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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

A&A Official Star Wars Publishing Q&A thread

Discussion in 'Literature' started by GrandAdmiralJello , Oct 13, 2017.

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  1. JABoomer

    JABoomer Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2009
    Learn something new every day, thanks for pointing that out.

    You're assuming the continuity errors are by design, just as I am assuming they are in fact, mistakes. The extra pilots / not enough pilots specifically isn't solved for me by the perspective of the story.

    Your whole post is a complaint, based on a faulty premise, passive aggressively phrased as a question. - YES.
     
  2. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017

    Unless your criticism is "you should be fired" I wouldn't consider it insulting. So no worries. (Though that IS something I hear/read on the Internet about DR from time to time, including on this site)

    Errors always happen in books, all the time, forever. Same as all the errors you can find in every movie ever. It's just a thing that results when humans make stuff. Whether there are more errors now than previously, I can't speak to that. The process is that lots and lots of people read the book, a lot of times. All of them very knowledgeable about everything from continuity, to grammar/spelling, to the specific grammar/style of Star Wars. And yet, we do miss thing. We do screw up. Last night I was rereading part of Canto Bight and found a typo. The book is going to press, that typo will be in there. I read that story at least 10 times, never saw it.

    But to get to your questions, I can't speak to why there might be more errors now than previously. The process - as far as I'm aware - hasn't changed all that much. The same number, if not more, people review the books. And generally speaking (with some exceptions) the amount of time spent on those books is the same. I know this answer sort of amounts to a shoulder shrug, but there really isn't one thing to point to and say "ah! this is the problem." And, while I don't doubt your own perceptions, I'm not convinced there are necessarily MORE errors. Maybe people are paying more attention to these things and thus the errors are being spotted more? Again, not trying to dismiss criticisms.

    The nice thing is, we can fix things in reprint. Anything can be corrected. Sixes becomes Fives, and the world continues on as always.
     
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  3. JABoomer

    JABoomer Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2009
    Appreciate the reply.

    It could just be me catching more mistakes as I get older and more crotchety, I don't think so, but you never know.

    I didn't realize this was done. So Del Rey makes an effort to catalog potential errors even after a book has been published? Does the paperback version of the novels count as a re-print?
     
  4. jamminjedi23

    jamminjedi23 Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Feb 19, 2015
    That leads to another question regarding continuity and mistakes. Since this is all considered one continuity across all mediums do you guys thoroughly go over the comics, tv shows, and games as well. Or do you rely quite a bit on the story group to fill you in on a lot of the stuff going on in other mediums? When Battlefront II gets released here in a couple weeks do you have a few people at Del Rey who are going to be required to play it in order to get all the details within the game?
     
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  5. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    I think catching spelling and grammar errors can also depend on your schooling. When I was in grade and high school (a long, long time ago in a country far, far away) I had spelling and grammar hammered into me by the nuns (yeah, Catholic school kid). Do kids these days diagram sentences? I know we did. (Not that I could do it now, but I know the parts of a sentence). I think that means I notice more errors (and I'm not pointing at any particular publisher here).
     
  6. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017
    Yes. But books reprint all the time as they sell, so a hardcover edition might be reprint several times before the book ever gets to paperback. As we find errors, we submit corrections and then each time the book is set to reprint, those corrections are made and the book is updated. (ebook files get updated automatically, no need to wait for a reprint). The paperback version will contain all the changes and updates made to a book since the original publication.
     
  7. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017

    Well since we worked on a book that is the direct prequel to BF:II, we sort of already got all the details.

    We're all fans, so we read, play, watch, etc a lot of the material that gets released on our own for the most part. Then when we're getting ready for a new project we do our homework to make sure everything we're doing fits.
     
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  8. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    I remember, back in the time of the prequels and until the Disney sale, publishers said that LFL gave them certain guidelines or rules when developing stories. One, from 1999-2005, was to keep depictions of Padme between movies to a minimum (because Lucas hadn't settled on her storyline and character arc until ROTS was scripted). Some publishers, like Dark Horse, had a guideline that their authors should try to avoid visiting Tatooine, afraid it will be overused when it's supposed to be the middle of nowhere. One guideline Lucas had for a while was not to depict Wookiee Jedi (with hints that he was going to have a Wookiee Jedi in the Underworld TV series he was considering at the time, with the Wookiee Youngling in TCW possibly his introduction).

    I was wondering if any rules or guidelines like this still exist at Del Rey... from Del Rey itself, or from LFL and the Story Group, or Disney? It seems obvious that one is probably to limit depictions of Luke and Kylo between ROTJ and TFA, until the movies have a chance to fill out their story first, to save any surprises and to prevent any future contradictions. Maybe there's a blanket ban on stuff more than a few decades before the movies for the same reason, not wanting to contradict anything that might come up in the future until a solid plan is in place. But I was wondering if there were any more? I found that "no Wookiee Jedi" guideline hilariously weird while it lasted, and a publisher having its own guideline to keep stories away from Tatooine as interesting too. Is there a "10 Commandments" for Del Rey Publishing? :p
     
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  9. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017
    Other than some very simple (and obvious) rules about the level of violence, profane language, or sex depicted in the books, no there really aren't any rules like that.
     
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  10. bsmith7174

    bsmith7174 Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2015
    Is there a reason that the ebook The Perfect Weapon has been removed from the Del Rey timeline in the newer books? Also, are there any more ebooks in the works perhaps? Thanks!
     
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  11. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017
    Spacing issue. Timeline was getting a bit cramped and we felt removing it made sense.
     
  12. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2012
    Any forthcoming Star Wars paperbacks will have some extra content like Perfect Weapon was in the TFA paperback? (also, fixed typos, whoohoo!)
     
  13. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017
    Nope.
     
  14. tatooinesandworm

    tatooinesandworm Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 30, 2015
    As a follow up, is there any chance of A Perfect Weapon ever being reprinted in a Hardcover short story collection?


    Sent from my Ornithopter using The Force
     
  15. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017
    That's certainly possible.
     
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  16. tatooinesandworm

    tatooinesandworm Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 30, 2015
    If you guys decide to release a Hardcover book of shorts - with Perfect Weapon - you have at least one sale. Thanks for considering it for the future.


    Sent from my Ornithopter using The Force
     
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  17. kalzeth

    kalzeth Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 26, 2017
    Am all caught up on existing material and waiting for canto bight. When can we expect announcements about forthcoming novels? Us voracious readers need more Star Wars Lit


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
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  18. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    A reminder that this thread is about publishing questions, and not for questions about unannounced upcoming material (which you can't expect he'll be able to answer).
     
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  19. Endol

    Endol Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 14, 2014
    This may be a question towards your UK partners at Century publishing but it may be applicable in the US too.

    In the UK all the major del Rey books are readily available at specialist comic book shops like forbidden planet, and main book dealers like Waterstones and occasionally WHSmith.

    However come the film release and the del Rey adaption, that novel is picked up by the big supermarkets like Tesco and Asda (Walmart) usually selling at less than half the retail price I might add

    Any other star wars novel I've never seen in a supermarket before even if it does well in the charts.

    Clearly the supermarkets are looking to cash in on the film that's just been released, but do you as publishers 1) know this and 2) print more hardcopies for TFA and Rogue 1 to get them shipped to the supermarkets?
     
  20. darthzac14

    darthzac14 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2012
    Has every pre-2014 Del Rey and Bantam books been reprinted with a Legends banner?
     
  21. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017
    Your question is basically why do some stores sell SW books and others don't (or do only periodically)

    Stores make business decisions about what books to sell based on their customer base and what they think might do well. Of course. We pay close attention to this. And we print as many books as we need. If stores want more we print more.
     
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  22. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017
    Not yet. We're getting close but still not there. Think it is less than 20 books. I haven't checked in a while.
     
  23. iucounu

    iucounu Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2014

    Every publisher tracks corrections for reprint. If you see a typo in a book, please let the publisher know so it can be fixed.
     
  24. iucounu

    iucounu Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2014

    Supermarkets can shift loads and loads of books, but - as is pretty obvious from the way they display and merchandise them - they only have space for a very, very limited selection of titles. Every publisher in the UK is essentially competing for space - twenty slots a month, say - in Asda or Sainsbury's etc because you can make very good money that way; Matt Forbeck's Rogue One junior novel adaptation was the top-selling book in the UK for one week this year, for example. (I should point out that the supermarkets may well pay quite a lot less for their stock than, say, an independent bookseller - you are sacrificing a bit of the profit margin for sales volume.

    When I say competing, I mean publishers having regular meetings with the book buying teams at supermarkets, showing their upcoming publications, and trying to persuade them to stock things. This stuff all gets decided up to a year in advance. So we know that Asda will want, say, twenty thousand copies by such and such a date, and can line up stock for them; or if Asda passes on the book, no need to print them. They're only going to pick the absolute biggest books.

    With Star Wars, that means books they can tie in to the Blu-Ray release, basically. It'll generally be novelisations because then they can sell two products at once as part of a deal. Star Wars novels that don't fit this model aren't going to get picked by UK grocers at this point in history - the sales aren't there. (They can't compete in volume terms with yer Dan Browns or Jamie Oliver cookbooks, etc. With only 20 or so slots...)

    (A word on charts: bestseller lists in newspapers etc are reliable; 'chart' slots in retailers may be more accurately measuring marketing spend than sales. That is, you literally pay retailers to put your books in chart.)
     
  25. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Great insights, thanks for sharing iucounu !


    Missa ab iPhona mea est.
     
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