Tag: publishing

Hi Una! I love your Star Trek novels and am excited to read the rest of them – still making my way through the DS9 relaunch novels, bit by bit (I’m a sucker for reading chronologically).I have a question about the timelineof these tie-in novels: How long does it take for one to be published, from the publisher approaching you (I assume) to the book being handed over and then on the shelves? I know that for non-tie-in novels these timelines can be quite long but especially for ongoing series I imagine everything needs to happen more quickly.Thanks :D

unamccormack:

Hi there! Delighted you’re enjoying the relaunch: I was so lucky to get to be part of that.

The timeline for books like this? Aha, she says, looking at her chewed fingernails and gnawed knuckles. Sometimes it can be extremely tight. I think the quickest I have ever turned one round was 4 weeks (that was another franchise, not Trek, and it was, at least, only 50k). Generally, though, I have about 3-4 months to write (and we’ll have had a couple of months working on an outline before that). Sometimes I don’t get started early enough – but that’s a problem of my own making! That’s just the writing, though: editing, copy-editing, proofing, and of course printing and distributing have their own timetables, of another 3-4 months.

There are two main reasons why the turnaround on TV tie-in novels can be pretty tight. Firstly, everything has to be signed off by the studio as well as by the publisher, so that’s an extra round of approvals to everything (initial idea, outline, manuscript, etc.). So you’re part of a TV production as well as a publishing project, and all the promotional activity related to that.

Secondly, and connected to this, you’re locked into the deadlines of the show. For my first Picard novel, the book was slated to come out around episode 4 (partly so that Elnor and Zani, who are in the book, would make sense to the reader). So the schedule (writing, editing, copy-editing, proofing, printing, distributing, hitting the shelves, etc.) was absolutely fixed. As I recall, my editors were pretty worried that I’d overdo things – but I was flying! I loved writing that book! Sometimes having a tight deadline means you have to get very deeply immersed in your story, and that always means a better book.

When Star Trek was off-air (which was the case for the relaunch books), things were a little more leisurely! But I don’t mind the deadlines. I love writing, but it’s also very, very nice to have it done!

Hoping this reaches self-publishing Tumblr somehow:

What’s a good self-publishing imprint for books? I wrote something that I don’t really need to sell, but I would like a tiny run of physical copies to give out to friends and family and such (and yes, the satisfaction of holding a printed copy of the thing).

  • The main files are all Google docs, which exports to all the main document filetypes.
  • I’ve already formatted it and made it available as an ebook, not that it helps with a print-ready version. But you know, there’s been some work there.
  • I can do the setup myself according to given specifications since I have experience with print layouts (though please tell me I don’t need to actually bring this into whatever book layout software is used these days by the pros).
  • Paperback is likely the route I’d take, keep it simple.
  • Oh and a glossy color cover for sure, but the interior is black and white.

I can certainly do a quick search and find many results, so I guess I’m hoping for any pointers toward companies that are high quality or not unethical in some way.