Honestly, what does a timeline even need pictures for?
I don't suppose there'll be another Chronology?
- Thread starter MrPointy
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Sooner or later Voyages of the Imagination is going to have to be updated as well. Will that be neglected as well?
Speaking of which, how are sales doing?
Speaking of which, how are sales doing?
Well, I guess that will only become a topic when there's a few years worth of undocumented novels, so I don't think that it's on the forefront of the editor's mind at the moment.
Do you even read the threads on this board? Sales figures of the books aren't a topic discussed in the public.
FalTorPan said:
Now that there are no new, weekly stories, it's the perfect time for the chronology to catch up. Apparently it's also a poor time to sell a caught-up chronology.
I wonder if it would be viable to sell it in two volumes:
* Big Bang - 2300
* 2301 - ?
Not necessarily. Each volume would have a lower pricing point. It's the same reason that some TV shows (e.g., Lost in Space) are sold on DVD in "partial-season box sets" rather than full-season sets.
I'm not saying that this strategy would result in sure-fire bestsellers. I'm just suggesting that it's another set of variables to plug into the profitability calculations that have seemingly determined that a humungoid, single-volume book would not be profitable.
But DVDs have a huge profit margin compared to books. Certain base production costs for book printing would not go down much with cutting the book in two--so the publisher would be paying that base cost twice instead of once and each separate volume would have to be priced at more than half of what the one big volume would have been. And the smaller volumes might still have a smaller profit margin.
Sadly, if one big book isn't profitable, there's no magic way to cut it in two and suddenly have a money maker, especially when your talking expensive glossy four-color printing.
Defcon said:
Well, I guess that will only become a topic when there's a few years worth of undocumented novels, so I don't think that it's on the forefront of the editor's mind at the moment.
Do you even read the threads on this board? Sales figures of the books aren't a topic discussed in the public.
well, i put in my $.02...actually it was an ebay order of $3.87 for Voyages of the Imagination. A good deal, but it'll pay off for pocket books in the end as i'm sure this book will force me to buy many many more once i read some story synopsis for the trek books.
Defcon said:
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Do you even read the threads on this board? Sales figures of the books aren't a topic discussed in the public.
I read them, yes. I meant as a refrence book, is it doing sales that warrent a 2nd printing things like that. Seeing as how refrence books tend to not sell. That's why I asked.
Defcon said:
Well, I guess that will only become a topic when there's a few years worth of undocumented novels, so I don't think that it's on the forefront of the editor's mind at the moment.
Do you even read the threads on this board? Sales figures of the books aren't a topic discussed in the public.
Not actual sales figures, no. But certainly there has been "hasn't sold enough to warrant a second volume" and that sort of comment about books in the past.
Dave
Thanks for the insight. I know next to nothing about the print-based publishing industry. I guess apples and oranges aren't apples and apples.
That could be an interesting idea - Titan have done it before, with Babylon 5 Magazine publishing an official chronology...
Mmmmmm. The UK part-work, "Star Trek Fact Files" never raised its price over its 304-issue weekly run, and gave excellent value for money, but many fans who bought it posted their anger at themselves for wasting 2 pounds/$AU 5.00 per issue x 304. (Plus free binders every few months.) Only twice did I hit a snag collecting them; about a third of the way through, I had to place a special order with a newsagent to have issues put aside. And when I changed jobs I had to scramble to switch suppliers and not miss or duplicate an issue.
However, I always felt I received $5 reading pleasure every week, and I never begrudged collecting them, but many people really seem to resent part-works.
There was a similar US part-work, but the company stopped production about a quarter of the way through. Much to fans' anger.
Still, the thing lasted over 300 issues.
And I'm talking about embedding a multi-part chronology as an ongoing feature in a pre-existing periodical. Basically give the authors a steady stream of income while sharing the information in an entertaining way. Of course, magazine space is at a premium, so the question becomes whether such a thing would be the best use of a magazine's limited pages over the long term.
I agree that the Internet is the best way to present this material, but if an official chronology is to be of any use to Trek's writers and enthusiasts, then it should be updated, and the only way to keep that going is to make such an endeavor profitable -- in my opinion, anyway.
Yes, I know, which is why I mentioned fan anger at part-works.
But it'll always be out of date anyway. Once ten issues or so are released, a new novel will mention something that needs to go back in issue #1. So then people will say, "When is a reprint of #1 - with corrections - coming out?"
Jeff Ayers set up a website with the same name, presumably partly to keep us posted on the titles not covered by the print version. I think it's unlikely the whole book will be reprinted/updated. A tighter discussion of the next ten years worth of books might be viable/possible for the 50th anniversary?
I think VotI may have recently been remaindered? I just picked up a pristine (third) copy on a bargain table for $10. (I paid full price for my first copy, plus airfreight, and Jeff sent me a signed freebie as well.)
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Books are typically remaindered when they're not selling well anymore. Publishers liquidate remaining (get it?) stock at huge, loss-inducing discounts to clear room in their warehouses for new stuff which will hopefully sell better.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
When a book is remaindered, no more royalties are owing either. The publisher chooses to seal them off, and take the loss if the advance has not yet equaled out. The book is just selling too slowly, and is taking up precious warehouse space. Many books are only promoted for three months, sad as that sounds. Then they fall off the marketing people's radar.
The author does get a chance, usually, to buy up a quantity of remaindered books at a greatly reduced price, which can then be stored by the author for future book signings, perhaps even re-sold to individual fans at full price and making up the royalty shortfall.
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