Polaris Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Greetings all! I am employed by a publisher of novels and short stories of fiction that follow a themed format. I have approached the powers that be at our company about the possibility of trying to license some of the characters from the Hero Universe to publish fiction about. Please note that we have not yet contacted Steve or Darren, nor has my boss agreed without knowing more specifics (although, she seems *very* open to the idea). I have a few questions for Herodom Assembled that would help me in preparing a proposal for my boss, which would lead to them contacting the powers that be at Hero: 1. How many people here would be willing to contribute stories (novel or short stories) set in a superhero world? 2. How many people here would be interested in adding such books to their "buy list" (realizing that Hero Games would not be the publisher, but would get their royalty payment from sales)? 3. Are there particular characters that would be of particular interest to readers? If so, which ones? 4. What kind of superhero stories would be of prime interest to you? 5. Any other suggestions? I have been playing within the Hero system for several years now, but realize that many of you know far more about the game world (and the superhero genre) than I do. Any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Polaris uspolaris@comcast.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polaris Posted April 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction Sorry, I had forgotten to subscribe to thread... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starwolf Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction 1. I am suffering from an extreme lack of creative writing skills....but maybe someday. 2. These would definately be on my buy list...after all I also suffer from the psych lim: must buy all thins Hero. 3. Any and All...I would really enjoy some fiction set in TE, but also anything set in the Heroverse in any genre.... 4. In the superhero genre I would prefer Dark Champions street level type heroics. 5. Hurry!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard00 Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction 1. How many people here would be willing to contribute stories (novel or short stories) set in a superhero world? I'd be willing to take a shot at this. I'm not as good as some but I've had enough compliments on my writing that I'm considering giving the Big Leagues a try. 2. How many people here would be interested in adding such books to their "buy list" (realizing that Hero Games would not be the publisher, but would get their royalty payment from sales)? I would, assuming they are of good quality. 3. Are there particular characters that would be of particular interest to readers? If so, which ones? None in particular, or everyone. I prefer to think that just about any character can be of interest if their story is told correctly. 4. What kind of superhero stories would be of prime interest to you? What kind? The regular kind. A good story, good characterization, exciting action scenes, realistic dialogue... I'm not sure what you're looking for. Any of the hero genres would work (Dark, Pulp, Super, etc). 5. Any other suggestions? Yeah--don't try and involve the Champions Universe so much. Publish an anthology series about super heroes, with independent authors writing about independent characters. If it flies, put it to DOJ to have an "authorized" series of novels featuring favorite characters and/or villains. I'm tempted to suggest leaving DOJ out of it entirely and pushing the independent thing. I think I'd like to see the Champions Universe handled by DOJ people. I'm just cynical enough to believe that someone else would screw it up despite their best intentions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobGreenwade Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction 1. Me, definitely. Especially if the license expands to include the Terran Empire. 2. Me, probably. Ditto the above qualifier. 3. Some of the "lesser" heroes -- that is, non-Champions. Dr. Silverback is one prime example; the MC8 members would be good subjects too. 4. Avoid parody stories or other half-baked ideas. Superheroes aren't just for kids any more. Humor and the use of certain cliches have their place, but it's very possible -- even easy, all things considered -- to use superhero stories as serious morality plays in the tradition of Star Trek or The Twilight Zone (the original series, in both cases). 5. One of the more interesting facets of the Thieves' World series is that stories can affect each other -- it's not just a matter of the stories taking place in the same world or even the same characters appearing in more than one story, but as in the Marvel Comics lines larger events in one story can be felt in others. (As an example, I recall something about Spider-Man commenting on a springtime snowstorm in one of his own books, with the explanation for said storm having to do with the Avengers.) If the writers are encouraged to communicate with each other about what characters they're using and the events in their stories, then a little coordination can make the whole volume come alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard00 Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction I'd like to change my answers to mirror Bob's, especially the last one. A Thieves' World--or Wild Cards, to stay in genre-- type approach would be very cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magmarock Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction 1. How many people here would be willing to contribute stories (novel or short stories) set in a superhero world? I would definitely be interested! 2. How many people here would be interested in adding such books to their "buy list" (realizing that Hero Games would not be the publisher, but would get their royalty payment from sales)? And again, very interested! 3. Are there particular characters that would be of particular interest to readers? If so, which ones? Ooh... too many to choose from... brain hurts... 4. What kind of superhero stories would be of prime interest to you? I would like to read stories that center on a team of heroes- a small team of three to five characters- that involve mystery, suspense and international plots, interdimensional travel, time travel (especially). Even better if they include elements of magic and psionics! 5. Any other suggestions? Certain characters deserve a solo story, others need to be in a large team. Both styles are acceptable to me. Having a shared world sounds realistic enough... since we are already sharing the Champions world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asperion Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction 1 - I would be interested in writing short stories. Full novels would be more than I could write at this time. I bow to novel writers. 2 - If these books were published then I definately would do my best to get them. Some time ago I asked everyone in Herodom for several books of this type and all that I got was a total of 12 books. I would definately like adding to this list. 4 - Something that I would like to see would be stories that involve several of the lesser heros. Something that might even be interesting would be stories that revolve around some villain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koshka Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction 1) Creative writing was never my forte in English class, but I'd be willing to give it a shot. 2) Assuming decent quality, I'd buy it. 3) I'm open on this one -- there's loads of good characters out there. It might be interesting to use some of the "minor" villain groups as opponents, though. (By "minor" I mean the ones that aren't getting the full book treatment. For instance, I think the Circle of the Scarlet Moon will be mentioned in one of the Mystic books, but if they aren't getting at least a good chunk to themselves they'd qualify as "minor".) 4) I'd like to see the stories cover a range of time periods. Galactic Champions, modern-day (4 color and Dark), and WWII supers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckB Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction I'd be interested and the Thieves World/Wild Cards approach sounds fun and interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polaris Posted April 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction Greetings all! Thank you to everyone that has responded so far. I am compiling the responses and synthesizing them into a single document to include in my proposal to my boss. One idea that caught my eye was the idea of doing a superhero anthology independent for a first publication into the genre. This would allow us to demonstrate to the folks at DoJ that we can be trusted to do a good and fair representation of the genre. How many would be willing/interested in helping with an 'independent' superhero universe anthology? Regarding science fiction (TE): Our company originated with science fiction, so we are always looking for stories in science fiction. I would gladly talk to my boss about the possibility of discussing with DoJ a "Terran Empire/Star Hero" line. As I said, our company already has projects in the works dealing with similar matter, so it could be that TE/SH would fit in nicely (it could also be that it would be seen as an unnecessary redundancy). Please keep the discussion and ideas coming... Respectfully, Polaris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobGreenwade Posted April 18, 2004 Report Share Posted April 18, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction For a superhero line, I'd be happy to whip out a short story for either a Champions-inspired anthology or an independent anthology. For a TE-licensed line, I have at least a couple of good novels in me -- potentially pretty hefty ones, too, given that I frequently like to interrupt stories with complications and other unexpected twists, and then bring the whole thing together to show that things aren't as unrelated as they seem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheQuestionMan Posted April 19, 2004 Report Share Posted April 19, 2004 Re: Publishing Fiction Check RDU Niel's Secret Worlds . That's a short story in and of itself . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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