How Much Do Trek Writers Make Per Novel?

I've always wondered how much a writer under contract at Pocket Books would make for a single Star Trek novel?

I know the amount would differ greatly because of differences in sales and different contracts.

But I was wondering what a round house estimate would be.

This is ridiculous.

Every writer is gonna make their deal. Will it be paperback only? Is it the writers first book? First Trek story? Will they do hardcover? Reputation of author? Depth of story??

I've read many Trek novels. I would hope they vary the rates because there are very bad ones and very good ones.

Margaret gets a new Bansai tree for each novel.

What do you mean 'writer under contract'? Like they got a room full of people just there to write Trek books?

Some make quite more than they've earned.

Haters everywhere.

Whoa. Remember this is MC folks.

Ooohhhh. That'd be cool.

Thanks Paladin!

A bansai tree?! Aw... I should be nicer to her.

I won't be. Probably should be.

Billions and billions!

Dayton, why didn't you just ask this in the TrekLit forum? I've noticed you posting there quite a bit lately.



Unless you did ask there already, and they told you it was none of your business....

I think it might be one of Chuck Norris's accountant's moves.

A good round house estimate is about six locomotives.

There is no such roundhouse estimate.

The answer is "it depends."

Garamet dodged a question and it actually made sense!

Well, if there is no roundhouse estimate, what about a low end and a high end?

From what little I know, that is impossible to say. Usually there's an advance which ranges from a few bucks to millions for superstars, and then there's a share for each sold book. IMHO the royalties don't set in until the shares 'pay off' the advance but I guess that's up to the contract. Better ask an agent for detailed info

Every Trek author would have a different answer to that question.

Advances vary by author and type of book.

Royalties are predicated on number of copies sold, where, and in what form.

Since royalties are a percentage of the cover price, there's another variant.

Number of copies sold is also dependent on number of books issued per year. When there were only 6-8 books released per year, a book could sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Not so much any more.

No individual author knows any of that, except as it pertains to his/her own books, and what was true for one book may not be true for the next.

Only the S&S bean counters know the whole story, and they ain't talking.

You've said it more succinctly than I could, and it's largely true, except that the "millions" part doesn't apply to media spinoffs, unless, say, it's Lucas writing his own Star Wars novels, in which case it's part of his overall package.

Where did this term "roundhouse estimate" come from?

A roundhouse is where you park locomotives in a railroad marshalling yard near a turntable.

"Round estimate" I've heard, and "ballpark estimate" I've heard. Roundhouse, never.

Somebody needs to write another Star Trek story where Lincoln gets killed.

You can never have too many of those.

Not Roberta Lincoln, I hope.

I'm still convinced it's a move in math fu. Can imagine someone asking his accountant for a roundhouse estimate, whereupon his accountant kicks him in the face and then puts a sticky note with a number on his forehead.

Hey, this is Wordforge. If you don't like the accepted definition of a word, just invent your own.

Although I like the Chuck Norris interpretation.

And I'm not even going to quibble over the difference between bonsai and the Kamikaze battle cry.

j/k

Does anyone do "Walker: Texas Ranger" books?

^Author named James Reasoner knocked out a few in the late 90s.

Dayton never published a book
Garamet has published book
Herbert SciFi God
Muaddib the messiah
Hubbard fail and aids.

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