Self Publishing can work - there was a novel published last year that
made it into the SF top ten, the reviews I read said it was dross, so I didn't
buy it.
I think it was some Nazi alternate history thing. Anyway looking into
forbidden planet (SF bookstore) they seem to have loads of copies of the next
two sequels so it made enough money to do that.
I think that you can get relatively small runs of paperbacks published for a
reasonable cost these days. Distribution is the issue but people do seem to do
it for themselves via the major specialist chains. Just don't be too
ambitious, a print run of 5000 would probably be more than enough.
I think an anthology of space battle type stories in various universes or in
the FT background in a similar vein to the way Hammers Slammers background is
woven in, would be ideal. This would appeal to the military SF fan which form
a reasonable market. Baen and other military SF specialist publishers seem to
be doing well enough.
Here we would use the FT game to simulate the battle and decide the outcome in
a pseudo realistic way. As suggested, characterisation in *very* important
rather than just clashing metal.
Tom Clancy used the Harpoon game to simulate a lot of the action in his navy
stories which have the right balance of people and action.
Sincerely
> Self Publishing can work - there was a novel published last year that
Really! Gee, I just finished reading an alternate history SF book dealing with
Nazis. Met the author, too. Very interesting guy, but the novel was
only so-so on my list.
You wouldn't happen to know what the book you heard about was called, would
you?
> forbidden planet (SF bookstore) they seem to have loads of copies of
Ah, sequels. Then prolly not the same book as I read. I don't think he's done
any sequels yet.
Mk
I think that instead of full novels or compilations of storys (at least
not at first...:) ) How about including a short story or two in each
product? Thats what taskforce does with it's "captain's log" and "nexus" mags.
(nexus was taskforce's house organ magazine)
At least this way you can "bring the game universe to life" without haveing
piles of novels stacked everywhere. Later if FT shows enough growth, try a
novel or two (compilation or otherwise).
> Tim Jones Wrote:
> Self Publishing can work - there was a novel published last
I think you may have been referring to the DRAKA books by David
Drake? Excellent SciFi/Combat writer. Check out his Hammer's Slammers
series - just screaming for the SG/DS/FT touch! In fact if you look at
the back of the DS Rules you will see him included in the recommended reading
AND GZG have a hover tank released called the Slammer!
Between David Drake, Jerry Pournelle and Gordon R Dickson you
would have a superlative SG/DS/FT omnibus. Oh well, dream on.
> At 08:00 AM 7/11/97 +1000, you wrote:
> I think you may have been referring to the DRAKA books by David
The Draka books are by Steve Stirling, not David Drake.
> Donald Hosford wrote:
> I think that instead of full novels or compilations of storys (at least
snip
> At least this way you can "bring the game universe to life" without
I think that's a great idea, and probably the best way of handling it. I can
only speak on the Australian experience and say that Full Thrust has burgeoned
in the last few years, but it has yet to attain the following that other (less
worthy, in my opinion) games have. I think this will probably come in the next
few years, and an excellent way of testing the water is for a short story or
two to be published in some of the new products.
Putting on another hat and speaking as a creative writer I feel certain that
the universe lends itself to quite a few interesting stories. In fact I ran a
RPG version of 'Dirtside' (I modified an existing RPG system) on a little
mudball that was being fought over by the Dutch and NAC. It lasted a year, and
everyone had a great time. Which brings me to an interesting point. Perhaps
the step necessary to increase the market for the Full Thrust universe is to
include a role playing system which interlocks with Stargrunt and Full Thrust.
It's probably worthwhile looking at developing a simple, elegant system with
generic potential that fits into the FT universe... The simplicity would
appeal to the wargamers, the background to
the FRP-ers. Then short stories outside a supplement may become well and
truly viable.
Regards,
My humblest apologies to Messrs Drake and Stirling
> ----------
> At 08:00 AM 7/11/97 +1000, you wrote:
> oglover @ mov.vic.gov.au ("Glover, Owen") wrote:
> Between David Drake, Jerry Pournelle and Gordon R Dickson you
If we're dreaming, I'd go for Peter Hamilton ("The Reality Disfunction"
- almost
a thousand pages, but impossible to put down)
> At 11:50 AM 7/10/97 -0700, you wrote:
Oh, yuck. Ick, pooh, blech. Unless you can get a REALLY good writer to do up a
decent story (and not just some Heinlein wannabe who can sort of string two
sentences together, but can't do dialogue, plot or characterization to save
himself), I'd rather see the space taken up with rules and ship designs. At
least I'm likely to read those.
> On Sat, 12 Jul 1997, Allan Goodall wrote:
I second this -- there are too many mediocre science-fiction stories
being published right now, and it would be kind of sad to see space in
the Full Thrust rulebook taken up by yet another skim-and-forget short
story.