Category: News
- Alex Lencicki - August 7th, 2009
The votes are in and we have a winner! We’re pleased to present to you the title for your worst cover ever.
(drumroll please)
Across a Trembling Sea the Cyborg Fairies Dance
It was an incredibly tight race, with Rise of the Fallen, Book Seven, The Pre-Antepenultimate Battle in second place, but in the end the Cyborg Faries put down the Fallen.
So there you have it. Our fearless art director is warming up her Photoshop as we speak, but before she can start we need two more key cover elements: the author name and the reading line.
Author names are straightforward enough (if you’re having problems, heed Dr. Ronald Chevalier’s advice).
The reading line is a more delicate matter — for that we need the top-line description of the book that will inform everything. The best reading line will give the reader a hint about what to expect in the book – even if that hint is wholly inaccurate.
Suggestions below.
by Alex Lencicki • 22 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Covers, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- Alex Lencicki - August 6th, 2009
For the next two weeks Karen Miller will be guest-posting at the Babel Clash blog. She starts her visit with an answer to the age-old question: are writers sane?
Writers – like actors — have a kink in the brain. It’s a kink that means we are at the same time deeply and intimately involved in the process of being human while standing outside that process watching it happen. It means that we can never truly be at one with our own lives because we can’t ever totally lose ourselves in the unconscious moment. A part of us is always conscious, always watching, analysing, pulling the moment apart so we can put it back together again as fiction.
You can join the conversation here.
by Alex Lencicki • 2 Comments • Posted in: All posts, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- Alex Lencicki - August 4th, 2009
Jeff Somers’ latest Avery Cates novel, The Eternal Prison, is out this week in the US, and to celebrate Jeff’s launched an old-school text adventure game. Think Zork with swearing. You can play the game here.
by Alex Lencicki • Post a Comment • Posted in: All posts, Contents, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - July 23rd, 2009
Orbit is pleased to note that this September, you’ll be able to hear as well as read Iain M. Banks’ forthcoming novel TRANSITION. Little, Brown UK announced today that the audio version will be simultaneously released as a free serialized podcast, starting on publication day, September 3.
After the first installment, there will be 23 further 15-minute episodes released on iTunes in the US and UK, every Thursday and Saturday for 12 weeks, until the entire novel is available.
Maja Thomas, vice president of digital publishing for Hachette Livre said “Hachette Digital is very pleased to participate in this collaborative marketing on an author we’re publishing internationally, and to bring Iain Banks to new listeners through iTunes.”
And, what does Mr. Banks have to say? “I had barely caught up with the later half of the Twentieth Century when here I am being ensnarled by gizmology from the Twenty-First. I am left breathless by the pace of technology.”
by The Orbit Team • 3 Comments • Posted in: All posts, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - July 23rd, 2009
We are happy to note that Orbit publisher Tim Holman has launched a new blog, The Publisher Files. His latest post regards the digital market, including USA Today’s decision to begin including Kindle e-book sales in its weekly bestseller lists. He will try, he notes, “to pass on occasional words of publishing wisdom.”
Understatement, we’d call that; fix your bookmarks now.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: All posts, News, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - July 13th, 2009
I’m delighted to announce that Orbit has acquired World English Language rights in The Dagger and the Coin, a new series from Daniel Abraham. Daniel is, of course, the author of the acclaimed Long Price Quartet, which Orbit will publish in the UK at the end of January 2010, in two omnibus-style volumes.
Changing direction a little, The Dagger and the Coin will be epic fantasy on a grand scale, Very much in the tradition of George R. R. Martin‘s wonderful A Song of Ice and Fire - fast-paced and filled with war, intrigue, sex, murder, magic, great fortunes lost and won, dark gods, crime, exotic races, fantastic set pieces, dragons, underground resistance movements and strange occult powers.
In Daniel’s own words: ‘In the way that The Long Price Quartet was a semi-tragic meditation on the epic scale of an individual life, The Dagger and the Coin is a love letter to fantasy adventure intended to keep the reader from getting enough sleep..’
‘I’m very conscious of the influences I’m cultivating going into it – Walter Tevis, Alexandre Dumas, Tolkien, J. Michael Strazinski, Joss Whedon, GRRM, Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen, Dorothy Dunnett, Tim Parks – and I’m trying to take the things that I love about each one of them and make a stew out of it. It’s set right at the friction point between the medieval period and the renaissance, so we’ve got knights and kings, but we also have merchant houses and finance. There’s some magic of the understated sort. There’s political intrigue. There’s a girl who was raised as the ward of a Medici-style bank, there’s a high nobleman who’s gotten himself and his family in over his head, there’s an emotionally scarred mercenary captain straight out of Dumas.
‘The point of it all is to make a book that reads to me now the way that the Belgariad did when I was 16. I’m going to be swimming in everything I think is cool for the next year, and I’m really looking forward to it
And for our part, Orbit is hugely excited to be publishing The Dagger and the Coin internationally. The combination of Daniel’s vision and talent and the grand canvas offered by epic fantasy promises to make The Dagger and the Coin something truly special. But don’t just take our word for it. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Junot Diaz says:
‘Daniel Abraham is one of the reasons the fantasy genre continues to haunt my dreams. Abraham is fiercely talented, disturbingly human, breathtakingly original and even on his bad days kicks all sorts of literary ass. Welcome to the world of the andats, of the haunted extraordinary poets, a world where men enslave ideas, where these slaves scheme to avenge themselves, where every bad deed spawns more, a world where after the treachery, the conspiracies, the journeys, all that’s ever left in the end are the consequences. Welcome to Daniel Abraham. If you are meeting him for the first time I envy you: you are in for a remarkable journey.’
A remarkable journey, indeed. Welcome aboard!
by The Orbit Team • 2 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Deals and Deliveries, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- Tim Holman - June 5th, 2009
We are delighted to announce that French publisher Calmann-Levy will be launching a new Orbit imprint in October 2009. On the launch list will be authors Kristin Cashore, Brandon Sanderson, J.V. Jones, Stephen R. Lawhead, and Mark Chadbourn. Orbit launched in the UK in 1974; in 2007, we launched in the US; and last year we launched in Australia. Orbit in France will be committed to publishing the most exciting SF and Fantasy authors — both new and established — from around the world, and we wish them every success for their launch and in the years ahead
by Tim Holman • 9 Comments • Posted in: All posts, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - June 4th, 2009
This cube could be yours for the summer!
Orbit US is looking for a summer intern to start immediately in our New York office. We want someone who is passionate about publishing, loves books, and has read a wide range of Science Fiction and Fantasy. We’re looking for a bright, engaging, creative individual who will enjoy working in a team. You must be organized and detail-oriented.
This internship will not only give you the opportunity to experience the editorial side of publishing, but you will get to interact with the art, marketing, and publicity sides of the business as well. You must be currently enrolled in college or recently graduated.
If you’re interested, email orbit [at] hbgusa [dot] com Please respond by Wednesday June 10, 2009.
by The Orbit Team • 10 Comments • Posted in: All posts, News, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - May 15th, 2009
There’s a Hugo and a Campbell, but not a Palmer. Here’s why. Read the rest of this entry »
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: News
- Alex Lencicki - May 11th, 2009
Marie Brennan’s IN ASHES LIE is out next month from Orbit (US | UK). In the meantime, she’s releasing an ebook of a new novella set in the same world. Best of all, it’s totally free (although you can donate if you’d like) and it’s available in HTML, Epub, and PDF.
Here’s Marie on the novella:
Today, to mark the one-month countdown to the release of IN ASHES LIE, I’ve posted on my website a free Onyx Court novella titled DEEDS OF MEN. Taking place between MIDNIGHT NEVER COME and its sequel, this story is a murder mystery set at the end of the reign of James I (1625). You don’t need to have read either novel to understand the novella, nor do you need to read this piece to understand ASHES, but I hope it will serve as a fun “extra” for readers who want more of the setting and the characters.
And here’s a description of the book:
A young man lies dead in a Coldharbour alley. Before his death, he uncovered secrets that could threaten the mortal world above and the faerie world below. Now, to find the murderer and protect both realms, Sir Michael Deven will need the help of a man with reason to hate the fae of the Onyx Court — the victim’s own brother.
So what are you waiting for? Download DEEDS OF MEN here.
by Alex Lencicki • Post a Comment • Posted in: All posts, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
