Publishing Tie-ins

Questions for the resident (former) agent
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csutphen
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Joined: December 21st, 2012, 5:18 pm
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Publishing Tie-ins

Post by csutphen » December 23rd, 2012, 2:03 am

So i contacted Matt Larkin about editing my book and asked him some questions about getting it published. He referred me back to you and i searched the forum fo Sci-fi Tie-ins. This was his response to me:
While I've certainly watched plenty of Star Trek, I don't know a lot about tie-in fiction or what the requirements are. A quick search tells me Star Trek tie-ins are published by Pocket Books (a Simon & Schuster imprint).

So the bad news… Usually authors are approached to write tie-ins first, they don't approach publishers. Because you have only one publisher you can sell to, your task is more difficult. I don't think you can self-publish, either, but I'm not sure (Nathan might know). Also, remember most author's first novels are not ready, because it's such a learning process writing a book. This doesn't mean your book can't be made ready, but be aware most authors take several attempts to get to professional quality writing and storytelling.

So how does it work? if i have an idea, will pocket books accept a query letter? How do i find out about getting (i'm assuming unsolicited) queries?

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Nathan Bransford
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Re: Publishing Tie-ins

Post by Nathan Bransford » December 26th, 2012, 5:03 pm

csutphen wrote:So i contacted Matt Larkin about editing my book and asked him some questions about getting it published. He referred me back to you and i searched the forum fo Sci-fi Tie-ins. This was his response to me:
While I've certainly watched plenty of Star Trek, I don't know a lot about tie-in fiction or what the requirements are. A quick search tells me Star Trek tie-ins are published by Pocket Books (a Simon & Schuster imprint).

So the bad news… Usually authors are approached to write tie-ins first, they don't approach publishers. Because you have only one publisher you can sell to, your task is more difficult. I don't think you can self-publish, either, but I'm not sure (Nathan might know). Also, remember most author's first novels are not ready, because it's such a learning process writing a book. This doesn't mean your book can't be made ready, but be aware most authors take several attempts to get to professional quality writing and storytelling.

So how does it work? if i have an idea, will pocket books accept a query letter? How do i find out about getting (i'm assuming unsolicited) queries?
Yeah, unfortunately these things are (to my knowledge) handled by Star Wars/Star Trek licensing people directly. The best way to get in would be to first get published to establish your bona fides, then reach out to the people who handle those.

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