Typhon Pact branding
- Thread starter Janos
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No. David Mack's TNG trilogy at the end of 2012 is under the banner TNG: Cold Equations. And in fact none of the Typhon Pact books on the schedule this year are specifically or exclusively TNG as far as we know. Plagues of Night/Raise the Dawn features elements of TNG, DS9, and other 24th-century material and features the DS9 station and the Bajoran wormhole on its covers. Brinkmanship has had no specifics released yet, but for what it's worth, it's by Una McCormack, an author whose prior works are exclusively DS9.
Aside from those, TNG-era books coming out in 2012 that are not Typhon Pact include DTI: Forgotten History (partly TNG-era), Titan: Fallen Gods, and Voyager: The Eternal Tide. Plenty of non-Pact stuff is still going on.
Sometimes when a multi-series event takes place in TrekLit, I miss the old days when each story in the arc would fall under a different series banner. Gateways, for instance. Each title fell under a series banner first, then the Gateways banner (e.g., Deep Space Nine: Gateways: Demons of Air and Darkness). That made it easier for readers who are trying to follow a specific series without getting caught up in event.
I can sort of understand why that wasn't done with the last round of Typhon Pact books. Zero Sum Game and Seize the Fire would've fit under the DS9 and TTN banners easily, but RBoE would not have (even though it is pretty critical to the DS9R), and I haven't read it yet but from what I understand, the fourth book (can't remember the name) had TNG elements as well as wrapping up the Shar storyline from DS9. Even so, I kinda wish the editors had bitten the bullet and placed them under the DS9 and TNG banners anyway, or included both series banners (TOS/DS9 and TNG/DS9). It has been done before. Avatar, for instance, had a semi-significant TNG presence but was placed under the DS9 banner. When the upcoming duology was announced, I had hoped the first title would read Deep Space Nine: Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night.
I know that this doesn't bother everyone and I'm no editor so I am sure there is much more to the big picture. But I speak from the standpoint of a fan who doesn't have the time or cash to read every TrekLit novel that comes out every year (or have access to a library that stocks them) and copes by sticking to a few series.
I can sort of understand why that wasn't done with the last round of Typhon Pact books. Zero Sum Game and Seize the Fire would've fit under the DS9 and TTN banners easily, but RBoE would not have (even though it is pretty critical to the DS9R), and I haven't read it yet but from what I understand, the fourth book (can't remember the name) had TNG elements as well as wrapping up the Shar storyline from DS9. Even so, I kinda wish the editors had bitten the bullet and placed them under the DS9 and TNG banners anyway, or included both series banners (TOS/DS9 and TNG/DS9). It has been done before. Avatar, for instance, had a semi-significant TNG presence but was placed under the DS9 banner. When the upcoming duology was announced, I had hoped the first title would read Deep Space Nine: Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night.
I know that this doesn't bother everyone and I'm no editor so I am sure there is much more to the big picture. But I speak from the standpoint of a fan who doesn't have the time or cash to read every TrekLit novel that comes out every year (or have access to a library that stocks them) and copes by sticking to a few series.
Actually Paths of Disharmony was a full-on TNG novel, with Shar simply "guest starring." And my Typhon Pact e-novella The Struggle Within is also pure TNG. So really RBoE is the only one that wouldn't fit under a single series title.
It has, but in the wake of Destiny's success, the sales department wanted another crossover "event" with a distinct branding. So even though Typhon Pact was plotted much like the crossovers of old, a group of basically standalone novels in various series with a unifying theme, it was branded and marketed more like Destiny.
What we've been told, though, is that it's not exclusively or primarily DS9. It seems to be more of a Destiny/A Singular Destiny-style full crossover, merging TNG, DS9, the Bacco administration, the Romulan threads from RBoE, and the like. So unlike most of the earlier TP books, this duology couldn't fit under any specific series title.
I had a feeling marketing was behind the decision
. Don't get me wrong, though - while I would like to eventually see the words "Deep Space Nine" featured more prominently on a book than the back-cover synopsis, I'm glad the Typhon Pact has been a success and it looks like we are going to get to see the station and it's inhabitants be the focal point of something.Christopher said:
Ah, I guess that's true, from what we've heard. So far the focal character seems to be Sisko, but who knows how the story will unfold for Picard, Bacco, etc.
I like this - it is after all, all the same universe !
The "Double Helix" mini-series of novels was originally announced as each installment coming out with a different series brand, but TNG novels outsold DS9 and VOY - by a lot - at the time, so they all ended up with the TNG branding. Otherwise, projected sales of the DS9-, Stargazer- and VOY-connected stories would have limited the number of copies printed.
Similarly, "The Best and the Brightest" was originally advertised as "Starfleet Academy: The Best and the Brightest", but came out under TNG. Wise move, financially.
So "biting the bullet" doesn't make sense from a marketing point of view. Maximum sales are desired for every ST novel.
The shelving pixies aren't going to come and do an inspection of your bookcase to make sure all the spine titles match. Buy the stories that sound interesting to you. Don't worry about what TV series your books are supposed to be based upon.
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And The Lost Era: The Buried Age ended up branded as TNG: The Buried Age, with the smaller banner "A Tale of The Lost Era."
Which makes me deeply surprised that Forgotten History ended up under the Department of Temporal Investigations logo rather than being marketed as TOS.
I kinda like the way they seem to using the Typhon Pact title. It seems like they're using that on the big crossover event stories, while they're leaving the series titles for the smaller standalones. Honestly, it seems pretty smart to me. That way we know just from the title it will be a big multi-series story.
Except that's not how it's been used, since four of the first five Typhon Pact titles were specific to a single Trek series -- Seize the Fire was Titan, Zero Sum Game was DS9, and Paths of Disharmony and The Struggle Within were TNG. The thing is, even though Typhon Pact was marketed as a big crossover event, it was really a series of loosely associated standalones more like Invasion! or The Captain's Table. True, Shar did guest-star in PoD, but in a relatively minor role, so Rough Beasts of Empire is the only Typhon Pact-branded book to date that really constitutes a crossover. So if that's how the title is being used for DRGIII's duology (and possibly Brinkmanship, that's something fairly new.
At the same time, John Ordover said later that he regretted doing that -- branding all six books as "Star Trek: The Next Generation" -- because readers felt like they were promised something about the books that wasn't true. So, it's one of those damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't situations.
That was a fun book. I've sometimes wished for those characters to make a return appearance. The ones who made it through the Dominion War and the Borg incidents would be Lieutenant Commanders at the very least by the Typhon Pact time.
On my shelf Paths of Disharmony is with my TNG books, Zero Sum Game and Rough Beasts of Empire are both with my DS9 books, and Seize the Fire is with my Titan books. But I have the proper forms to show to the Shelving Pixies that this is an acceptable order to put them in, should they show up and try to argue with me about it. If they don't go for that I shall unleash the Continuity Gnomes on them and let them battle it out.
However I now have an e-reader, so future Typhon Pact books won't be on my shelf at all.
I think that's debatable. Yeah, it focuses primarily on the TNG characters, but it also continues DS9's overall Andorian reproductive crisis arc -- so I'd consider that to be much more of a DS9/TNG crossover than you do.
I don't know if just continuing an arc counts as a crossover. DS9 "continued the arc" of TOS's Mirror Universe episode. VGR's "False Profits" continued a storyline from TNG's "The Price." The Maquis arc started on TNG in "Journey's End," then jumped to DS9 with "The Maquis," then back to TNG for "Pre-emptive Strike," then back to DS9 for "Tribunal," then to VGR for "Caretaker" -- and Gul Evek was in every one of those stories on all three series (although later Maquis stories on DS9 proceeded without him).
And of course Before Dishonor featured characters and story threads from VGR while being distinctly labeled as TNG. TTN: Orion's Hounds picked up a couple of arcs from early TNG episodes. And there are surely other examples. In such an interconnected universe, threads and supporting characters can move from one series to another without it being a crossover in the full sense.
Rather than saying that PoD is a DS9 crossover, I'd say, rather, that like the Maquis arc, the Andorian reproductive crisis arc grew beyond a single series and was able to be picked up in another. And Shar was written out of DS9 years ago so he was fair game to be featured in another series, like how Tuvok ended up on Titan.
The point is, no book is going to be titled with two different series subtitles on the same cover, so if the TP books had been branded by series, PoD would've unquestionably ended up with the TNG banner because the TNG elements are dominant in the story.
And of course Before Dishonor featured characters and story threads from VGR while being distinctly labeled as TNG. TTN: Orion's Hounds picked up a couple of arcs from early TNG episodes. And there are surely other examples. In such an interconnected universe, threads and supporting characters can move from one series to another without it being a crossover in the full sense.
Rather than saying that PoD is a DS9 crossover, I'd say, rather, that like the Maquis arc, the Andorian reproductive crisis arc grew beyond a single series and was able to be picked up in another. And Shar was written out of DS9 years ago so he was fair game to be featured in another series, like how Tuvok ended up on Titan.
The point is, no book is going to be titled with two different series subtitles on the same cover, so if the TP books had been branded by series, PoD would've unquestionably ended up with the TNG banner because the TNG elements are dominant in the story.
^I was looking at PoD the same way Sci was, but I guess with the interconnectedness of the entire book line now, it can be a little more complicated to determine exactly what is and isn't a crossover.
This discussion brought up a question for me. Who determines what series a book is labled as? For example say you wrote a Titan/TNG crossover that featured both casts prominently, who would determine if it put under the TTN, TNG, or it's own banner? I had always assumed that was all entirely the authors, but some of the posts in the thread have made it sound like it's more of a marketing decision.
This discussion brought up a question for me. Who determines what series a book is labled as? For example say you wrote a Titan/TNG crossover that featured both casts prominently, who would determine if it put under the TTN, TNG, or it's own banner? I had always assumed that was all entirely the authors, but some of the posts in the thread have made it sound like it's more of a marketing decision.
I really wouldn't mind if all the barriers broke down and all books were simply under the Star Trek banner. For marketing reasons, it would never happen, but...
Realistically, anything with a couple of TNG characters in it is likely to get labled Next Gen as it would sell more !
Realistically, anything with a couple of TNG characters in it is likely to get labled Next Gen as it would sell more !
It did with Playmates' action figure lines, eventually.
Well, yeah. The cover, title, and all that stuff on the outside of the book are part of the process of attracting the readers' attention and getting them interested. So it's about presentation. The authors' responsibility is the stuff inside the book. Our job is telling the story, while the editors and book designers and marketing people and such are the experts at selling the story, at deciding how to package and promote it. If we writers had to do all the promotional stuff as well, design the title logo and the cover art and write the blurbs and the catalog text and so on, we couldn't do it as well as the people who specialize in such things, and it would take our time and attention away from our own specialization, which is writing the actual stories.
As for your hypothetical, we already had a TNG/TTN crossover that featured both crews equally, and it was called Star Trek: Destiny. Something that isn't predominantly one specific series would usually be under the general Star Trek label, plus perhaps a subtitle that would help give it a strong, marketable identity (hence the title of A Singular Destiny linking it to the trilogy). The Typhon Pact branding seems to be serving that role where DRGIII's duology is concerned. Although there have been exceptions in the past, like Double Helix and The Best and the Brightest being under the TNG logo even though that didn't really work for them. But the generic ST title has been used for crossover projects like The Badlands, The Brave and the Bold, Dark Passions, and the like. (The distinction between Star Trek, the original series, and Star Trek, the overall franchise is generally made by the use of the TV title font for the former.)
That's right. As others have mentioned it does seem that if there is more than one of the TNG-era series in a novel in current lit timeline its gets the "Typhon Pact" banner. I've been waiting for DS9 proper books for a while so am looking forward to this year's TP offerings which seem to have DS9 pronounced. And, naturally, I am a fan of DTI now, alongside NF & DS9. 3 series that are guranteed buys for me.
Pixies, Gnomes, um, Tribbles, oh my!
Paths of Disharmony was the big Q for me. I do have Zero Sum Game & Rough Beasts of the Empire since they seemed to have DS9 or its characters in pronounced roles. However, I am hearing more about Paths of Disharmony regarding Shar and the Andor birthing dilemma. I'm still unsure about picking it up. Without revealing or spoiling the details, does it resolve the whole Andor subplot?
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