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From: chabot@miles.DEC (Sxyzyskzyik)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Star Trek novels
Message-ID: <3314@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Jul-85 16:07:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.3314
Posted: Fri Jul 26 16:07:35 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Jul-85 08:24:16 EDT
Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
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rick heli
> I have been told by a fairly knowledgable source that anyone who
> writes Star Trek novels has basically sold out and probably can't
> sell non-Star Trek material.  Apparently Paramount holds all the
> rights to Star Trek stories and pretty much has such writers at
> their mercy.

Can you give a logical explanation for believing such nonsense, other than that
someone told you?  Try looking at the bookshelves: see the names John M. Ford
(Star Trek novel: _The_Final_Reflection_, and I never thought I'd ever read a
Star Trek novel (having tried) and I never thought I'd ever say I liked one and
I never thought I'd say a Star Trek novel would be one of the best books I've
read all year (I'm an awful snob), and damn fine science fiction); other novels
include _The_Princes_of_the_Air_, and whose just published _Dragon_Waiting_, 
which is sort of a alternate-history fantasy if you had to categorize it, is 
hot and hard to put down!), Barbara Hambly (_Ishmael_), and many, many others--
since I've only read these two these two authors stick in my mind more than the 
others.  Several of those who've sold Star Trek novels sell lots of other 
books.  Don't just believe what you're told: go to the bookstore to where they
have all those displays full of Star Trek novels and jot down
a couple of the authors' names and then go look in say the science fiction 
section of the bookstore and see if you can find anything (but while you're
over by the Star Trek books, buy a copy of _The_Final_Reflection_ if you can
still get it and take it home and read it.  Or, on second
thought, I know some really prime real estate in California City with all the
conveniences (many roads are paved, creosote bushes, stark mountain views, 
without the encumbrances of human neighbors!): get in now before the rush!

Now for something I can't have you prove to yourself:
What is true, is that to get published by Pocket Books, the only people who are
authorized to publish Star Trek novels, you have to meet certain criteria,
which include bizarre and restrictive things like no splinter-Vulcan groups,
no books which include non-main-line-up-in-the-bridge-type Enterprise 
characters (probably to prevent aspiring Star Trek novelists from insinuating
an idealized self on the Enterprise to save the day), no physical touching 
between a captain and his first officer or anything suggestive like that.  
Weirdnesses like this (and we know that lots of the best Star Trek novels 
violate some of these rules in some degree), but frankly, you're getting this 
third-hand from me...

* * *
Those who've appreciated the postings of PDDB (forwarded by .wIx., with 
disclaimers) will be nearly as disappointed as I to learn that we won't get 
any more: DDB and PDDB are about to return West to the fabled land of the 
scribblies (I've never seen the midWest and I have no proof it exists in 
realtime).  I'd never known anyone who knew so many correct details about Star 
Trek, anyone who could ever spark an interest in me in reading a Star Trek 
novel, or who could discuss it so accurately, and literately, and without being 
foolishly fond or cynically superior.

L S Chabot   ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot