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The April issue of Locus magazine carries its annual “British Book Summary” – a report on SFF publishing in the UK. I admire and appreciate Locus’s amazingly comprehensive reporting on all things SFF-y from around the world, but as somebody in the publishing industry I have to say that this survey always bothers me. (more…)

On the PaperCuts blog Dave Itzkoff has a very cool little interview with physicist Michio Kaku on the reasons we won’t teleporting, time traveling, or – er — precoging anytime soon. Left out of his theory, however, is whether investing in the Time Travel Fund increases your odds, so I’m still hopeful.

Following up on the post below, the cover debate continues here, here, here and elsewhere. I left a comment at Lou Ander’s blog that explains a bit more on our approach to cover design.

One thing to add: a few people have expressed the view that for a publisher the most important thing about a cover is that it appeals to buyers (those people in the book industry who determine whether or not–and in what quantity–a book gets on to the shelves). For us, that’s not true. Of course, it’s a great advantage if a buyer loves a cover we’ve come up with; and it makes things more challenging if they don’t. However, we–and I’m talking only about Orbit here, to be absolutely clear–have one thought in our mind when we’re thinking about covers: how to make it as effective as possible for the widest possible readership. And by “effective”, I mean visually exciting, distinctive, and appropriate to the book’s content and style.

Of course, we listen to buyers, we talk to buyers, we take buyers’ feedback very seriously, and we’ll sometimes change a cover as a result. But we don’t ask ourselves: what kind of cover would the buyers like? We ask ourselves: what kind of cover would potential readers like?

Another aspect of this issue that’s sometimes overlooked is what the author thinks of their cover. Some authors are more interested in their covers than others–some prefer to leave it to their publisher, others have very strong views on what they would like. Either way, I’m often struck by how revealing an author’s reaction to seeing a visual representation of their work can be. In my experience, authors themselves can be great judges of whether a cover works or not. One author reaction to seeing her cover for the first time summed it up for me when she said: “That’s exactly what my book looks like!” For her, the cover had captured something exciting and important about the book and made it instantly recognizable. If a cover doesn’t achieve this–at least to some degree–I think it’s unlikely to be a particularly effective cover.

I guess it all comes back to what one considers to be an effective cover.

This week, 11 of the Top 20 Fantasy bestsellers in the US are urban fantasy titles, including the Top 3. Most people are aware of the growth of urban fantasy over recent years, but I wonder how many are aware of the degree to which it now dominates the fantasy bestseller lists? This week’s chart shouldn’t be a surprise, either. Looking back over the fantasy bestseller charts of recent years, there’s a clear trend:

2004: 1 urban fantasy title in the Top 20.
2005: 4 urban fantasy titles.
2006: 5 urban fantasy titles.
2007: 7 urban fantasy titles.

Without any doubt, urban fantasy has changed the face of SF and Fantasy publishing in the US over recent years and there’s no sign that it won’t continue to do so.

Walter Jon Williams on sex in novels. (SFW, assuming your work doesn’t object to Nabokov)

We’re delighted to announce that the UK’s bestselling SFF debut of 2007 was Karen Miller’s The Innocent Mage. It was a great year for new authors, but it was clear from the start that The Innocent Mage was something special. It went straight to the top of the SFF charts when it was first published, and the buzz has continued to build, with a stack of rave reviews, particularly online. All seemed to echo the same sentiment: that Karen Miller was an author with an incredible gift for creating characters that leap off the page — and for telling a story in a way that makes it ridiculously difficult to put the book down (and incredibly difficult to resist The Awakened Mage, the second book in the two-part series, which came out shortly after).

Congratulations from all of us to Karen, a new star of fantasy fiction.

And for all Karen Miller fans out there, three words: Empress, April, amazing.

With the Yuletide fast approaching, the Orbit team* thought it worth indulging in a spot of fantastical fun to help count down the days until Christmas.  In an act of inspired lunacy / luke-warm humour / gross irresponsibility (delete as appropriate), we’ve decided to post the Science Fiction and Fantasy Twelve Days of Christmas.  And because we are masters of space and time, we’ll be doing it over the next week and a bit**.  In order to give some sort of relevance to our tomfoolery, each line will be derived from a recognisable subgenre/movement within SFF. 

So, join with us as we warm up our vocal chords, apply our formidable knowledge of the field and kiss our credibility goodbye, with The Twelve Days of ChristmaSFF . . .

On the first day of Christmas my android gave to me . . .
. . . A monolith on a dead moon.

* Well, not allthe Orbit team. Despite the strong vein of geekery propagating through the office like the blast front of a giant nerd-bomb, some people have insisted on retaining their dignity (it’ll never catch on). These few, these happy few, are blameless for what we’re about to unleash on an unsuspecting world.
** Yes, we know. Not an inspired start, is it?

This year, World Fantasy was at Saratoga Springs, New York. It was a lovely town upstate and I, for one, had forgotten what trees looked like!

Attending the convention was Orbit from both here and across the pond: Tim Holman, Publishing Director (US & UK); Darren Nash, Editorial Director (UK); George Walkley, Business Manager (UK); Alex Lencicki, Marketing and Publicity Director (US); Jennifer Flax, Editorial Assistant (US); and me (Devi Pillai, Editor, US)!

Some of our lovely authors also attended: Marie Brennan, Robert Buettner, Jo Graham, Karin Lowachee, Jennifer Rardin, Lilith Saintcrow, Jeff Somers and Walter Jon Williams. It was also great to see Daniel Abraham and Scott Bakker from Orbit in the UK.

Friday

The Orbit team took an early train fortified with plenty of Dunkin Donuts coffee on Friday morning. Our car, fully packed for World Fantasy, included: Diana Gill of Eos, Anne Sowards and Jessica Wade of Ace and Roc and Rome Quezada of the Science Fiction Book Club.
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Words of praise in the latest Aurealis magazine for two of Orbit’s top Australian scribes, Sean Williams and Marianne de Pierres:

Sean has produced some good work in the past; he’s had the opportunity to flex his writing muscles in a wide variety of projects. In Saturn Returns, I felt a new assuredness, a strength of voice that was compellingly entertaining and thought-provoking. Saturn Returns is Sean’s best yet — go out and buy it.

Dark Space is an exciting adventure with plenty going on to keep you turning the pages. The story is primed to enter uncharted territory at the end of Book One. Marianne has a knack for creating compelling characters in complex realities — the Parish Plessis novels showed us that — so this is one to watch as it develops through the next two volumes.”

A shout out to former Aurealis editor, now reviewer, Keith Stevenson for his insightful reviews, which will appear in full in issue #38.

Keith also had some nice things to say about Orbit’s new global presence, so it would be rude — rude, I say! — not to repeat some of that niceness here:

The enthusiasm comes from what’s happening in the Australian market lately. This could be another false dawn — we’ve been through so many — but with the arrival of Hachette Livre and its much respected imprint Orbit into the local arena there is a level of energy and enthusiasm that I haven’t seen for a long while in Australian genre publishing . . . And so to another Orbit SF release (see what I mean: the release of two Australian science fiction books in as many months is unheard of in recent years).

Thanks, Keith. I hope we can continue to excite SF readers in Australia — and all around the world — for years to come!

Things are fairly hectic at Orbit UK — we’re really looking forward to fantasy legend Terry Brooks touring the UK next week, so there’s a certain amount of dotting Is and crossing Ts going on — and it’s all too easy to miss things taking place around the blogosphere. So here’s a catch-up on what’s being happening with our books and authors:

Ian Irvine has written an essay on the books that are important to him for the distinguished academic Norman Geras’ blog.

Sean Williams is answering questions from readers on the Australian SpecFic in Focus forum — you’ve got until 15 September if you want to ask him something.

As a marketing hack, I was fascinated by this interesting analysis of how a reader decides what to buy in a bookshop, using Brian Ruckley’s Winterbirth as a case study, written by a genuine marketing expert, Roy Bayfield of Edge Hill University.

Jeff Somers’ The Electric Church is out later this month. It’s already picked up some great reviews. The Guardian called it “an exhilarating example of powerful and entertaining storytelling.” Meanwhile, blogger Graeme Flory rated it eight out of ten and wrote of it: “I read a couple of pages; then I read some more, the next thing I knew, it was Sunday night and I’d finished it. Great stuff, every single page tells you in no uncertain terms why this book has been chosen as part of Orbit’s opening salvo on the US market . . . an entertainingly bullet spattered read that hints at great things from Somers in the future.”

Graeme has also reviewed Mike Carey’s new book Dead Men’s Boots, which rates a mighty nine and a half out of ten, and the comment, “If you’ve already read the first two books then I guarantee you’re going to absolutely love this one. If you haven’t then I suggest you pick up The Devil You Know [Mike’s debut for Orbit] and get reading. You won’t regret it.” There’s also an interview with Mike on Graeme’s blog.

The final word on Dead Men’s Boots goes to the estimable John Berlyne, who says in his SFRevu review: “What Carey develops . . . is yet another extraordinarily gripping supernatural mystery . . . These Castor books are as fiendishly addictive as nicotine and are made all the more satisfying by Castor’s deadpan, ironic fatalism . . . The net result is another superb, highly involving novel from Mike Carey.” You can read the rest of the review here.

Well, after months of meticulous planning, discussing and strategizing, it’s launch month for Orbit in the US. The books are in the stores, the reviews are coming in, and the marketing campaigns are underway.

With all of the preparation that surrounds the launch of a new imprint, it’s easy to forget the importance of that relatively brief moment when somebody sees a book for the first time — in stores, in libraries, online, or wherever — and makes a decision. As publishers, we can edit the books, and package the books. We can promote them, both directly and by working with retailers. And we can make sure that they are available as widely as possible.

But will that book catch your eye? Will you pick it up? Will you read the blurb and like the sound of it? Will you flick through a few pages and be excited enough to want to carry on? And then, of course, if you’ve done all of those things, will you enjoy it as much as we have?

Only time will tell, of course. But we’d like to thank everyone who has helped us get to this stage, and given us so much support and good advice, in particular: the authors, the agents, the booksellers, the librarians, and the reviewers. And I’d like to give special thanks to the woman I saw on the subway yesterday reading Karen Miller’s The Innocent Mage and not looking up once. I hope she didn’t miss her stop … actually, I hope she did.

No, not the Orbit Christmas Party (although . . . ); we’re talking about virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, which seem to be being invaded by a new wave of cyber-crooks. There have been two stories floating about teh Intarwebs recently, involving criminal action in Second Life. Why do we care? Apart from a deeply held concern for our fellow beings, obviously? Because Orbit author Charles Stross anticipated them both. Who says SF can’t predict the future?

In an amazing case of (second) life imitating art, this story circulated a little over a week ago, outlining the theft of $3.2 million Linden Dollars from Second Life. This is scarily close to the central theme of Charlie’s forthcoming Halting State. We don’t publish Halting State until January 2008, but remember Charlie wrote it last year, so it still counts as prophecy! And as if that wasn’t enough Nostradamus-like gazing through the veil of time, we just spotted this on the website of The Australian newspaper. Again, Mr Stross was there first. The advent of virtual terrorism was outlined in this article Charlie wrote for online gaming site Guildcafé last March.

At the risk of taking liberties with Oscar Wilde’s famous wit: to predict one future event can be seen as fortunate, to predict two begins to look like cleverness.

So, if you want to know what the future might look like, read Charles Stross. He can’t do the lottery numbers (we checked) but there are few better authorities on emergent technology and how it might affect our lives.

The Dresden Files television series was shown earlier this year in both the UK and the US (on Sky One and the Sci-Fi Channel respectively). This was a fantastic treat for the many fans of Jim Butcher’s books. Of course, we’ve all been eagerly anticipating more, but the future now looks rather uncertain, as despite good ratings and great reviews, commissioning of a second series has still to be confirmed.

But there is still something we can do — it’s not too late (yet)! Those helpful fans at Dresden City have put together a simple and helpful guide on how to keep the series alive, with details on exactly how to:

1. Write snail mail letters to those most directly responsible for programming at the Sci-Fi Channel and Lionsgate
2. Call the Sci-Fi Channel feedback line
3. Let everyone online know your love for the show

More on the subject can be found here and of course check Jim Butcher’s official site for masses of Harry Dresden info and more.

Thanks for your support — you know it’s worth it!

Orbit Publishing Director Tim Holman talked to Bookselling This Week about the launch of Orbit in the US. Read the full interview on the ABA website.

Interesting commentary here from US writer Edward Champion’s blog. He’s noted the success of the comic industry’s Free Comic Book Day, and wonders whether the book trade shouldn’t follow suit.

We already have World Book Day with free £1 book tokens and specially produced £1 books, and it seems to work very well, but if we removed the world ‘World’ and replaced it with ‘Free’, might it work even better . . . ?

Charles Stross
(photo: Charlie Hopkinson)

Orbit UK author Charles Stross has contributed a piece to the BBC website, published today. It’s a fascinating look at the effect that increased data storage will have on history and memory:

We’ve had agriculture for about 12,000 years, towns for eight to 10,000 years, and writing for about 5,000 years. But we’re still living in the dark ages leading up to the dawn of history.

Don’t we have history already, you ask? Well actually, we don’t. We know much less about our ancestors than our descendants will know about us.

Indeed, we’ve acquired bad behavioural habits — because we’re used to forgetting things over time. In fact, collectively we’re on the edge of losing the ability to forget.

You can read the rest of the piece here.