Archive for Robot Business
A third Angry Robot book for Ramez Naam
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Following the stella success of Ramez Naam‘s Nexus, we are delighted to announce the acquisition of the third book in the series for the man touted as Michael Crichton’s successor.
The as-yet unnamed book is the follow-up to 2013′s Nexus and Crux, and will be published in late 2014.
The deal, which is for worldwide English and translation rights, was agreed between Angry Robot Senior Editor Lee Harris and Lucienne Diver of the Knight Agency.
Mez had this to say: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be working with Angry Robot again for the third Nexus book. I couldn’t ask for better partners in bringing this story to life and getting it out to fans. Especially after I injected Nexus nanoparticles into their brains and used those to control the team’s every thought.”
Lee Harris said, “Absolute poppycock, of course. We bought the series because it is one of the smartest near-future technothrillers we’ve seen in ages, and not because Ramez (who, incidentally, is superhumanly handsome, gifted and generous, and an amazing dancer) is controlling our thoughts and actions.”
And if you’ve not yet caught up with the phenomenon that is Nexus, pick up a copy at your favourite indie or chain book store, or grab one right now:
UK Print & Ebook
Amazon.co.uk | Book Depository | Waterstones | WHSmith
US Print & Ebook
Amazon.com | BarnesandNoble.com | IndieBound.org
DRM-Free Epub Ebook
Robot Trading Company
Welcome our latest Robot recruit, Caroline Lambe
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We’ve had a small reshuffle up here in our terrifyingly gun-bedecked orbital headquarters.
Please welcome our new Publicity Manager, CAROLINE LAMBE. She’s based full-time in the Nottingham office, and will greatly enhance our book promotion and marketing capabilities, from wrangling metadata and TIs for our new sales partners Faber, to arranging reviews and bookstore events. She joins us from Liberties Press in Dublin, and we’re sure you’ll make her welcome around these parts.
In other news, DARREN TURPIN has now completed his move from a full-time to a freelance role as our website manager. He’s still lurking in the background of everything that happens on this site, just… well, over there rather than right here in our midst. ROLAND BRISCOE, UK sales maven, has moved on to pastures new, and we wish him all the very best as he rejoins the world of humans. Right, back to engineering this whole total global domination malarkey…
Angry Robot announces new UK sales partners
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Hey gang! This might be more book industry-focussed than our usual robot-obsessed blog posts, but no less important…
In the UK, we’re delighted to announce that our books – AR, Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A alike – are going to be represented by that most beloved of publishers Faber, as part of their Faber Factory Plus sales team.
This will mean we have better coverage across the whole of the UK, as well as Ireland and into Europe too. We’ll have more reps on the ground telling your favourite local bookshop about our great novels, and increased coverage for libraries as well. As you may well have seen, to support this properly, we have also been expanding our publicity capabilities, recruiting a new, full-time Fiction Publicity Manager. They will work with authors and stores to promote the books across the country. We’ll have more news on that appointment shortly.
All round, this is a big deal for Angry Robot, Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A, and we should see its effects almost immediately. In the UK, authors will find there are more invitations to events and signings than before, and you’ll meet some of the reps at upcoming conventions like Eastercon too, as they are enthusiasts like us.
Ian West, head of the FF+ team, said: “We are particularly delighted to be working with Angry Robot and the Osprey group, who have consistently been ahead of the game and breaking new ground in the ways they bring writers and readers together.”
So there you go – we’re increasing our reach across the UK and Ireland, making it easier to buy our books in your local shop, month in, month out. Can’t be bad. Now for cake.
Now Hiring: Fiction Publicity Manager
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Angry Robot’s swathe of cool genre imprints is in need of a lively PUBLICITY MANAGER. The aim of this job is to work with our divine authors, our favourite bookshops, our lovely bloggers and the Robot Army, and our fab distributors who link this all together, to promote the hell out of our books.
Duties include arranging signings and store promotions, placing reviews and articles online and in print, blogging and attending events. You’ll also be making sure all the metadata that feeds all this activity is both correct and snappier than an alligator at lunchtime.
Don’t delay – the closing date is noon GMT on 25th March 2013. More details, including how to apply, after the jump:
Angry Robot Signs Tim Waggoner’s Brand New Urban Fantasy Series
Posted by: | CommentsUrban fantasy fans everywhere, prepare to be delighted as you digest our latest book deal announcement: we’ve signed up Tim Waggoner, author of the hugely popular Nekropolis saga, for the first two volumes of a brand new series.
It’s Men In Black meets The Sandman as Tim invites you to meet the fine men and women of the NightWatch: a supernatural agency dedicated to hunting down rogue nightmares that escape from other realms when people dream about them, while ensuring that other dream-folk are allowed to live among the regular, human population… as long as they play by the rules.
The first book in the series – Night Terrors – will be published in the summer of 2014, with a follow-up volume scheduled for early 2015.
Tim Waggoner was kind enough to say: “One of the many wonderful things about Angry Robot is that they don’t publish cookie-cutter fiction. They seek out the different, the unusual, and – in my case – the downright weird. It’s a joy to be working with these mad geniuses again.”
And our very own Senior Editor Lee Harris said: “Tim’s Nekropolis was one of the first books we published when we launched Angry Robot, and it has been popular with our readers ever since. I’m hugely looking forward to our working with him again more than 100 books later!”
You can find out lots more about Tim Waggoner at his website: www.timwaggoner.com and be sure to follow him and bombard him with the usual messages of congratulation etc. on Twitter @TimWaggoner.
Status Re-Boot for Angry Robot Lee Harris: ‘Senior Editor’ Level-Up Activated
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It was a dark day in the Angry Robot Fortress of Doom. The greatest robo-minds in the global organisation had gathered, with but one purpose:
“We need to talk about Lee.”
Silence. Grim, quite possibly foreboding silence.
“Er, why?”
“Well… he knows things. Lots of things. Things that, if brought into the harsh light of public scrutiny, could have massive and far-reaching consequences for our mission. We need to decide what to do about him.”
More silence. This time of a more ruminative, speculative kind.
“We could…”
“Yes?”
“…promote him?”
Silence again. But of the lightbulb-going-on variety.
“Hadn’t thought about that. Not a bad idea. Right then, stand-down the grinders, issue a public pronouncement on all channels. The Lee Harris Unit is hereby promoted to…”
“Senior Editor?”
“Yep, that sounds about right. Senior editor. Good idea. Make it so.”
“Please, no Trek clichés.”
“Sorry. Just get on with it, then. And put the kettle on, someone. I’m gasping for a brew.”
Silence once more, as the greatest robo-minds in the global organisation vacated the Chamber of Contemplation, to return to their own dreams and schemes of imminent and inevitable global domination.
True story.
{ There’s a slightly more news-y press release here, if you prefer a just-the-facts version for your blog or website. And you can hurl congratulations, envious abuse, or jokes about “senior moments” @LeeAHarris, as you see fit. }
Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A team up with AudioGO for Audiobook Goodness
Posted by: | CommentsWe’re pleased-as-punch to announce that, via our parent company Osprey Group, we’ve concluded a deal with to create audiobook editions of all our forthcoming Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A books.
Here’s the press release that we’ve just sent out to our chums in the bookish media – please feel free to copy & paste for your own blog or website if you’re an audiobook fan:
Leading audiobook producers AudioGO have signed up to create audio versions of titles from two of Osprey Group’s fiction division imprints: YA specialist Strange Chemistry and next year’s upcoming crime imprint, Exhibit A. The audiobooks will be produced in AudioGO’s specialist UK studios and will have worldwide digital distribution.
The first titles will be the debuts from the Strange Chemistry line: Blackwood by Gwenda Bond and Shift by Kim Curran, which will launch in the first week of September. Further titles will appear simultaneously with the release of physical editions from Strange Chemistry and, starting May 2013, Exhibit A.
Quotable Quotes
Jan Paterson, Publishing Director of AudioGO, said: “We are really excited by this new collaboration with Osprey Group. The digital revolution continues to deliver more and more sales of audiobooks each year, so this is a great opportunity for two independent publishing companies to collaborate to reach new markets.”
Marc Gascoigne, Managing Director of Osprey’s Angry Robot fiction division said: “Quite simply, AudioGO are damn good at what they do. We’re absolutely delighted to have them on board making audiobook editions of the books from our new imprints. Our mission has always been to have books available to our readers in all formats, worldwide, simultaneously – and AudioGO can help us deliver just that.”
Further Information
AudioGO (the home of BBC Audiobooks) publish an extensive range of drama, comedy and factual programmes from BBC Radio, in addition to abridged and unabridged recordings by best-selling authors read by the finest narrators. Most titles are available in both CD and download format.
Browse through the complete collection at www.audiogo.com.
A Warm Welcome to our Shiny New ‘Bot, Mike Underwood
Posted by: | CommentsOn Monday morning we’ll be welcoming a brand new addition to the Angry Robot team, in the form of our brand new North American Sales and Marketing Manager, Mike Underwood.
Mike will be working closely with John Tintera, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for our parent company, Osprey Group. Mike’s remit will include the ongoing development of Angry Robot’s North American retailer partnerships with all the major store and online booksellers, plus a vast array of indie bookstores. He will, in short, be the go-to guy for all things Angry and Robotic in the North American market.
Mike is ideally suited to the task of getting Angry Robot books into the hand of the genre-fiction-loving masses of North America. has a background in bookselling and publisher sales and has previously worked for the Wybel Marketing Group, representing publishers such as Dark Horse Comics, Night Shade Books, Felony & Mayhem Press, and more to trade and wholesale accounts across the Midwest. Before that, Mike was a bookseller and has worked in the specialty game market. Furthermore, he holds a M.A. in Folklore Studies and when he isn’t selling books or writing his own, he studies Renaissance Martial Arts and dances Argentine tango.
But that’s not all: Mike is also, as of this month, a published genre author. His debut novel, Geekomancy is published by Pocket Star/S&S. Check it out, folks.
You can find Mike online at www.michaelrunderwood.com and do the 140-character thing in his general direction on Twitter @MikeRUnderwood.
Shiny New Angry Robot Mike Underwood said this about his imminent round of excruciatingly painful cyborgisation surgeries and interface control enhancement implantations: “I’m tremendously excited to be joining the Angry Robot team. Speculative fiction has always been my greatest passion as a bookseller and field rep, so I’m overjoyed at the chance to focus my energy and skills onto the world of genre fiction. Wait… there are surgeries?”
Angry Robot’s Managing Director Marc Gascoigne, once he’d finished cackling like a loon and shrieking “Yesss! Yesss! We have him now, our Precioussssss!”, added: “Mike impressed us with his depth of experience and knowledge of the North American bookselling market. His frankly rabid enthusiasm for the genres in which we publish, and a solid understanding of the Angry Robot mission, made him the ideal candidate. We look forward to assimilating him into our nefarious plans.”
Good News for Chris F. Holm Fans – We’ve Signed Him Up for a New ‘Collector’ Book
Posted by: | CommentsWe’re very, very pleased indeed to be able to make the following announcement:
Following the critical and sales success of Chris F. Holm‘s debut novel Dead Harvest, and with the noise already building for The Wrong Goodbye‘s upcoming release in October this year, we’ve snapped up Chris’s third book in the Collector series.
Called The Big Reap, it threatens to reveal a whole lot more of the machinations of some of Hell’s most powerful characters, as soul collector Sam Thornton gets himself in a whole universe of trouble.
Angry Robot Publisher guy Marc Gascoigne said of the new deal: “Sam Thornton is a wonderful character and his adventures damnably great fun, so we are delighted to welcome him back for more. The talented Chris Holm makes it all seem so easy.”
Author guy Chris F. Holm added: “Look, there ain’t much hardboiled about the word ‘delighted’. Nor ‘chuffed’. ‘Thrilled’ is better, I suppose; puts one in mind of white-knuckled reading. I mean, no one stops in an airport bookstore to pick up a delighter for their trip. Wait, what were we talking about again?
“Oh, right! I am thrilled, and delighted, and possibly even chuffed (being American, it’s hard to tell) to be continuing my Collector series with Angry Robot. The Big Reap is going to be both epic and unexpected, and if I do say so myself, I’m pretty sure it’s gonna rock. But more importantly, it’ll provide Angry Robot – who are, monomaniacal obsession with world domination aside, the finest folks a writer could hope to work with – an excuse to create another kickass vintage pulp cover.
“That’s right, I admit it: I’m in it for the killer covers. If I have to keep writing crazy-ass demonic adventure-noir to keep ‘em coming, then so be it.”
Sounds like we’re going to have another killer cover to reveal at some point in the future. Any bloggers out there particularly keen on hosting that one? Shout out in the comments if so…
Update: Chris is running a giveaway contest on his website. Prize packs are up for grabs, which Chris says will contain “a signed copy of Dead Harvest, as well as bookmarks, fridge magnets, custom Dead Harvest M&Ms, and whatever other crazy-ass Dead Harvest swag I happen to have lying around my house.” All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to leave a comment on the site saying what it would take to get you to bargain away your immortal soul…
Debut Author Wesley Chu Joins Angry Robot with The Lives of Tao
Posted by: | CommentsWe have news of another exciting debut author signing for you today folks: a two-book deal for science fiction author Wesley Chu.
Said deal – the fine-print of which was sorted out between our man Lee Harris and Wesley’s agent Russell Galen of the Scovil, Galen and Ghosh Literary Agency – is for the first two books in a brand new, high-octane, sci-fi action adventure series that mashes up Jason Bourne, Chuck, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and a whole lot more.
People of The Earth, we proudly present: The Lives of Tao.
What’s The Lives of Tao All About, Then?
The Lives of Tao follows an out-of-shape loser and IT technician called Roen, who finds his world turned inside out and upside down when a friendly alien hitches a ride inside his mind. Because this is no ordinary friendly alien: the entity in question is a secret agent, fighting an aeons-old war against the Genjix, a rival alien organisation hell-bent on destroying the Earth in their quest to return to their rightful place in the galaxy.
And poor old Roen really has his work cut out for him. He needs to develop a stiff jab, make the grade as a covert operative and find a way to save the planet, all while being hunted by the deadly agents of the Genjix.
And Who’s This Wesley Chu Guy We’re Hearing So Much About Lately?
Wesley Chu was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Chicago, Illinois when he was just a pup. It was there he became a Kung Fu master and gymnast (no, seriously, check out the photo…)
Wesley is an avid gamer and a contributing writer for the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. A former stunt man and a member of the SAG, he can also be seen in film and television playing roles such as “Banzai Chef” in Fred Claus (honestly, we are not making this stuff up, he’s got his own IMDB entry and everything) and putting out Oscar worthy performances as a bank teller in Chicago Blackhawks commercials.
Besides working as an Associate Vice President at a bank, he spends his time writing and hanging out with his wife Paula Kim and their Airedale Terrier, Eva.
You can catch up with Wesley online at his blog: www.chuforthought.com, or on Twitter: @wes_chu. Feel free to send him lots of “congrats!” messages and all that jazz.
For Crying Out Loud, The Quotes! Where Are the Quotes?
We asked Wesley to say nice things about us for the press release and he came back to us with the sort of megalomaniac ramblings which means he’ll definitely fit in just fine around these parts: “I am thrilled to announce my strategic alliance with Angry Robot Books. Since 2009, I and my shadowy organisation, the Genjix, have watched with interest as they’ve increased their influence over the world with an impressive stable of creative authors.
“Between their mind-bending list of books and dreadnought starships, and my kung-fu grip and millennia of world conquering experience, Earth has very little chance of surviving our onslaught. I look forward to growing this relationship with these ill-tempered automatons as we carve up the world. Dibs on New Zealand.”
Our Lee added: “I’m always delighted when I find a new science fiction series with real heart, especially one written by a debut author of such obvious and genuine talent. I can’t wait to share Wesley’s books with the world.”
Both books – exact titles still to be confirmed, so watch this space for further news on that front – are scheduled to be published in 2013.
