Staff of Kings (novel) by Rob MacGregor

Indy's Fist

New member
I like that idea and would by it! I was also wondering if they could do a multi part book? Maybe in the form of say five parts, each with a cliff-hanger ending, well except the final book that is. Each sold seperatly, yet all one complete story!
 

fixer79

New member
Given the choice I'd prefer a seperate paperback novel, like all the other MacGregor Indy novels, with a cover by Drew.
Sadly, beggars can't be choosers...

The most important thing is to read the novel, so yes, I'd definitely buy your compilation :)
 

Goonie

New member
I'd probably get it :cool: , but, don't forget, there are the issues of licensing and getting by the great flanneled one. :(
 

walker

New member
Re: the great flanneled one, this would be a licensed property. I'm just trying to gauge interest. Not sure what the actual price would be. Just throwing a high one out to see what the ceiling would be. Thanks for the feedback.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
I bought a compilation of classic, adventure tales just to own a printed version of H. Rider Haggard's, Allan Quatermain short story, "A Tale of Three Lions" and enjoyed the other tales as well. Yes, I would definitely buy this.

fixer79 said:
Given the choice I'd prefer a seperate paperback novel, like all the other MacGregor Indy novels, with a cover by Drew.
Sadly, beggars can't be choosers...

The most important thing is to read the novel, so yes, I'd definitely buy your compilation
Wholeheartedly agree on each count but considering Drew has now retired, the cover would be done by someone else (and hopefully not using the video game artwork...) It's a cryin' shame that this book was cancelled.(n)
 

dr.jones1986

Active member
walker said:
Re: the great flanneled one, this would be a licensed property. I'm just trying to gauge interest. Not sure what the actual price would be. Just throwing a high one out to see what the ceiling would be. Thanks for the feedback.

25 is defintly a fair price for a new Indy novel, especially if other stories were included.
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Yep, definitely have my vote!

Especially since the Australian dollar is now 80c US. :p

I would have bought it anyway actually. Heck, I paid 50 bucks (Aust) for a couple of the DH Omnibuses.
 

The Tingler

New member
$25 isn't that much, that's almost normal for a hardcover!

While I'd definitely prefer it separately, I'd certainly buy it in a compilation!
 

QBComics

Active member
Yes, I definitely would. I only have a few books to read at the moment (a bunch are some classic novels), and I would love to read this before Army of the Dead comes out. (y)
 

Jono11

New member
Do you have any kind of plan in place for getting George Lucas to just hand over a licensed and paid-for piece of Indy fiction that he has decided should not be published? Does George Lucas seem like the type of person who would just do that?
 

walker

New member
Jono11 said:
Do you have any kind of plan in place for getting George Lucas to just hand over a licensed and paid-for piece of Indy fiction that he has decided should not be published? Does George Lucas seem like the type of person who would just do that?

That made me laugh. I'm not suggesting that George Lucas would "just hand over" a license to anyone (he wouldn't, obviously). I just know a couple of folks over at Random House and I'm trying to set up a situation by which they could justify publishing the book well after the game has been released.

It could very well end up that Random agrees to do it, but LucasFilms says no anyway. But I won't know until I explore it further.

The feedback from everyone on their interest in buying the book has been helpful, so thanks to you all for that.
walker
 
Last edited:

michael

Well-known member
Laserschwert said:
Just wondering, has anything come from this?
I don't think many things come from online petitions, especially one for a book about a game that got horrendous reviews.

Although, I do believe I signed this...;)
 

IndyBr

Member
I signed it either...
Damn, that novel would have been great, the game is too simplistic, out of nothing Magnus learn how to use the Staff, Mayas in Panama, Indy somehow knowing where in Nepal to find the Staff... all this could have been better explained in the novel (At least the Mayas in Panama were, acording to Macgregor in his site).
But I've lost hope that it will be released.
 
Nice link, thanks...maybe it could go somewhere a bit more eye catching, like here.

In any event, for our posterity:

mail-8.jpeg


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.’
 
Top