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HarperCollins is to launch a new science fiction imprint, which aims to have a global appeal, selling directly to consumers as well as through retail channels. Angry Robot’s first titles will be published in July 2009. The publisher has hired Marc Gascoigne, former publisher of the Solaris and Black Library imprints at Games Workshop, as its head.
The imprint will publish two books per month, ramping up to three within the first two years. The majority of titles will be B format paperback originals but there are plans for limited edition hardbacks and deluxe versions.
“This year, and not for the first time, other areas of mass-media such as movies, television and computer games have enjoyed massive popular success across a variety of science fiction and fantasy subjects,” said Gascoigne.
He will report to HarperCollins’ m.d. Amanda Ridout and will work alongside publishing brand manager Chris Michaels to develop its sales, marketing and digital models. Ridout said that Gascoigne was “the perfect person to spearhead this innovative and creative venture”.
The business will be based in Nottingham and is expected to employ around five people by the end of its first year.
Michaels told The Bookseller that it would be a completely different model to HC’s existing Voyager imprint. “We really see Voyager as the gold standard for science fiction,” he said. “They take big name authors like Robin Hobb or Terry Goodkind. At Angry Robot we will be building the next wave of authors, people like Cory Doctorow or Fiona McIntosh who are on their first books with us at Voyager.”
The imprint will target early adopters of science fiction, who begin reading the genre between the ages of 14 and 16, and the “massively aggressive consumers” of the titles, who are aged between 27 and 40.
Angry Robot would have a transactional website, which will sell the imprint’s titles as well as digital audio and e-books. “The trade paperback pricing will be at the generic standard,” said Michaels. “The interesting thing is that there is no definitive business model. This is an opportunity to see what people want to pay for digital content.”
Michaels said the imprint would also have print on demand books available for those “titles that have gone beyond their conventional shelftime”.