I wrote this story for our Thriller-Chiller blog, but Trish it migrated over here. I was wondering if there was a synchronicity involved with this post. I couldn’t see one. But then I looked at the departing tolley car in the cover art by Christian Guldager and saw that it was #22. Megan is 22 and soon leaves home for her new job at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Which just happens to be a short distance from Universal Studios, and the on-going Indiana Jones performance. A stretch, but there it is. 😉
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Every so often I get an e-mail from someone asking if I wrote a novel called Indiana Jones and Staff of Kings. As any avid Indy fan knows, that’s the name of the sixth version of the Indiana Jones computer game. There is no novel by that name. But there was supposed to be one. I know. I wrote it.
It rests on a shelf behind me in manuscript form. Had it been published, it would’ve been my seventh Indiana Jones novel.
The novel was written under contract, it was accepted for publication, and I was paid quite well for it. I was even flown out to LucasFilm in San Francisco to talk about the novel.
Everything seemed to be going quite well until the publisher literally forgot about it. The jargon phrases used for such a mistake go like this: ‘Someone dropped the ball.’ Or, ‘It fell through the crack in the floor.’ No, it wasn’t a ball, it wasn’t a crack. It was rigid thinking by the company execs, and an overworked editor.
You see, the publisher was fixated on the novel coming out the same time as the related computer game. The problem was that LucasFilm changed their game platform and that changed their schedule. No one told the publisher about it. Well, actually I did. A couple of avid Indy bloggers informed me of the changes, which I passed on to the editor. Unfortunately, the message never got through. The editor thought I had it wrong. Certainly, she would be informed on such matters, she implied.
Then the game came out just as the bloggers had said it would, but there was no book accompanying the release. The logical thing, it seemed to me, would be to rush the book into print. Nope. Somehow, the powers-that-be felt the book would not sell well unless it was released precisely at the time the game came out.
That’s what I call rigid thinking. Do people who buy and play computer games buy a related book? Maybe some do. But I think it’s a different audience. If you’re spending money on games, you’re probably not buying books.
So Del Rey lost money on the project, namely because no one ever had an opportunity to buy the book. An Indy fan wrote Howard Roffman, president of the Lucas Licensing, and asked what happened to the book. The response was forwarded to me. ‘Rob MacGregor missed the deadline.’
Oh, yeah. I wrote to Roffman and told him that Del Rey had the completed novel for more than a year before the game came out. He checked on it, wrote me back, and apologized.
From a writer’s point of view, it’s all part of the business. If you get a contract and get paid, what happens to the book is basically none of the writer’s business. It wasn’t the first time I’d encountered a publisher who accepted my work, paid me, then failed to follow through. Years ago, Trish and I wrote for OMNI Magazine and they did the same thing. Repeatedly.
Of course, OMNI doesn’t exist any longer, and I’m thinking that many of the major publishers will fall through that ‘crack in the floor’ themselves…because someone ‘dropped the ball.’
I don’t think I would take it as well as you. I think they should still put it out there. Hmpf!
Lucasfilm and Del Rey really should publish this as an e-book, since the story is finished (with a teriffic cover!) and fans have been clamoring to read it for years. Plus, those digital reading pads are all the rage now, making the “Lost Indiana Jones novel” easier to market to today’s tech-savvy consumers. If LFL got with the program, they would make a lot of fans *very* happy.
We went to grocery shop today….there was an Indy DVD there, I have NEVER seen one at our local shop before. I picks it up and smiles and says to Mark Aha! my buddies are clever. I decide to visit Blogger after some time away, and Whammo! Here you are. Synchro!
I also noticed the title as Gypsy did.
Congratulations to Megan!!! My 22 yr old daughter also just got the job she wanted in NYC at a PR firm and starts in Jan.!!! Why am I not surprised by this!
Congrats to YOUR daughter, Vicki. How gret is this? Our kids find jobs in the midst of this weirdly schizoid economy. If you can manifest a job right now, then you can manifest all the rest of it, too.
Must be frustrating, to say the least, not to see a book published like that – even if paid. Maybe there will be a resurrection one day of the book and it will be released as a ‘lost but now found story’ – would make a good publicity angle.
Lost and found: it really IS a good PR angle.
hmmmmm…..the ‘ole left hand/right hand and not knowing – not caring – syndrome! what a mess! and what a loss to so many in so many ways!
and then, i was just noticing the very first few words on the cover image – LOST FOR CENTURIES – HUNTED BY MANY – and DESTINY AWAITS ITS DISCOVER – doesn’t that just say it ALL?!!
Good catch, Gyps. Also, and you wouldn’t know about this, I have another novel coming out early next year that features a female character named Destiny. Destiny awaits! That will be Romancing the Raven.
ok, so first, do you all EVER sleep?! 😉
and wow! what a play on words here! all of them – love the female character named destiny – romancing the raven! what a fabulous title – and book – i’m sure! and here’s a little kicker – i decided to google french quotes just now for a facebook post – and guess what was the first hit – dans tes bras c’est mon destin. – meaning: my destiny is in your arms.
Sleep? What’s that??
Love that quote, Gypsy. Sure does fit.
ok here’s another little jewel – just got online for first time today – went over to my sister’s facebook page – was scrolling down the page in a hurry – here’s where i stopped scrolling to do something else – noticed this when i began again –
Ur welcome RT @DestineyJanine: @DazzlingDoll thank you!
“destiney” and “janine” – so, there’s that destiny again, this time combined with french spelling of my own name –
hmmmmm……again……