That's why editors and publishers will never be obsolete: a reader wants someone with taste and authority to point them in the direction of the good stuff, and to keep the awful stuff away from their door.

The mass-market paperback, for one, is too expensive.

An SF author who reads only SF will have little new to contribute, but someone with a broader experience will bring more to the table.

I can't speak for the other authors, but what I hoped to achieve was to illuminate certain corners of the Lucas universe that hadn't yet been explored.

Science fiction readers probably have the gene for novelty, and seem to enjoy a cascade of invention as much as a writer enjoys providing one.

If you can find collaborators whose strengths compliment your own, the result can be more than the sum of its authors.

Genre labels are useful only insofar as they help you find an audience.