B7 Novelisations

For anyone ordering these, there is £10 P&P on top of the item price. This seems to be an exception to BF's no P&P on UK pre-orders policy

Agreed 3 X the number of a Vinyl pressing at 3 X the Price very odd?

Regards

mark687

I'd imagine that some time after the limited edition has been sold out there will be a general release in eBook format at a more affordable price.  

I think the big expensive boxed set is meant as neat one-off collectors piece rather than an essential "this is the only way to ever read this story" opportunity.  I'm sure Big Finish will want to make the stories available for sale in an evergreen format to maximize their return on investment in due course.

I pre-ordered and will enjoy, but honestly, I am more eager to see if we will be getting more Avalon, Bayban, Travis (and after Allies and Enemies) Arlen audio stories.

However, I can see how from the Big Finish perspective a release more firmly rooted in the TV series (a novelization of the actual episodes) might actually have a broader consumer appeal than a boxed set of audio stories based around a one-off guest star like Arlen, Avalon or Bayban.

No offense taken! I'm happy to see Big Finish with a continued commitment to B7. Anything that keeps it on the front burner will lead to more of the releases I tend to prefer like Worlds of B7 audio releases.

The popularity/continued existence of Worlds Of Blakes 7 suggests that there is a market out there. The B7 groups I belong to on social media have been all over this in the last few hours, with a lot of folks saying they’ve already pre-ordered it. I’m not, simply because at this time of year, spare cash for what is a definite indulgence is at a minimum - especially after I forked out a similar amount for the 90s plays on vinyl!

But I would get them at a different time of year. If they sell out, I will definitely get them as ebooks, if they become available in that format. I don’t see them as a necessity: with the advent of home video and dvd, my need for a novelisation of something has dried up a little. Plus I already have the Hoyle novels which, imperfect as they are, are the same age as my memories of the show.

There’s a lot of interest in B7 at the moment: the 1982 Annual went crazy in sales last year as well as in its social media presence. I ordered it and it is a beautiful thing. A follow up is in production as we type, as is a production diary for the first season. The same editors also put out two volumes of stories (one for Season D, one for general Blake fiction) and they were both pretty good. There’s been a recent fan novel written that’s not too shabby, the 45th anniversary is next year, the Script Editor (and de facto co-creator, IMNSHO) died just recently and yesterday was the 41st anniversary of the final episode, which famously “ruined Christmas” in 1981. I’m not sure of the marketability of a novelised season but the names attached are well-known in fandom and will probably attract a lot of interest across Who fandom. I’m just surprised that they aren’t being released as audiobooks.

I used to be a bit more involved in B7 fandom, more than I ever was with DW fandom, and I suspect the niche may not be as small as you think.  There are a lot of B7 fans who are not DW fans, there are B7 fansites and forums on the internet. My involvement with B7 fandom was in the 1990s when I was a member of Horizon, the B7 Appreciation Society.  That was before repeats had brought new fans to the series and other than VHS purchasers, the fanbase at that time largely comprised those who had watched it on first transmission.  A lot of them were also DW fans, but a lot weren't, so I could easily imagine a niche of BF customers who buy B7 but not much else.

This is a limited edition 1,500 copies release - and I'm guessing the breakeven quantity for BF will be something less than 1,500.  I don't think these will be flying off the shelves or BF will shift 10,000 copies, but I think 1,500 is probably do-able.  BF know how much B7 they sell, how many of the B7 customers are physical purchasers and how many are downloaders, so I'm going to assume they know what they are doing.

Personally, I have pre-ordered these and I hope there are more.

An article on the novelisations.

Projected Publication Date



Regards

mark687