Archive for Robot Business
Next year’s books
Posted by: | Comments
Yes, I know we’re still only in October, but shops are already putting up their Christmas decorations, and pretty soon we’ll start seeing adverts for Cadbury Creme Eggs again, so I don’t think it’s too early to tell you a little about some of the books we have in store for you at the start of next year (and it’s another excuse to show you the simply gorgeous cover art for Lavie Tidhar’s The Bookman).
These are the books we’re publishing in the UK and Australia from January to March, and we’ll have some spiffing news super-soon for all our American and Canadian cousins…
JANUARY 2010
Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard (Fantasy)
The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar (Steampunk)
FEBRUARY 2010
The World House by Guy Adams (Modern Fantasy)
Edge by Thomas Blackthorne (Science Fiction)
Walking the Tree by Kaaron Warren (Science Fantasy)
MARCH 2010
Dead Streets (Nekropolis #2) by Tim Waggoner (Urban Fantasy)
City of Dreams & Nightmare by Ian Whates (Fantasy)
King Maker (The Knights of Breton Court #1) by Maurice Broaddus (Urban Fantasy)
Neil Gaiman
Posted by: | Comments
Next Thursday Marco and I will be heading off to Montreal for Anticipation – the 67th World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon).
While we’re there, we’re hosting an Angry Robot Launch Party on the Friday night, and at some time between 7.00pm and 8.00pm, the mighty Neil Gaiman will be dropping by to give a little talk to our guests, along with an additional, mystery guest! Believe me, if you’re at WorldCon next weekend, you won’t want to miss this one!
We’ll be in Suite 2231 from 7.00pm. Be there, or be carré.
[edit: July 31] Due to a heavy WorldCon schedule, Neil Gaiman might not be able to attend, however, come along and meet our other very special guest star!
It’s the Final Countdown…
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s hard to believe after all this time that we’re so close to launch. Yes, good people of the United Kingdom and Australia, Angry Robot will be in all good bookshops near you just six weeks from today!
Still plenty of things for us all to be getting on with here at Angry Robot HQ, though – final cover designs, review copies, interviews and assorted promotional gubbins…
Phew!
Good job none of us are going away on holiday, then, really… 
So – July 1st. Do make sure it’s in your diaries, won’t you?
We’re feeling loved
Posted by: | Comments
A lot of people are talking about / blogging about Angry Robot, and our first collection of books, so we’d like to highlight one or two.
Over at The Fiction Desk they’re running a new regular feature covering publisher websites, and their accessibility/useability.
If you do find your way to the site, it’s a pretty good design. The primary feature is the blog, which is a great example of a publisher blog: regular posts with a combination of their own news, publishing insights, and genre chatter…
They have a few reservations about the navigation system, but are generally very positive (they even emailed with some very useful techie stuff after I commented on their post).
Meanwhile, over at Luke Reviews, Luke is getting very excited by our forthcoming collection (as well he should – we’ve been living with the books for months and we’re still excited!)
Angry Robot Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, is going to be a big deal.
We agree.
Head on over to both sites and see what else they have to say.
Robo-Controller, interviewed
Posted by: | Comments
When Memesis Virtualis asked Angry Robot’s head honcho Marc “Marco” Gascoigne to talk about some of our new titles, he was a little shy, at least at first. He’s always been a bit of an introvert, you see, but the promise of a free Cadbury Wispa and a half of Stella soon brought the bashful little petal out of his shell.
Damn, this is such fun, and to be honest we keep chuckling maniacally as we contemplate all the reactions we’re going to get when our range hits the streets.
Head on over to Memesis Virtualis for the full picture.
Meanwhile, there are more insights into just what the hell we’re playing at in the latest issue of fabulous Brit genre magazine SciFi Now – in the form of a full page of, yes, Him Again, discussing our strategies for total global domination through the simple medium of putting out a few damn good books.
Available on all good newsstands, issue 27 is the one you want (or want to avoid.)
Launch Titles Announced!
Posted by: | Comments
Not content with launching our new website today, we also have news of our first four books!
Angry Robot launches in the UK in July 2009, and in the US and the rest of the world from September. Ebook editions will be available worldwide from July. Our first titles are a mix of genres, from street smart neat-future thriller to ultradark horror to wild modern fantasy. Our authors, too, fulfil our mission: two men and two women, two new writers and two established, and from all corners of the globe – in this case the USA, Fiji and South Africa.
Check out the individual pages for more details of both books and authors.
July 2009
- Moxyland by Lauren Beukes (Science Fiction)
- Slights by Kaaron Warren (Horror)
August 2009
- Book of Secrets by Chris Roberson (Modern Fantasy)
- Nekropolis by Tim Waggoner (Urban Fantasy)
New author? Why not try Authonomy.com?
Posted by: | Comments
Authonomy - the online community for new authors
That means in practise that Marco needs to read a lot of manuscripts, digging up the nuggets from Read More→
Stretchy, bouncy, floppy pricing
Posted by: | Comments
Stretching the price to meet your needs
Without getting too theoretical, one of the things I want to know with this business is what the value of the formats we’ll be putting our words out in really is. Sure, we kinda know a UK paperback is worth somewhere between £6.99 and £7.99, and we kinda know a hardback comes in anywhere between £12.99 and £20. But what we don’t really know is what other kinds of content-usage is worth? How much would you want to pay for an ebook, or a digital audio version, or a 500 copy only signed hardback? Sure, we have guides, but they’re rarely driven by clear, broad, market dynamics the way the price of a regular book is, or a pint of milk.
So … we’re going to screw around with things. Experiment. We’re going to test out some classic economics, straight out of the textbook to establish what pricing means for all these different uses of content we want to deliver.
And what that means is that YOU will be driving the price, just the way it should be – because if you don’t buy it, we’re not pricing it right, so we’ll have to try again…
