There are so many stories in my head. It's truly frightening. I want to write them all, but I'd never live long enough to do so. I've taken steps to increase my productivity without giving up my life, but all that will do is get the remaining 62 episodes revolving around Nathan and his cohorts, and the Aurora out a little faster. So I'm going to try an experiment.
I have created Frontiers Saga Publishing Inc. My first experiment will be to hire a writer to write the "Netcasts: The Fall of the Core" episodes. The plan is to have the writer work from my outlines, fleshing the scenes out and writing them. They will be my stories, following the rules and feel of my story universe, only they will be another writer's prose. I will be editing them, and the goal is to make them stories that I would like to read myself. (Same goal as when I write the prose myself.) This particular series will be short stories, averaging 10,000 to 15,000 words. (Although the first episode might be a little longer.) They will sell on Amazon for $0.99, and will be available on Kindle Unlimited as well. The goal is for them to come out once per month. There will be a minimum of 10 episodes, a maximum of 20. (We'll see how they go.) I have already entered negotiations with a writer for this series of shorts, and we'll see how it goes.
I thought about hiring ghost writers to write like me, but decided against it. I want the story universe to be what sells, not just the writers. My story universe is like a valley of very fertile farm land. I can either work a small patch of it myself and produce a modest crop, or I can hire other farmers to work with me and produce tons of crops. I want to provide a never ending feast of stories, perhaps as often as several times a month. I want to paint a story universe that is so detailed and divers as to boggle the imagination, and provide countless hours of sweet sci fi escape for all who wish to join in the fun.
Now, so that everyone knows what they are getting, I plan on doing the following. If my name is on the book, that means I had equal if not greater input into the story. If my name is first, (or by itself), that means I actually wrote the prose. If my name is second, that means I edited it, but did not actually write the prose. The name on top will always be the one who wrote the prose. If my name is NOT on the book, but it has the Frontiers Saga logo on the top of the cover, that means that I approved the outline and the manuscript before it went to publication, but the author(s) listed on the cover did the actual writing and story development. (This will probably be a rare case, and will only happen later on. For now, I will be involved directly with everything.
Rest assured that I will continue to write the main series, the ones centered on Nathan Scott and company, and the Aurora. That will not change. (Except that I have hired additional line and copy editors to help me improve the quality of my work.) In addition, EVERYTHING with a Frontiers Saga logo on it will contribute to the main series that I write. Be it telling the back story of some of the main characters, to adding to the depth of the Frontiers Saga itself. From telling of the times before and after the bio-digital plague to telling about the fall of the core. From telling about the settlement of new worlds by the people escaping the plague to stories about the early days of the Pentaurus cluster, there will always be bits and pieces hidden among the stories that contribute and/or connect somehow to the main story that I myself write. They will all connect... somehow.
As a taste of what I am considering hiring people to write about:
> Stories from the Fall of the Core.
> Tales of the Karuzari.
> Capt Dubnyk’s backstory.
> Birth and rise of the Jung Empire.
> Missions of the Ghatazhak.
> Story of the discovery of the Data Ark, and how it transformed Earth.
> Stories of Escape Colonies flights that fled the core to escape the plague.
> Josh and Loki’s back stories, and how they came to become friends.
> The settling of the Pentaurus cluster.
> Post-apocalyptic stories from the post bio-digital plague dark ages on Earth.
> Stories about what goes on with each of the characters during the time between parts.
I don't know that we'll touch on all these topics, and it is certainly not a complete list, it's just the first things that popped into my mind as of late.
Now, I am starting this experiment using a couple of writers that I know, and trust. I have never done this, and I want to work the kinks out of the collaboration process before I start hiring additional writers. Once I do, I will be opening auditions up to everyone who wants to give it a whirl. There have been a lot of great ideas tossed out on these forums, which means there are a lot of potential writers and/or story consultants. Together, we can make the Frontiers Saga universe something truly unique.
I hope this endeavor will be to everyone's liking. The reason I'm telling you all this, is that I would love to hear you opinions and ideas about this little experiment. Not only if you think it's a good idea, or if you'll want to read the additional material, but also what you would like to see us write about, and how long you might like these tie-in stories to be. I want to hear from all of you, as my goal is always to give you what you want... good, fun, science fiction.
Ryk Brown.
(Now President of Frontiers Saga Publishing, Inc.)
Ain't that a hoot!
Mr. Brown,
Congratulations for your new company.
I like your idea to have someone else writing side stories from the Frontier Saga Universe, specially because it'll be you that will outline these stories. 🙂
I've seen side stories written from another author than the one of the main series and I should say that if you find good writers your idea can make as much success as your main episodes.
I would add to your list side stories about some minor events that involve a main character like Nathan or Jessica Family, Vladimir (that will be huge, specially when he cites his grandma), Scouts missions, Jung spies on Earth or Tau Ceti, etc.
This will keep us, hungry readers and fans of the Frontier Saga, busy while waiting for the main episodes and that way we won't be bugging you for the next one.
In my opinion you're in the right direction.
Suddenly, I am thinking about the Star Trek and Star Wars universes. LOTS of writers, one universe. The format works.
Larry Niven does not do war scenes. He doesn't have the background to make them work. So he collaborates with Jerry Pournelle and he writes those. He has also opened up sections of his known universe, mainly the war eras, to other writers and they have indeed written for him.
This sounds like an amazing idea. If I may suggest something else, though - would you be willing to open your universe to fanfic? You could even host it yourself here on these forums, and even put the fanfic sub-forum on moderated posting so you get to read it first. (And who knows, maybe you'll even find the occasional gem you might want to publish in an official capacity?)
This sounds like an amazing idea. If I may suggest something else, though – would you be willing to open your universe to fanfic? You could even host it yourself here on these forums, and even put the fanfic sub-forum on moderated posting so you get to read it first. (And who knows, maybe you’ll even find the occasional gem you might want to publish in an official capacity?)
Like this as it would drive traffic up a bit.
I am thinking about the fanfic angle. There are some legal issues involved that have to be looked into. At the very least, I was thinking that FanFic would be a great way to discover writers that I might want to hire.
I love the idea and would read anything put out. This universe has completely drawn me in. The several writes in one universe has worked for fantasy for 20+ years (think Dragonlance and the Forgetton Realms) and it means more material to read. I love it. Keep it coming Ryk
Mr. Brown,
It seems that the main contributors to FS forum took a break after the release of EP 13 and doing so they may have missed this important thread you just started wishing to have some feedback from your most loyal fans.
May I suggest you to send a newsletter to all the subscribers with a link back to this thread so they can (if they want of course) give their opinion and share their thoughts?
Sounds exiting, though I bet what you save yourself in writing you will get back in additional coordination work.
As fan who hardly can wait till the next episode, I am really happy with your undertaking.
I personally would love to write a fan fiction about the rise and expansion of mankind into the local part of our galaxy from 2100+, before the downfall of the core started and send you a draft afterwards. (Am anyhow stuck at 50.000 with my current sci-fy project)
I instantly see though that a bit of interstellar guidance is required for all of this.
1.) A 2D Map companioned by a Cross Table about all the main systems that where colonised from your point of view would help.
Otherwise you might see systems pop up an play a big role in some ones story, which you did not want to have there in the first place, or intersect with systems of other stories. (The re-writing that follows your feedback could than be avoided with such)
Like:
2.) A rough top down view about the clusters and black holes of our side of the milky-way.
3.) List of the named Planets of Table 1 with two or three keywords related to each of those main colonies.
Like:
Corinary - Scottish/Republic/Earth Like
Takara - French-Spanish/Emperial/Ships Wharf and Space Station
Haven - Mix Culture/Corrupt Syndicate/Resource Rich
4.) + A rough guideline of do's and dont's
If one has to sign an NDA for the above, than I'd be fine with that as well.
Or do you have a personal wiki to which you would/could give access for such reasons?
Hi @elmar,
I would suggest you to check this page http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/starmaps/software.php . The first one has a lot of freeware softwares with thousands of stars systems in our galaxy. I personally own Astrosynthesis and also have Celestia.
The most important thing is that these softwares can use real data collected by astronomers.
The site itself contain lots of info about sci-fi.
Another site I would recommend you is is from the author Jeffrey A. Carver. ( http://www.writesf.com/) He has an intersting course with lots of suggestions on how to write a sci-fi story.
I hope these links can help you all that want to write fanfic, in particular in the Frontier Saga Universe. 😀
I just forgot this link for the stars catalogs: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/starmaps/catalogues.php
I've been using Astrosynthesis for years, long before I started writing. The app is one of the key things that led me to conceiving and eventually writing this series. I am currently working on building a detailed file in Astrosynthesis, as well as a way to display that file on our website. Once it is up, members will be able to download the file to use in Astrosynthesis on their own if they like. The file will be updated with the release of each new episode, so that it will always be up-to-date.
The idea of all this stuff, (other than to share everything that's in my cranium) tie-in stories, fanfic, more detailed and comprehensive star maps, and all the other goodies we're working on, is to help bridge the (finiancial) gap during the one year break that I need to get part 2 outlined and revamp my production system so that I can get the books out like clockwork, and at a higher quality, all while releasing ebook, paperback, and audio versions at the same time. It will also give me a built-in 9 month deadline buffer, allowing me a little wiggle room when life gets in the way.
I’ve been using Astrosynthesis for years, long before I started writing. The app is one of the key things that led me to conceiving and eventually writing this series. I am currently working on building a detailed file in Astrosynthesis, as well as a way to display that file on our website. Once it is up, members will be able to download the file to use in Astrosynthesis on their own if they like.
Huge! One thing that I like about AstroSynthesis is that we can also add .3ds files in the systems. Imagine adding a Karuzari asteroid in Earth orbit or the little moon with the fast attack ships manufacturing orbiting Tana.
I think Mr. Brown that you can also add a way that these kind of contributions be part of the AstroSynthesis files download.
Thank you very much for the links.
Checking them out right now.
Am also looking forward to your release regarding that, Ryk.
Cause it would actually help a lot to have some border line guidelines on how your Universe looks like, mapped out.
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Don't forget to sell a signed Hard cover edition of Season 1 on Amazon.
There you can get some more money from my side and I guess others.
John Green for instance did a really good job in promoting his Hard Cover among his fans by signing each one of the pre-ordered personally
You could theoretically already place it out there right now to pre-order for 12.12.2015
(just in time for my Wife getting me a nice seasonal gift ;-).
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Are you in active support of
http://the-frontiers-saga.wikia.com/wiki/The_Frontiers_Saga_Wiki
or is this rather stand alone side project from a fan perspective ?
Interesting idea. I'll have to see how these other authors pan out.
