A conversation about tie-in fiction

The Angry Robot blog just posted a link to a conversation between Mark Charan Newton and Dan Abnett, which took place on Jeff Vandermeer's blog. The topic of conversation is the tie-in novel. It is a fascinating read if you're at all interested in this part of sf/f related books.

 

I'm one of those people interested in such things.

Not only because for many years I was responsible for acquiring tie-in books while an editor for the SFBC, and had the pleasure of finding many great reads over the years, which serviced many a fan base of the respective tie-in properties. But also because I'll soon be involved with developing tie-in fiction, which I'm psyched about.

Unfortunately there is a stigma associated with this type of writing. Some of it rings true of course, as with any work-for-hire work can be "hacked out" by a writer looking for little more than a pay check. But I feel that can be true of any segment of publishing whether it be other categories of fiction, or writing in general. My experience has been that certain authors take this work very seriously and fans of the tie-in property can spot a writer not giving his all.

Dan Abnett, having made his bones writing both comics and fiction on both sides of the pond, makes an interesting point how writing as work-for-hire for big comics companies is something everyone aspires to, and how this is the complete opposite with most tie-in novel work. There is a long history of it being looked down on. And that is sad, because if you're a fan of, say, Star Wars, there are so many more adventures waiting for you in the pages of the tie-ins.

I really enjoyed the post, and comments section, and I'm glad to see people in the field discussing this important part of SF-related writing.

I'll end with one of my favorite tie-in novels, in this case a comics tie-in by the man who wrote the original story in the comics, the legendary, Marv Wolfman. I read and bought for SFBC the Crisis on Infinite Earths novel tie-in published by ibooks, and found it to be amazing.

As a fan, it was incredible to see the story through the Flash's perspective, and the detail really added to the legacy of that infamous DC storyline. I'm sure several fans may have missed this book simply because it was a novel tie-in, but I thought it was brilliant.

As a publishing professional who is about to step back into the ring with tie-in novels, and be involved in their development, there is no greater conversation for me to see taking place right now.

"Hit Neutral in the Tail of a Comet..."

Lost in Space...

I am finally home from a really cool weekend in Calgary, my first trip to Canada. World Fantasy Con 2008 was all it was cracked up to be and although I’m very tired now, I am very glad to have attended [and I will be reporting on it in detail soon].

But if I may move in reverse, reflecting on the trip in a backward time travel-like sort of way, I have to tell you about this awesome exhibit at the San Francisco International Airport. And although we were not looking forward to a stop-over in San Fran after a long weekend away, there was something eerily right about walking through a science fiction-y exhibit after attending a fantasy books convention all weekend.

Taken from the official press release:
Out of this World! The Twentieth-Century Space Invasion of American Pop Culture features more than 300 space-themed objects from the 1930s through the 1980s, from children’s toys such as flying saucers, space guns, rocket ships and robots, to everyday household objects like air fresheners, sewing needles and packaged foods.

This idea of airport museums was established to add a human element to the often-dreary airport experience. And I’ll tell you this, take two guys delirious with days of strong brews, nerdy conversation and listening to experts on various minutiae, and send them through a warped-yet-fun exhibit like this and suddenly we didn’t feel all alone out there - as if we weren’t already in our own world.

Aside from gigantic metallic robots made by local artists in the area, see entire press release here, there was a treasure trove of collectibles from across the decades of the 1930s through the 1980s. Everything from books, plastic action-figure sets to rare robot toys and my personal favorite section of ray guns…it was incredible!Add to that, fantastic art and blown-up book covers from everything including pulp magazines and classic comics. If this type of exhibit were appearing locally I’d pay good money to go see it. Pay no attention to the ridiculous pictures we took at half-past delirium.

I plan to talk more about the convention next time, I just couldn’t get this cool unexpected experience out of my head and needed to share it. [Editorial note: Not officially included in this airport display were two thirty-five year old idiots. But it was a long day of travel, what can I say?]