That Doctor Who book I keep saying I’m going to write

So, that big-ass Doctor Who reference book that I keep threatening to write and publish? I’m still working on it. Oh yes, it’s not going away. It will happen. The purpose of this post, however, is to do a wee bit of market research ahead of time; I’d appreciate it if those interested would respond and help me out a bit. While I’ve got some fairly definite ideas on how I’d like it to turn out – basically, my criteria with just about anything I create is that I’m producing a DVD that I’d like to watch, writing a book that I’d like to read, writing a song that I’d like to hear, and it just so happens that no one else has saved me the trouble of doing this stuff first.

But these being the troubled times that they are, and money being as tight as it is for most people (I know it certainly is for me, mainly because I get paid in baby giggles and poopy diapers, and you’d be amazed how many places flat-out refuse to accept those as legal tender), it just takes one thing being wrong to turn folks off and make them decide to spend their money elsewhere. So even with my very definite ideas, I thought a bit of a focus group thingie would be in order.

One thing that’s already decided is that the book is aimed at a more casual stripe of fan, and in particular, it’s aimed at people who may only know Doctor Who from the current series. Nearly every episode for the original series includes a little box that explains what relevance it has to the new series, whether it’s explicitly referenced (even as a throwaway joke), a similarity in plotline or theme, or maybe even something you haven’t thought of. Basically, if you’ve only watched Eccleston/Tennant onward, the book isn’t here to say “shame on you,” it’s here to explain why you might like certain stories from the classic series.

That being said, here are the questions. Feel free to explain your answers. Heck, just feel free to answer. Remember that whole podcast questiong a while back? Only Jared responded. That means it’s Jared’s fault that a nearly-6-hour podcast is going to land in your lap this Christmas. Speak up: it’ll be kinda embarrassing if Jared alone decides the structure of the book, especially since I’ve never heard him mention watching Doctor Who even once. 😆

1. How all-inclusive? My current plans are for the book to cover the original and new series, every story – even stuff like Dimensions In Time, Time Crash and Music Of The Spheres – as well as Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood, and the fan-made video productions of the 90s which stood in during the lamentable lack of an ongoing TV series. I’m also planning to cover Big Finish from top to tail: every Doctor Who audio (even the BBC Radio stuff not produced by BF) and every spinoff audio (Dalek Empire, Gallifrey, UNIT, etc.). There’s a chapter that discusses the novels in some detail, but individual books aren’t reviews in the same depth as the TV shows and audios. The problem here is: this could make for quite a large book. A really large book. As cool as one all-inclusive reference sounds, is it just too much? Should it be split up into two or more separate books? Where would you draw the line?

2. When? This may seem like a daft question, but here’s the deal. I’ve been working my butt off to ready this thing for summer 2009, and then a certain Mr. Tennant goes and sets us up the bomb: he’s leaving at the end of 2009! While I wish him well and all, it certainly puts the summer target date in an awkward place. Should summer still be the target, or would that be too much like writing a book purporting to be everything that anyone would ever need to know about the moon and publishing it in May of 1969? I’ve been trying to work on major projects on a quarterly basis – i.e. CGE DVD for winter, PDF Level 2 DVD for spring, Doctor Who book for summer – so this one’s got me a bit flummoxed. Thanks, Tennant! 😛

3. What the heck to call it? At this point, I’m ready to just call it Eunice and be done with it. I’ve been wracking my brain for a good name that doesn’t explicitly reference Doctor Who or the TARDIS, without reusing something that’s already in use by any of the other gobs of books that have been written on this topic, to say nothing of the many web sites devoted to it. It’s a given that there’d be a subtitle to the effect of “an unauthorized guide to Doctor Who”, but I’m still at a loss for the main title. Bit of a problem there, really.

4. Why? Here is, perhaps, the biggest question of all. If you knew of this book’s selling points – i.e. an old-and-new series guides aimed at new series fans, etc. – but my name wasn’t on the cover, would it be the sort of thing you’d be likely to bother dropping your hard-earned cash on? That’s kind of a biggie, because whenever this thing pops up, it’ll probably be a big “WTF?” to the die-hard, know-everything-about-every-episode, read-Outpost-Gallifrey-every-day crowd. If no one’s going to buy it, why bother? I’m sure I could get a dozen or so people to buy it on name recognition alone, kinda like the small crowd that went to OEGE for the first PDF DVD, and even though doing it through Lulu or somesuch site would mean that I’m not out any money if no more than those first dozen people buy it, it would be a bit disappointing on a return-on-investment-of-time level. I’ve already pointed out that there are lots of books on this topic, and why (I think) mine would be fairly unique…but is that enough?

Ah well, if the whole thing gets a “meh” from everyone, or if I put it off until Tennant disappears, I can always find another summer project, like that instructional striptease video I keep meaning to do.*

* JUST KIDDING…for God’s sake, nobody needs to see that.