Why no e-books for the first Shatnerverse trilogy?

[JD]

I keep looking on the Google store, and Amazon for e-book versions of Ashes of Eden, The Return and Avenger, but I can't find any. Both of the other trilogies, and the SFA book are all available on both formats, so apparently whatever is keeping the first three books unavailable is specific to them. Does anyone here have any idea what that reason might be?

 

[Therin of Andor]

I keep looking on the Google store, and Amazon for e-book versions of Ashes of Eden, The Return and Avenger, but I can't find any. Both of the other trilogies, and the SFA book are all available on both formats, so apparently whatever is keeping the first three books unavailable is specific to them. Does anyone here have any idea what that reason might be?

IIRC, when the eBooks first started coming out, there was a batch of novels that had their final publisher files locked into a format that was incompatible with the software used to create Simon & Schuster's eBooks.

Slowly, slowly, certain manuscripts had to be retyped anew. They was a certain randomness with this procedure, but perhaps for the Shatner books there was some extra redtape that made it easier to do other books first.

These three books were also released as a omnibus called "Odyssey"? Have you tried looking for that?
http://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Star-Trek-William-Shatner/dp/0671025473

Mmmm, seems not.

Wow! One second hand copy is priced at $9,802.13

UPDATE:
Can't see a legal notice for this link?
http://lgbtbooks.net/296493/odyssey.html

"Read Best eBook 2015 free download is in no way intended to support illegal activity. We uses Search API to find the overview of books over the internet, but we don't host any files. All document files are the property of their respective owners, please respect the publisher and the author for their copyrighted creations. If you find documents that should not be here please report them. Read our DMCA Policies and Disclaimer for more details."

 

[Idran]

Man, that looks so sketchy, I'm surprised it seems to lead to a legit service. (Googling turns up others saying the same; it seems like Playster is actually making fake front-ends that look like illegal download sources to trick people looking to pirate into coming to their service? That's a kind of advertising I never would've predicted.)

It's a subscription-based ebook access rather than just outright buying an ebook, though, so it might not be what the OP's looking for.

 

[JD]

I'd really rather stick to Google, Kindle, or Nook, but I do appreciate the effort Therin.

 

[JWolf]

Any update on these books becoming eBooks?

 

[Saul]

Wow! One second hand copy is priced at $9,802.13

Always wonder who do they think is going to pay that kind of money? (trek fans I know...) As soon as something goes out of print the price jumps a few hundred dollars. Is there really a market that will pay this kind of money?

 

[Idran]

Always wonder who do they think is going to pay that kind of money? (trek fans I know...) As soon as something goes out of print the price jumps a few hundred dollars. Is there really a market that will pay this kind of money?

Not necessarily. Some sellers do that to take inventory out of rotation on Amazon for one reason or another without needing to actually delist it and relist it again later. It saves effort overall to just set a ridiculously high price that will never actually be taken than to take it out of the store and then add it back to the store again later on.

Edit: Oh, wait, if you're only talking about jumps of a couple hundred dollars, then yeah that's probably not it; could be sellers with a bad impression of the market, could be an automated pricing system badly configured or something. But in situations like the price Therin linked, it's probably removing inventory from rotation. "9802.13" looks like a number you could easily get by just mashing your hand on a number pad twice.

 

[JD]

Any update on these books becoming eBooks?

I checked again a couple weeks ago and they don't appear to have added any more of them.

 

[tomswift2002]

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-c...9783641114954-item.html?ikwsec=Books&ikwidx=3

Here's a link to the German e-book edition of "The Ashes Of Eden". Looks like Cross Cult is marketing all their William Shatner's novels under the "Star Trek Classic" banner.

 

[Jinn]

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-c...9783641114954-item.html?ikwsec=Books&ikwidx=3

Here's a link to the German e-book edition of "The Ashes Of Eden". Looks like Cross Cult is marketing all their William Shatner's novels under the "Star Trek Classic" banner.

Actually not Cross Cult. These old Star Trek books where brought to Germany be Heyne. They stopped publishing ST novels sometime in the early 2000s but re-released (almost) all of their novels for eBook in 2014, including all of Shattners trilogies.

 

[JD]

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-c...9783641114954-item.html?ikwsec=Books&ikwidx=3

Here's a link to the German e-book edition of "The Ashes Of Eden". Looks like Cross Cult is marketing all their William Shatner's novels under the "Star Trek Classic" banner.

Sadly, that doesn't help me since I don't read German, but it is interesting to know though. I guess whatever issue is preventing them from being released as English language e-books must be specific to Pocket and not just about the format.

 

[Jinn]

Sadly, that doesn't help me since I don't read German

Google Translator?

 

[JD]

Ugh, the thought actually did cross my mind, but I can barely stand reading a paragraph of that, much less a whole book.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Sadly, that doesn't help me since I don't read German

I just recently found out that I at least partially understand German.

https://www.cross-cult.de/assets/images/e/Website_Slider-08a2f4be.jpg

I totally get "release party", "cinema", "get together", and my personal favourite, "snacks"!