Pocket Books' Star Trek Pro Novel Guidelines (1985)

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Related terms: Pocket Books Publisher
Star Trek Tie-in Novels
See also: Pocket Books' Star Trek Pro Novel Guidelines (1995)
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Pocket Books' Star Trek Pro Novel Guidelines was printed in TREKisM #44 in Sept/Oct 1985.

The "Style Sheet" had this introduction: "Barbara Yanosko has thoughtfully obtained permission from Pocket Books editor Karen Haas to publish this; this information may save some budding writers a lot of time and trouble."

While distributed in June 1985 (or before), it is unclear when the guidelines were first written and utilized.

This style sheet was intended to be a public document for manuscripts submitted to Pocket Books for Star Trek Tie-in novels.

For guidelines ten years later, see Pocket Books' Star Trek Pro Novel Guidelines (1995).

Some Context

Many fans wanted to read "better" pro novels. Many fans felt that they could write "better" pro novels, and they had a keen interest in being published professionally.

In Boldly Writing (1996), Joan Verba wrote:

The professional novels got a lot of press.

[snipped]

In April [1983 issue of Interstat), Lisa Wahl and Julia Ecklar complained... about the poor quality of the pro novels: 'Is everyone as tired as we are at discovering that Trek novels by award-winning science fiction writers are not as good as many fans' works?" In June, Lisa Wahl suggested that Star Trek fans boycott the Timescape Star Trek novels in October and November of that year, in order to protest their poor quality. That got a lot of fans writing in. Several fans said they were afraid that such a boycott would hurt sales of Yesterday's Son, which they had read in manuscript form. Howard Weinstein was one of them, though he added, 'Lisa and Julia get no argument from me when they complain that not all the pro Star Trek novels are as good as they might be.' Howard also wrote, 'Since the publication of Covenant, I've gotten several hundred letters from readers...I've found overwhelming approval.' This matched reports of every single pro author who wrote to a letterzine: all reported getting hundreds of positive responses.

The Guidelines

Pocket style pg1
Pocket style pg2

We are interested in full-length adventure novels of roughly 70-80,000 words. We cannot use short stories, poetry. biographies, romances, music, cartoons, scripts, or trivia books.

We prefer the novels to be set during the original five-year mission. We do not wish to see sequels to any of the feature films, novels which explain how we got from the television show to the first movie or from one movie to the next, or sequels (by a different author) to our already published novels.

We are not interested in certain plots. Some have already been used, some are not acceptable to Paramount, some are not acceptable to our readers, and some are not acceptable, period. Major themes to avoId are:

  • Going back, or forward, in time to change history, to rescue someone, to learn something, etc.
  • The Enterprise crew must find a cure for some kind of disease.
  • Having a tear in the fabric of reality which could destroy the universe.
  • Any crewmember's offspring from a previous adventure back In time.
  • Pon farr in Spock or any other Vulcan.
  • A member of Starfleet goes on an undercover assignment and everything that could go wrong, does.
  • Sequels to the feature fiIms.
  • Destruction of the Enterprise or death of a major, established crewmember.
  • Rebel Vulcans, a smalI sect of emotional Vulcans, Vulcan hybrids.
  • A mutiny aboard the Enterprise or its takeover by hostile forces in order to provoke a war.
  • Instantaneous transport between two widely-separated locations.
  • EviI children or animals.
  • The Enterprise returns a young adult member of the ruling famiIy back home and gets involved in a violent change of government.
  • Any plot which hinges on or describes in detaiI sexual relations (normal or abnormal). No sado-masochism. Nothing that suggests anything other than respect and true friendship between Spock and Kirk, or any other crewmember.

Plot elements to avoid with specific characters are: Spock: no sisters, brothers, half-siblings, relations other than mother and father, childhood sweethearts, off-spring, pon farr, sudden reversions to emotions or loss of mind rules, sex.

Kirk: no offspring, no close relations not already established. He is not on a perpetual diet (don't contuse the actor with the character). His middle name is Tiberious, not Tomcat. No leering or salivating at every female in eyesight. Romance can be a plot element but not the major plot theme.

McCoy: liquor should not always be apparent on his breath nor should he continually be offering drinks. It is not obligatory tor him to say "He's dead, Jim," in every novel. No offspring or close relations not already established.

Other crewmembers: do not dwell on recognizable catch-phrases, quirks -- this reduces them to caricatures of themselves. No long physical descriptions.

With so many people writing about it, absolute consistency within the STAR TREK universe is difficult to achieve. However, certain books can be used as reilable sources for facts:

Crewmembers statistics: STAR TREK III BIOGRAPHIES by William Rostler

The KIingons: THE FINAL REFLECTION by John Ford, THE KLINGON DICTIONARY by Marc Okrand (available 12/85)

The Romulans: MY ENEMY, MY ALLY by Diane Duane

The Federation: THE ENTROPY EFFECT, THE WRATH OF KHAN, THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK by Vonda Mcintrye, MY ENEMY, MY ALLY; THE WOUNDED SKY by Diane Duane

Ships and Starbases: THE WOUNDED SKY by Diane Duane, ISHMAEL by Barbary Hambly [1]

Some Star Trek: TOS Pro Books with Fan Connections

Further Reading and Context

References

  1. ^ "Ishmael" is unique in that the book was a crossover with Here Come the Brides and done without permission from HCTB's owners.
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