I know that Paizo likely has all the publishing issues they can handle right now with the impending RPG release and the push on the Planet Stories line, but does anyone know if there are any plans (even wouldn't-it-be-nice, far in the future ones) to publish novels set in Golarion? Or maybe an eventual compilation of the serialized fiction in the Adventure Paths?
Cool... Now, who would you speculate/wish would write said novels? Have any names been dropped already?
Director of Brand Strategy
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Cool... Now, who would you speculate/wish would write said novels? Have any names been dropped already?
At PaizoCon we were told whoever they get to write novels for the first year or two needs to be a large enough name to sell the novels on their own, since the book trade doesn't have Pathfinder name brand recognition. Since authors such as Elaine Cunningham, Jeff Grubb, Dave Gross, R.A. Salvatore, Rich Baker, Ed Greenwood and China Miéville have all worked (or will work) on Pathfinder products through the most recent announcements, I imagine any of these are possibilities. But the impression I got at the Pathfinder Fiction seminar was that they have many people on their wish list and a number of authors have approached them asking to write for the setting, and more often than not the two lists overlap. But no official announcement or even hinting has yet occurred.
I agree with Dark Minstrel -- the only downside to any of the authors Yoda mentioned would be how much further Pathfinder would cut into my disposable income.
I know some authors are reluctant to write "shared world" fiction, but I would love to see someone like Tad Williams or Sarah Zettel join that list.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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I know some authors are reluctant to write "shared world" fiction, but I would love to see someone like Tad Williams or Sarah Zettel join that list.
To my knowledge, Miéville has never done anything in a shared world, but he is contributing (at least something) to the Guide to the River Kingdoms in December. So his lack of experience in the shared-world arena isn't keeping him from playing in Paizo's sandbox. Whether he'd do Pathfinder fiction is another story. But the fact that he's listed on a Paizo author's list indicates that there are probably very few people who are completely out of the question. I imagine the only real barrier for getting someone not used to working on shared-world books would be the price (assuming there's the interest in the world). I assume that an author would get paid less to write under a license than they would with their own work, but I could be completely wrong there. In any case, it's an exciting guessing game, but one that will be utterly futile until they've actually contracted someone and can start hinting or announcing something official. I got the impression at Paizo that they really can't even drop hints about anything until contracts are signed, at least not unless they want to risk egg on their faces should a deal fall through after they've mentioned it.
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I'd love to see Paizo take a Thieves' World approach to their novels. By that I mean each author creates a character or two and only they get to kill them off, but they are usable by all the other writers. Then possibly either do collection of interlocking short stories or solitary novels as was done with TW.
The question is do they create all new characters or will they be writing about the iconics? And the bigger question is who'll write the screenplay?
I'd love to see Paizo take a Thieves' World approach to their novels. By that I mean each author creates a character or two and only they get to kill them off, but they are usable by all the other writers. Then possibly either do collection of interlocking short stories or solitary novels as was done with TW.
The question is do they create all new characters or will they be writing about the iconics? And the bigger question is who'll write the screenplay?
I second this! I would love to see Paizo do this for at least the first few volumes (though I've always been fond of short story anthologies).
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Director of Brand Strategy
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I'd love to see Paizo take a Thieves' World approach to their novels. By that I mean each author creates a character or two and only they get to kill them off, but they are usable by all the other writers. Then possibly either do collection of interlocking short stories or solitary novels as was done with TW.
The question is do they create all new characters or will they be writing about the iconics? And the bigger question is who'll write the screenplay?
This issue came up in the same PaizoCon seminar I referred to above (Zuxius, where's the video from this one, man?!) and the answer was that writers would probably work with only their own characters, at least for the most part and to start with. If an author really needed or wanted to use someone else's character, it would require the character's "owner" to give permission and ensure that the character's voice were correctly represented.
I also believe the party line on short story compilations was that they would be inevitable, but a novel line launch would most likely involve full, stand-alone novels by well-established, probably NYT bestselling authors.
And I think the iconics are off limits, at least as anything more than extremely limited cameos. I could be confusing the many panels I sat in on last month, but someone said that the iconics are really there to be completely modular pregen PCs and consistent art subjects, but I can't remember in what context that was said nor by whom.
Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are already dogeared for the epic film adaptation, set for release after the adapt, shoot, edit and release every line of The Silmarillion.
