The Complete X-Files: Behind the Series, the Myths, and the Movies

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Permalink Reply by traumcave on December 30, 2008 at 2:57am

the OTHER Allyson. said:

the OTHER Allyson. said:

For such a big book, it has a surprisingly huge LACK of information. The photos (which are GORGEOUS and worth the price of the book like Chris said) take up most of the book and I was expecting a lot more delving into the behind the scenes stuff, plot points, etc. Some episodes get but a mere sentence-long mention! The best parts of it are the interviews with Chris and Frank, etc. and I loved the intros. I wish it could have given us more, but it is a lovely book and I do enjoy browsing through it.

Yeah. "Some episodes get but a mere sentence-long mention"
I already have episode guides. I love the last few pages with the small pivtures for every episode though.
I didnt really expect this to *be* episode-guide-like...So when I noticed it I somehow stopped browsing through it.
I want to enjoy it piece by piece. ;)
Somehow I thought it would not necessarily be chronological but would have some headings /articles with interview material. But I dont mind it TOO much. Just when they give episode info every phile would know anyway-then its like.."duh, we know" ^^. But yeah, like I said, I dont mind it too much.

And for the typos: I think thats like with English pop songs. Here people who dont have English as their first language can enjoy the rhythm more cause they can ignore the lyrics if they choose to LoL ;-).
I DID notice some strange mistakes.
So I am sorry for the other fans who notice all of them and are therewith kept from "connecting" to the book properly / in the expected way. Thats sad.
Especially when you consider that the second movie came out years after the ending of the series.
The book should be released with the second movie I guess...I suspect it has to do with the people who work in high positions, invest the money but set impossible deadlines.

"But if you ask for a raise its no surprise that theyre
Giving none away."
;-p

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Permalink Reply by Chris Knowles on December 30, 2008 at 10:33am

Publishing is a very rough business and unfortunately, editorial and proofing budgets are not what they should be, all across the board. As to the depth of information, the original word count was 20,000 words. That's basically a medium-length New Yorker article. I pushed and pushed to bump the word-count as much as I could (and Insight was very generous), but this was not meant to be an episode guide. It's meant to be a photo book, essentially, and by that measure it succeeds wonderfully. And as I said, I had two and a half weeks to edit hundreds of pages of transcripts and to cover 202 episodes and 9 nine years of television. I did the best I could to focus on the fan-favorite episodes. I'm sure 2Shy or Rain King are someone's favorite episode, but I had a sword over my head as it was.

A lot of writers like to wait a week or two before they proof a manuscript, but there was no time. I came in on the project at the very last minute and it had to go to layout. I never saw the spreads, so I never got a chance to proof or fact-check. I told Matt when we were done doing the book that it was a lot like doing an episode of The X-Files (I Want To Believe, as well). I am very happy with the end result, warts and all. I think it's a beautiful incredible book. My contribution was Joe Friday, just-the-facts, so I don't feel proprietary towards the book- I look at it as a fan. The errors? Well, they're a testament to the terrible, terrible trouble the publishing industry is in, which is a sign of these terrible times. All appropriately X-Files, in a meta kind of way.



the OTHER Allyson. said:

the OTHER Allyson. said:

For such a big book, it has a surprisingly huge LACK of information. The photos (which are GORGEOUS and worth the price of the book like Chris said) take up most of the book and I was expecting a lot more delving into the behind the scenes stuff, plot points, etc. Some episodes get but a mere sentence-long mention! The best parts of it are the interviews with Chris and Frank, etc. and I loved the intros. I wish it could have given us more, but it is a lovely book and I do enjoy browsing through it.

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Permalink Reply by Alison Groves on December 30, 2008 at 12:16pm

Hey Chris, thanks for sharing these great insights about the book. As a writer in my daytime incarnation, I totally understand your back being up against a wall re: deadlines. Your full disclosure about the situation is totally refreshing though, and I know everyone here appreciates that. The book is gorgeous and I know I speak for fans everywhere at how appreciative we are to have it, especially so long after the series ended. Thanks for the hard work, and another big thanks for coming over here and participating in this thread!

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Permalink Reply by Krystal on December 30, 2008 at 1:17pm

I got the book for Christmas (it was on my wishlist!) and seriously this has to be the BEST book ever released for the show. It's BRILLIANT. It's a must for any fan. Who cares about the text? LOL jk but seriously with all the wonderful photos it's hard to care too much about the text. I don't think I even read much of the text myself--just too busy with the photos. If you all decide to do a follow up book with all the interviews, I'd say you guys will totally conquer it all.

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Permalink Reply by the OTHER Allyson. on December 30, 2008 at 1:44pm

I think with all things considered, you did an excellent job. The book is marvelous in many ways. As someone who doesn't own the episode guides I suppose I was looking for some more info, but I suppose I'll have to get my hands on those. I am a photographer so I'm in love with these luscious images and think they're worth the price of the book, like I said. It is too bad about the lack of adequate funding to get the editing done properly. Thank you for giving us these insights!

Chris Knowles said:

Publishing is a very rough business and unfortunately, editorial and proofing budgets are not what they should be, all across the board. As to the depth of information, the original word count was 20,000 words. That's basically a medium-length New Yorker article. I pushed and pushed to bump the word-count as much as I could (and Insight was very generous), but this was not meant to be an episode guide. It's meant to be a photo book, essentially, and by that measure it succeeds wonderfully. And as I said, I had two and a half weeks to edit hundreds of pages of transcripts and to cover 202 episodes and 9 nine years of television. I did the best I could to focus on the fan-favorite episodes. I'm sure 2Shy or Rain King are someone's favorite episode, but I had a sword over my head as it was.

A lot of writers like to wait a week or two before they proof a manuscript, but there was no time. I came in on the project at the very last minute and it had to go to layout. I never saw the spreads, so I never got a chance to proof or fact-check. I told Matt when we were done doing the book that it was a lot like doing an episode of The X-Files (I Want To Believe, as well). I am very happy with the end result, warts and all. I think it's a beautiful incredible book. My contribution was Joe Friday, just-the-facts, so I don't feel proprietary towards the book- I look at it as a fan. The errors? Well, they're a testament to the terrible, terrible trouble the publishing industry is in, which is a sign of these terrible times. All appropriately X-Files, in a meta kind of way.



the OTHER Allyson. said:

the OTHER Allyson. said:

For such a big book, it has a surprisingly huge LACK of information. The photos (which are GORGEOUS and worth the price of the book like Chris said) take up most of the book and I was expecting a lot more delving into the behind the scenes stuff, plot points, etc. Some episodes get but a mere sentence-long mention! The best parts of it are the interviews with Chris and Frank, etc. and I loved the intros. I wish it could have given us more, but it is a lovely book and I do enjoy browsing through it.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Knowles on December 30, 2008 at 2:27pm

Cheers, everyone. Like I said, it's a wonderful book on the whole. I think everyone here will love it.

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Permalink Reply by Morgana on December 30, 2008 at 5:50pm

Jesus... love christmas *g*
First just saw all these pictures. My family just heared *eeeeks* of me the whole evening. Now just started to read the introductions. Its so very cute. Love it - the holy bible - after the first words already!
Can´t say much more by now. Was too much distracted by the action-figures of fight the future, which also were a very great present *gg*

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Permalink Reply by Karen on December 31, 2008 at 7:38am

I-Simply-Adore-This-Book! Thank you Chris and everyone involved in the making of it. I know how much work and effort a project takes and when it's a labour of love there's so much more at stake. I am so freakin delighted with it, lol.
Seriously, My friend Ele and I had a moment the other day haha. I opened it and found the lovely surprises and literally curled up in a ball with my book while spooning it a la last scene of "The Truth". lmao
I just started reading it cause I had to go through and see all the fantastic photos first, which have me so captivated. What a treat it was and I'm sure the treats will keep on coming as I read it.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Knowles on December 31, 2008 at 9:23am

Awesome. Thank you, Karen. I did notice a couple of the typos, but I really don't think they're all that big of a deal. I hate to say it, but it's something that's becoming more and more common in publishing. I did cringe at the factual errors (of which there are only a tiny handful that I noticed) but that's because I am crazy-obsessive about that sort of thing.

But I think it's a mistake to focus on that stuff- taken on the whole, the book is amazing. We're talking hundreds of photographs that have never been published, that really show you another side to the cast and crew. Like I said, had it been up to me this book would have been enormous. Hell, if it were up to me this book would have been an encyclopedia! There is a lot of information in this book that no one has ever seen before- I pushed hard to bump up the word count so I could fit in as many quotes as I could.

Don't take my word for it, though - don't take anyone's word for it. Check the book out for yourselves! I am confident that you guys will agree with me. This is X-Phile Nirvana! And I'm saying this as a work-for-hire monkey with no stake in the profits!

And board mod- can you change the editing preferences? I'm cringing at one of my earlier posts!

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Permalink Reply by Karen on December 31, 2008 at 11:27am

Totally agree, Chris. to quote J.J. Abrams "these things needed to exist". This book needed to exist, not to sound mushy, but for me it's true. BTW, that piece of the preface from J.J. Abrams resonates so true for me. It's as if he took the words right out of my mouth.

Sure there are mistakes, some more noticeable than others (I too tend to cringe at certain details, but that's because of my OCD, lol), but I don't tend to focus on those things.....besides, I was way too busy drooling over the amazing photos hahaha. All in all it is an exquisite piece of XF history rolled into a book. I think we all would have loved a play by play encyclopedia on everything "X" haha...maybe some day? ;)

BTW, I too have noticed grammatical mistakes in various books/pieces of work. I often think now that we are getting sloppy in an overly exorted effort to just get a product out ($$$) instead of delicately taking our time, but alas, it is what it is and I am more that content with my everything "X" world.

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Permalink Reply by Never Again on January 1, 2009 at 6:22pm

Karen said:

Totally agree, Chris. to quote J.J. Abrams "these things needed to exist". This book needed to exist, not to sound mushy, but for me it's true. BTW, that piece of the preface from J.J. Abrams resonates so true for me. It's as if he took the words right out of my mouth.

Sure there are mistakes, some more noticeable than others (I too tend to cringe at certain details, but that's because of my OCD, lol), but I don't tend to focus on those things.....besides, I was way too busy drooling over the amazing photos hahaha. All in all it is an exquisite piece of XF history rolled into a book. I think we all would have loved a play by play encyclopedia on everything "X" haha...maybe some day? ;)

BTW, I too have noticed grammatical mistakes in various books/pieces of work. I often think now that we are getting sloppy in an overly exorted effort to just get a product out ($$$) instead of delicately taking our time, but alas, it is what it is and I am more that content with my everything "X" world.

Extremely well-put! Could not have said it better myself, Karen, and I couldn't agree more.

All I have to say is that I love this book! So Chris, stop cringing and enjoy. It's still a masterpiece in my eyes, and whether your role in it was big or small, I thank you for helping bring it to us fans. Much love :)

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Permalink Reply by Patricia on January 2, 2009 at 7:53am

I have a confession-- I still haven't read the book yet. I know-- bad fan. BUT I did buy it. And even though I'm not usually an autograph person, I did get it signed by Frank because that just had to be done. Now that the holidays are over, I'm really looking forward to sitting down with it-- a type of new year's present to myself. I have been sneaking a couple of glances at some of the photos, though, and they are gorgeous.

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