[2] Science fiction fanzines had been published with some frequency prior to Star Trek; however, their format was focused on non-fiction articles and research, and letters from fans.

Early Star Trek fanzines were similar, but many were also anthologizing fan fiction, some of which Lichtenberg believed was comparable to the television series.

However, the query was rejected by all, including by Frederick Pohl at Bantam Books, who were publishing a series of episode novelizations by James Blish.

Only after Blish had failed meet a deadline to deliver a new Star Trek novel did Pohl agree to buy Lichtenberg's proposed book without having seen a draft.

[3][4] Lichtenberg then recruited fellow fan writer Sondra Marshak, and television producer Joan Winston, to help draft the book.

"[10] Lichtenberg agreed with the reviewer's feelings that many fans felt a true anthropological study of "the fandom [was] rare and invaluable"[10] In subsequent interviews, she admitted that "Star Trek Lives!

"[12] Patricia Poole said in Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over The World (2014) she was "stunned" to find things she had written "transformed into pages in a real book.

"[14] Likewise, Winston Howlett wrote in an issue of fanzine Probe that readers should not be deterred from "picking up and reading this very well-written[,] and very entertaining book."

And that it belongs on every fan's shelf, "for it makes up a large, healthy chunk of the [Star Trek] saga, telling where we've been, where we are now, and where we hope to be going.