We will be hiring someone with experience of the crime fiction field –although not necessarily someone with a specifically publishing background. Duties will be to source new titles for the imprint, buy them, get them edited and ultimately published in digital and book format, using AR’s existing resources and systems.

The imprint will be a standalone line, with its own name and presence, but will employ the same fresh and distinctly modern approach that AR has in the SF/F world. The editor will play a key role in building the personality of the imprint, and telling the world about its brilliant books, especially online.

The key skills this role demands, therefore, are an up-to-date knowledge of US and UK crime fiction publishing, eBooks, editing, project management, negotiation – and the ability to walk the walk as the mouthpiece of the coolest new crime imprint on the block.

This role could be based in either the US or UK. The Osprey Group, of which Angry Robot is a part, has offices in Oxford and Nottingham in the UK, and New York in the US, but we also have employees who telecommute and work from home offices. If you’re the one for us, we can be flexible.

If you are interested, please apply with your CV and salary expectations to Marc Gascoigne, care of incoming [at] angryrobotbooks.com or via our Contact page. Closing date is noon GMT on 24 Jan 2012.

PS, Yes this does mean AR are in the advanced stages of launching a crime fiction imprint. Debuting in 2013, it will employ the same young and lively approach as AR does, using social media, street teams and all. We’ll tell you more as soon as we are able, promise.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TOP SOUTH AFRICAN PRODUCER WINS COVETED FILM RIGHTS IN INTERNATIONAL “BID FEST” TO MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING AND BESTELLING NOVEL ZOO CITY BY SOUTH AFRICAN AUTHOR LAUREN BEUKES

“Beukes’ energetic noir phantasmagoria, the winner of this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award, crackles with original ideas.” (Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times Book Review)

South Africa, November 22nd
Helena Spring, widely regarded as one of South Africa’s most accomplished motion picture producers, has just been awarded the highly sought-after film rights to Zoo City, the Sci-Fi thriller penned by South African author Lauren Beukes – who garnered the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award for best Science Fiction novel. In the wake of whopping sales figures, multiple awards and critical acclaim Beukes’ book generated fierce interest from numerous bidders in the entertainment industry, putting Spring alongside major US and UK producers eager to tell Beukes’ unique tale.

Zoo City was published first in South Africa by Jacana Media and thereafter internationally by by Angry Robot.

The urban fantasy is set in a futuristic, gritty and hard-core Johannesburg where the eponymous ghetto has been colonised by society’s outcasts – like criminals, drug-dealers and psychopaths, and their animal companions. Like the other residents of the Zoo City slum, Zinzi, the anti-heroine, is “animalled”, but she is also a shrewd, street-smart girl with the gift (or burden) of finding lost things. Zinzi wears her power animal, a sloth, on her back. When she is hired to find a missing teenybopper star, she hopes that it will be her ticket out of Hell’s waiting room.

“I’m delighted to have secured the film and television rights for Zoo City,” commented Helena Spring. “It is a groundbreaking, magical novel begging for a life on the big screen. Lauren’s storytelling is masterful – edgy and futuristic, unique yet universal. It is high in entertainment value yet emotionally charged, a dream project for any producer.”

Beukes positively acknowledges the choice of the winning producer. “Every novelist dreams of a movie deal – but you actually want more than that. You want to find a producer of great vision and integrity and experience who fundamentally gets the book and understands how to transform it into an entirely different creature based on the same genetic material. I’m thrilled that it’s being produced in South Africa – for an international audience.”

Spring’s career in the entertainment industry spans nearly three decades, during which time she has produced over twenty motion pictures – including the first ever South African film to receive recognition at the Academy Awards®: Darrell Roodt’s Yesterday earned a Best Foreign Picture nomination in 2004.

Spring, who has worked with some of the foremost filmmakers in the world – such as Paul Greengrass who helmed the box office smash hits The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, and Academy Award® winner, Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), will soon be putting the project out to a select party of directors, while Beukes has first look as screenwriter to adapt her novel for the screen. “Lauren is perfectly placed to do this. The characters are alive inside her,” says Spring.

Julian Friedmann of Blake Friedmann (the literary agency that reps Beukes), says that: “Helena outbid all the others in a spirited auction for film rights to this extraordinary book. She had an extremely proactive, writer-friendly approach to working with Lauren and offered an imaginative and creative proposal that was irresistible.”

Lauren Beukes’ meteoric rise seems unstoppable and recently a new megabucks book deal was announced. The working titles of the two novels – due in 2013 and 2014 – are The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters. They were picked up by publishers in the US, the UK, South Africa, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.

• Empire State by Adam Christopher [Jan 2012]
• City of Light and Shadow by Ian Whates [Jan 2012]
• Embedded (B-format paperback, UK only) by Dan Abnett [Jan 2012]
• Giant Thief by David Tallerman [Feb 2012]

• The Great Game by Lavie Tidhar [Feb 2012]
• Dead Harvest by Chris F Holm [Mar 2012]
• Carpathia by Matt Forbeck [Mar 2012]

• The Clockwork Vampire Chronicles (omnibus) by Andy Remic [Mar 2012]
• Moxyland (reissue, UK only) by Lauren Beukes [Mar 2012]
• The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle [Apr 2012]
• Omega Point by Guy Haley [Apr 2012]

• Costume Not Included by Matthew Hughes [Apr 2012]
• Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig [May 2012]
• Evil Dark by Justin Gustainis [May 2012]

• The Nekropolis Archives (omnibus) by Tim Waggoner [May 2012]
• Strangeness and Charm by Mike Shevdon [Jun 2012]
• Night’s Engines by Trent Jamieson [Jun 2012]
• The Hammer and the Blade by Paul S. Kemp [Jul 2012]
• Suited by Jo Anderton [Jul 2012]
• Obsidian and Blood (omnibus) by Aliette de Bodard [Jul 2012]
• vN by Madeline Ashby [Aug 2012]
• The Crown of the Usurper by Gav Thorpe [Aug 2012]
• The Death of Light by Peter Crowther [Sep 2012]
• Seven Wonders by Adam Christopher [Sep 2012]
• Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig [Sep 2012]

We know, we know, it’s a lot to take in, isn’t it? It’s absolutely fine if you need to go take an aspirin and have a bit of a lie down. There’s no shame at all in admitting you’re overwhelmed. We quite understand.

When you’ve recovered your composure, pre-orders for the majority of these titles can be placed with your favourite online or offline retailer of paper-bound materials. And for your downloadable convenience, eBook editions will be made available from the Angry Robot Ebook Store and all the usual e-retailers in due course.

That is all.

Lovely Aliette de Bodard went deep, deep into the world of Acatl as she discussed the final novel in the Obsidian & Blood trilogy, Master of the House of Darts, with the Faster Times.

Aaand she made this lovely trailer for this latest Acatl novel too. Studio roll VT:

Aaaaaaaaand she’s running a really cool Aztec-themed competition on her blog. Check it out and win win win, as apparently they say!

Lovely Trent Jamieson talked all things Roil with the nice folks at Ranting Dragon.

Ahead of the concluding volume, King’s War, lovely Maurice Broaddus took a long, hard look at the extraordinary world of his Knights of Breton Court series for the Pudge Factor.

Lovely Lauren Beukes, modestly not mentioning much about her massive, massive new book deal (me and her mother, Mrs Harris, are so damn proud), was interviewed by Bruce Sterling. Yes, that Bruce Sterling.

Anne Lyle was lovely enough to share some advance secrets from her upcoming magical Elizabethan fantasy The Alchemist of Souls with Fran Terminielo.

The lovely KW Jeter was Guest of Honor at Steamcon III recently. Check out the pics and a great write up from Steampunk News. We think all our authors should get an official convention photo done with a girl with a boat on her head. No, just because.

And finally, no skateboarding puppies this week, but instead the lovely Lavie Tidhar gave great podcast for the Skiffy & Fanty Show in this discussion of his new novel Osama. It’s not by us, but it’s bloody great so fair dues and all that.

[ Click above to see larger versions of these covers. ]

So, how do you like these babies, Joe?

You see, the new urban fantasy series from the inimitable Chris F. Holm is a touch, shall we say, noir. OK, not so much a touch, more double-dipped, with an extra crunchy topping of NOIRRRRR. Just take a look at those titles for starters. Looks like somebody has been soaking up the Hammett and Chandler, and then twisting them for their own diabolically devious purposes.

So what’s a publisher to do? Well, what we chose to do was dive in with both feet, BLAM! You want noir, with a classic feel? Oh yeah, these new covers from Amazing15, with art direction by yours truly, reference all that’s great in mid-70s crime paperback design. Well sometimes, you know, genius just… steals. And we Robots wouldn’t have it any other way.

The first of these books featuring soul collector Sam Thornton, Dead Harvest, will be in stores in March next year, with The Wrong Goodbye following in November.

MONSTERCIDE, due next year, is an epic future thriller of city-stomping creatures and the shadowy band of heroes sworn to defeat them. It will be followed the year after by an as-yet untitled sequel to his acclaimed 2011 planetary war novel, Embedded. Frankly, we can’t wait. We want them now.

Dan was kind enough to say: “Angry Robot is going to be publishing my third original novel next year. And my fourth, but that’s a story for the year after. I’m delighted that my relationship with them is continuing, and they’ve made me feel very welcome indeed. Monstercide is a huge and seething idea that’s been in my head for a while now, busting to get out, and I’m very grateful to the Robots of Rage for providing me with a venue for my brain to explode in. Uhm, that didn’t come out quite right…”

Maidstone, Kent-based Abnett made his name in the tie-in SF and Fantasy fiction field, selling more than 2 million copies in English language of his Warhammer 40,000 novels. He’s also made the UK fiction charts with original Doctor Who and Torchwood novels. His comic book scripts, for major publishers such as DC Comics, Marvel and the UK’s 2000 AD, have attracted critical plaudits and strong sales on both sides of the Atlantic.

Turpin will report to Angry Robot publishing director Marc Gascoigne, and work on promoting the full range of Angry Robot titles, as well as developing some currently unannounced new digital initiatives. (Yay, secret stuff!) Turpin had been at Little, Brown for three and a half years, originally working for the company’s science fiction and fantasy list, Orbit. He was also previously manager of the (legendary!) SF department at Waterstone’s Deansgate, Manchester, editor of their in-house SF magazine The Alien Has Landed, and one of the compilers of The Waterstone’s Guide to SF & Fantasy.

Darren said, without any coercion: “I’m hugely excited by the prospect of working for Angry Robot; they’re a cutting-edge independent publisher with a great reputation, an enthusiastic fan-base and a fantastic author roster… what’s not to love? It will be great to get back to genre publishing as well, it’s where my roots lie and where my heart has always been. I can’t wait to get started.”

Marco added, as you do: “Darren’s made quite a name for himself in both science fiction bookselling and publishing. It’s our tremendous good fortune to find a role for him that truly plays to all of his strengths. Angry Robot is growing in leaps and bounds both in the UK and US, and Darren is just who we need to take our message further than ever before.”

Look out for him popping up here as soon as he’s gone through the implantation procedures.

I first met Colin at NewCon in Northampton, as I was just starting to get Angry Robot off the ground. We’d got talking about nothing in particular, as you do at SF conventions, but once he’d sniffed out I was not only a possible publisher but also open to pitches, he went for it with gusto. I bought two novels off him in quick succession – Winter Song and the still-in-progress Damage Time – and the former was included in our launch line-up in July 2009, the second novel last October. His writing was an unusual mix of traditional SF tropes – crashed spaceship, decaying city – but written with almost total focus on the characters of the people caught up in such events.

Colin hadn’t just come from nowhere, however. He had made frequent story sales in the usual venues, and had a trio of titles out through small presses in the UK and US. He had a natural enthusiasm for SF in all its forms too – he was part of the team organising the blossoming Bristolcon, and ran regular blogs and interviews across his and several other websites. He was a cheery presence on the UK SF scene, and we shall miss him terribly. Our thoughts and condolences go to his wife, Kate. — Marc

PS, thank you to everyone leaving your own reminiscences of Colin in the Comments section below. It’s wonderful to read them all.

That there is the US cover for Adam Christopher‘s superlative Empire State, due from us in January 2012. The novel, as you may well recall, is a mix of superheroes and gumshoe detectives, in an alternative New York – which means this totally nails it. Incidentally, you can read Adam’s own thoughts on the creation of the cover over at Floor-to-Ceiling Books blog.

I’d say “ta-daaa!” and whip back the curtain with a flourish, but at least some of you have been all over this already, as our lovely chums over at Amazon.com managed to post it before we do. Gives an exciting little glimpse behind the emerald curtain, I guess. Unseen by the world at large, the race is always on to get a cover out to our suppliers in time for certain marketing deadlines, in as finished a state as possible, while not revealing it till the design is definitively complete and we (that is, the US sales team, UK sales team, various key bookstore people, and all us editorial and marketing types… not to mention that most valued opinion of all, namely the author) are all happy with it.

In this case, we were holding back on showing it off, because… well, we have a potential alternative design for the UK too, and we are waiting on some feedback that will help us decide whether we go with this one or the (really rather different) design we have under wraps. Depending on what the word is, you may never see that variant. Wooh, the suspense, etc etc. Buuuuut anyway, since the US cover is out there and getting kudos, let us stand proud and show it to the world too.

Art and design is by the peerless Will Staehle. We love him, in a gruff manly fashion.

PS: The lovely folks over at the web’s best SF/F news blog, SF Signal, are now featuring this cover as part of a Cover Smackdown. Go vote for your favourite!

Matt Forbeck‘s utterly outrageous – not to mention deeply sanguine – retelling of the Titanic disaster now has a cover, courtesy British designer Nick Castle. There it is, over there. Don’t get any on you!

The novel will be in stores next March, just in time for the centenary of that tragic night, way back in April 1912. As this book’s byline reaffirms, The lucky ones went down with the ship. Can’t wait!