

Yea, I imagine some of our very own writers would take a lesser payday, if necessary for the opportunity to write a Who book/novelization of their choosing, wouldn't you guys?

 

[Stevil2001]

On the other hand, Gaiman (in various interviews, blog posts and the like) has displayed a considerable excitement about the notion of writing such a novelisation, and may well be willing to take a lower fee for such a thing. He's certainly got to know that his usual price is higher than BBC Books is likely to pay - he's not stupid.

Maybe, but Gaiman has never written Sandman: Year Zero because DC won't pay him what he could make for writing a novel.

 

[Sci]

On the other hand, Gaiman (in various interviews, blog posts and the like) has displayed a considerable excitement about the notion of writing such a novelisation, and may well be willing to take a lower fee for such a thing. He's certainly got to know that his usual price is higher than BBC Books is likely to pay - he's not stupid.

Maybe, but Gaiman has never written Sandman: Year Zero because DC won't pay him what he could make for writing a novel.

No, but he did write "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?"

Meanwhile, all I can say is, he didn't say he thought he was going to write a "The Doctor's Wife" novelization or that he hoped to when I saw him speak in D.C. a few weeks ago. He said he was going to.

 

[Lonemagpie]

A novelisation of a 45 minute episode might not be a full-length book, though. I'd suspect it'll go in an anthology, or 2013's Brilliant Book, or as a special ebook on the official site, or... something.

 

[ClayinCA]

On the other hand, Gaiman (in various interviews, blog posts and the like) has displayed a considerable excitement about the notion of writing such a novelisation, and may well be willing to take a lower fee for such a thing. He's certainly got to know that his usual price is higher than BBC Books is likely to pay - he's not stupid.

Maybe, but Gaiman has never written Sandman: Year Zero because DC won't pay him what he could make for writing a novel.

He hasn't written it yet...and anyway, that business decision on DC's part was made by people no longer with the company, and those who are in charge now may have an entirely different viewpoint on the matter.

Meanwhile, all I can say is, he didn't say he thought he was going to write a "The Doctor's Wife" novelization or that he hoped to when I saw him speak in D.C. a few weeks ago. He said he was going to.

Well hell, that's good enough for me!

A novelisation of a 45 minute episode might not be a full-length book, though. I'd suspect it'll go in an anthology, or 2013's Brilliant Book, or as a special ebook on the official site, or... something.

Possibly, but he's also stated that some of the appeal of doing a novelization was that he'd then get the chance to insert back in a whole bunch of material he'd been forced to cut out of the episode, so that might lengthen things a bit.

 

[23skidoo]

A novelisation of a 45 minute episode might not be a full-length book, though. I'd suspect it'll go in an anthology, or 2013's Brilliant Book, or as a special ebook on the official site, or... something.

Alan Dean Foster took 25-minute scripts for Star Trek: The Animated Series and expanded them into 200-page novels back in the 1970s (Star Trek Logs Eight, Nine and Ten if I recall correctly). And Target Books novelized all the two-episode stories like The Sontaran Experiment and The Awakening and managed to get novels the same length as those for 4 and 6 episode stories. So I don't think length of the original TV story is a factor.

The fact Gaiman is contributing material to the Brilliant Book (confirmed by the release of cover images a few days ago), though whether it's an actual short story is uncertain, though it sounds like he's written something expanding on who the Corsair was, pretty much puts paid to the whole notion of him being "too expensive for BBC Books". If the BBC could afford to pay him to write an episode and Confidential could afford to have him make a major appearance in that show (not just a talking head interview - they even had him reading from his script), and 2 Entertain could afford to work out the royalty structure to allow Doctor's Wife to be released to DVD and Blu-ray -- not to mention the fact BBC Books is able to afford to hire Michael Moorcock, Alistair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter to write novels - there's no reason to expect they couldn't afford Gaiman.

Alex