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[URL=http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17407]Link[/URL]
For those who dont want to read it, Mongoose asked JMS to consult with them but refused to pay him properly, so he refused.
So the books won't be considered canon.
Worf
Comments
"Hi guys,
Okay, I have a slightly different recollection of events. There was no
silence at first - we had quite a rapid exchange of emails. I never
expected anyone to work on this project for free but I believe I was very
honest when I said I had no idea what your time was _worth_. No idea.
None. Never worked with anyone in your position before. Furthermore, that
offer was not the final one - we offered 10% of the revenue, the same
portion that Warner Brothers gets for the novels.
That is when the silence kicked in - you did not get back to us, did not
discuss it. We could have tried to work something out.
The important thing to remember here is that Mongoose is not Warner
Brothers. We are a small company employing 20 or so people. We cannot
throw money around with abandon on any project, especially as we are limited
to the UK market only (I believe it is Del Ray who have the US licence).
There is no guarantee that a new range of Babylon 5 novels will prove
successful in the UK and, at the end of the day, we have a business to run.
To put things into perspective, if we were to print and sell an entire print
run of, say, 10,000 novels, the profit is only a few thousand pounds after
printing and distribution costs. That is if we sell all 10,000. Sell half
that and we are at a loss. This is before Warner Brothers comes along and
takes their bite, plus any percentage we offered to Mr Straczynski. I must
point out, it is not the profit I have my eyes on with these figures but
whether the project would end up costing more than it would bring in - which
is obviously a huge problem with a business.
I can say that everyone at Mongoose is greatly dedicated to Babylon 5 and,
in our own way, we have been carrying the B5 banner for the past three years
with our games and a range of over 20 sourcebooks. I believe (I may be
wrong) that we have printed more Babylon 5 material than any other
publisher. We take this universe seriously.
I would like to extend an offer to Mr Straczynski to re-open negotiations
and, if there is a way we can find to work together, we would like to move
forwards. We have a lot of very exciting ideas for Babylon 5, across a
variety of media, that we would like to discuss. We very much want to carry
the banner further and I believe we have a lot to offer fans of the series.
You have my email. Please give me a shout.
Matthew Sprange
Mongoose Publishing "
And they didn't ask him for story ideas and such, they asked him to approve or reject plot summaries to make sure that they have already come up with so it fits the struff in his head not yet produced.
Matt
[B]Yeah well if I had an original idea and somebody went out of their way to "add" to it. I don't think I'd like that considering I never got to finish the original story hmm? [/B][/QUOTE]
Well, he's had little problem with 3 different game companies paying significant fees to do just that since B5 season 2, so I fail to see the problem.
Beyond that, anytime he wants to flesh out the B5 universe in his own novels, I'll be all over them. My understanding is that part of the problem of the book licenses is that he doesn't want to supply outlines anymore like the Technomage and Centauri trilogies, so the big publishers aren't willing to pay the license fees and take the risk of non-important/canon books. A trilogy on the events of Crusade would probably justify the risk, a book about some GROPOS during the EA civil war probably wouldn't.
Matt
[B]Well, he's had little problem with 3 different game companies paying significant fees to do just that since B5 season 2, so I fail to see the problem.
Matt [/B][/QUOTE]
Three? I can think of only two prior to Mongoose, namely Chameleon Eclectic who did the rather mediocre Babylon Project RPG and AOG who did B5 Wars and Gropos.
[B]Three? I can think of only two prior to Mongoose, namely Chameleon Eclectic who did the rather mediocre Babylon Project RPG and AOG who did B5 Wars and Gropos. [/B][/QUOTE]
I was including Mongoose in the three, although I suppose that one could include the CCG company as well.
Matt
[B]Long time lurker, first tim poster[/b], so why not start off on the right foot.[/QUOTE]
[B]Woah, an LTLFTP. Welcome from lurker status, take a seat in the lurker corner here. [/B][/QUOTE]
Do I get a hat or something?
Matt
[B][IMG]http://strvang.ath.cx/~andi/temp/images/rathat.jpg[/IMG] [/B][/QUOTE]
:3hamster: