http://alanajoli.livejournal.com/88550.html

What I’m saying? end of the day it’s still the writer self I was a fan of, and that particular author’s books I bought.

My apologies to all whom this may have affected.

My reason?

After a prologue chapter which introduced the pending threat, we had the Meet the Characters chapter. Except we didn’t. I read through it and realized that if I had never seen the show before, I would have no idea who these characters were, how they looked or acted, or anything. The author had taken the shorthand of the licensed property to zip arond characterization.

NOW, that said, I also know that these books tend to be tainted with editorial interference. The author may well have written or intended to write a very rich and textured introduction to each of our principles, but been told not to for fear that Alexis Bledsoe’s lawyers may sue over unsecured likeness rights or some other brand of horse crockery. Which leads nicely into the other problem I have with tie-in books, in that they can be severely hampered by editorial contraints.

How many truly great Star Trek novels have we been denied because of a Paramount mandate that Geordi couldn’t ever be shot dead by a Ferengi hooker?

Sadly, we may never know.

(It is interesting to note that Fan Fic by contrast has no such problem, and in fact Geordi has no doubt been unofficially murdered by alien prostitutes a multitude of times.)

I am a writer with a day job and I’d love the chance to throw myself into the business full time. While I haven’t done much knocking upon the tie-in door, there are probably less all-consuming day jobs — and there are few that give you a chance at real creativity.

Of course, the potential of tie-in writing as a day job must depend on the writer’s work habits. (I’d probably end up bogging down on developing the gloomy underpinnings of Papa Smurf’s resentment of Smurfette, or what have you).

As for reading them, it’s been a while. After a while, I only wanted to know what the creator had to say about the creation — autograph work by the auteur.

~Dave

I’ve only read tie-ins by authors that were recommended to me. Without a third party recommendation, tie-ins don’t provide me with the means I normally use to determine if I’ll like the book. The cover art and back covers give me mostly information that I already know, or that I expect to be there.

On the other hand, I had a dream just last night that a publisher asked me to write a Star Wars novel for them. I’ve rarely been so sad to wake up. I guess that says something too.