Spencer (Musical Theatre Writer’s Survival Guide) is not only an award-winning composer/lyricist but also a lifelong fan of novelizations and tie-in books. “Media tie-in writing is literature. Real literature,” he persuasively argues in this massive and affectionate history of novelizations. Screenplay novelizations of silent films began appearing in 1915, decades after stage play novelizations. Far from hack writers, among the notables who wrote novelizations are Pulitzer Prize winner Upton Sinclair (who novelized the play Damaged Goods in 1913); National Book Award winner Paul Monette who penned tie-ins for Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu and Brian De Palma’s Scarface; and Isaac Asimov, who novelized Fantastic Voyage. This is a fascinating history of the shockingly prolific writers who published books under various names. Spencer also conducts illuminating interviews with tie-in veterans John Peel, Martin Noble, and Linda Stewart (who wrote the novelization of Absence of Malice without a finished screenplay). There are also chapter-long appreciations and career overviews of William Johnston, Michael Avallone (writing countless novelizations, ranging from Sam Fuller’s Shock Corridor to Beneath the Planet of the Apes), and others. VERDICT Packed with photos, this is the perfect reference tool for the publishing genre that launched many lifetime readers.
—LIBRARY JOURNAL (Kevin Howell)
“David Spencer is well-known among authors as the leading expert on tie-in novel history. His encyclopedic knowledge of this unjustly, routinely overlooked publishing niche is detailed, varied, and quite simply unmatched. Now he’s written the definitive book on the subject, one that’s as entertaining (and surprisingly, unabashedly personal) as it is deeply informative. It’s not just the scholarship and research that’s stunning, but his obvious, enduring affection for the genre, one that consistently produces scores of bestsellers that millions of readers like him love, but that publishers, while appreciating the profits, inexplicably view with disdain…and that the media virtually ignores. His insightful book, which he appropriately and cleverly calls a ‘cultural autobiography,’ is an important milestone in memorializing the history and richness of tie-in novels for future generations. Let’s hope this is just the first volume of many more to come from him that will explore the field—its history, its future, and its authors.”
—LEE GOLDBERG
#1 New York Times bestselling author,
co-founder of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers
“If you knew that Thomas Disch did the novelizations of the films Alfred the Great and Sunflower, that John Jakes novelized a Planet of the Apes story, that Murray Leinster novelized the 1950 western Dallas (under his real name, Will F. Jenkins), that Frederik Pohl novelized the 1957 film Edge of the City, and that in addition to novelizing Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Theodore Sturgeon also novelized a couple of westerns (The King and Four Queens, 1956, and The Rare Breed, 1966), you probably want this book. If you didn’t know that female novelizers have been around since Arline de Haas novelized The Jazz Singer (yes, the original one), you definitely need this book.
For an oft-marginalized branch of literature, book adaptations of films have quite a history, of which most of us are unaware. David Spencer rectifies that omission with his deeply researched, frequently amusing, and well-written book, The Novelizers. For those who find novelizations entertaining and valuable for how they expand on famous (and sometimes not so famous) films and television shows, this tome will be a treasure. For those unfamiliar with the genre or uncertain of its value, it will be an eye-opener.”
—ALAN DEAN FOSTER
New York Times bestselling science fiction novelist
and worldwide bestselling novelizer (Star Wars, Alien, Star Trek, etc.)
“If they were ever to put me on trial for my crimes against literature in the name of tie-in writing I’d want David Spencer on my defense team. Hell, he’d be my entire defense, because there isn’t a person alive who knows more about this stuff, or the love that goes into it from a writer’s perspective. The Novelizers is the book only he could write—and I’m thrilled he has. The sheer scope of history and knowledge of our craft on display here is dizzying and humbling. It’s not often you hold a book in your hand and think this is it, the definitive text on the field, but that is exactly what this is, and it is compiled with so much love and respect for those writers who helped us fall in love with those shows and movies in a whole new way. It’s beautiful. A genuine treasure.”
—STEVEN SAVILE
Internationally bestselling multi-genre and tie-in novelist
“I’m convinced that nobody knows more about movie and TV tie-in novels and novelizations than David Spencer. He demonstrates that in The Novelizers, a volume that’s well-written, packed with information, and above all entertaining. As someone who bought and read many of the books Spencer writes about when they were new, I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting those wonderful days.”
—JAMES REASONER
NY Times and Publishers Weekly bestselling
author of the Outlaw Ranger seriesand the trio of
original tie-ins based on Walker: Texas Ranger
“An astonishing look at the enormously popular—though frequently derided—field of tie-in fiction: original novels based on TV shows and movie novelizations—in particular unearthing the little-known beginnings of the craft going back to silent movie days and delving into the vast number of examples of the British bent for such books. The Novelizers is a banquet waiting for anyone who cares about popular culture to dig in.”
—MAX ALLAN COLLINS
NY Times bestselling and Edgar-Award-winning author and prolific tie-in novelist
“I’m not familiar with most of the source material in this book, but I still enjoyed it for all the detailed information I’d never seen anywhere else. I also learned a lot about writing. While discussing the little-known history of novels adapted from TV shows, the author also explores the relationship between form and function in different story-telling media. For writers, readers and tv watchers, it’s a valuable and inspiring meditation on the ways we tell stories and how good adaptations are more than translations; they are new creations.”
—ELIZABETH DEWBERRY
Acclaimed novelist, author of His Lovely Wife (Harcourt), Sacrament of Lies
(Putnam), Break the Heart of Me (Doubleday), and Many Things Have Happened
Since He Died (Doubleday)
“I have just finished reading The Novelizers, down to the last endnote—and what a joy! David Spencer has done his subject proud. Not only does the book evoke startling, long-buried memories of reading novelizations by Michael Avallone, William Johnston, and James Blish (or what I THOUGHT was Blish; Spencer knows better!), but it introduced me to a much larger world of novelizations of which I was largely unaware. I can’t imagine a better guide to that world.”