Talk:Scratchman (novelisation)

The Goss / Baker Conundrum.
I get that it’s a confusing idea for some people, but James Goss wrote Scratchman, with Baker’s involvement. That is established fact. It has not "been revealed as an elaborate ruse". That article from Bleeding Cool quoted on the main page is from 2018, well before the book was published, and simply misunderstands Goss’ tweet. What Goss is saying there is that Baker’s close involvement was kept quiet, not that Goss didn’t write it. What likely happened was that the book was originally announced (and probably conceived) as another straightforward James Goss novelisation along the lines of Pirate Planet and Krikket Men, and it was only as the publishing process went along that deals were put in place to give Baker the credit, which is a marketing no-brainer. The "wonderful truth" Goss is talking about in that tweet is basically that he got to have lots of nice working lunches with Baker. Clearly that wasn’t possible with Douglas Adams…

When the book was published, Goss was interviewed at length in DWM and explained the writing process, and made it very clear that it was him that did the writing. I’ve now added a "writing process" section to the main page, quoting that article.

In a nutshell, don't believe everything (anything) you read at Bleeding Cool. Seriously guys, you all know who Tom Baker is and what he’s like. How likely is it, do you think, that that dude sat still at a computer and concentrated for months and wrote a novel? ElectricWarlock ☎  14:00, July 6, 2020 (UTC)