Orbiting the world

Wed, May 31, 2006

My good chum and major SF fan George from top British SF publisher Orbit – home to Juliet E McKenna, Iain Banks, Charlie Stross, Ken MacLeod, Laurell K Hamilton and Mike Carey to name but a few – sent me some exciting news last night about the publisher expanding into other countries, although since they were still informing some of their authors I’ve held on till this morning to post the story:

“ORBIT, THE UK’S LEADING SF AND FANTASY IMPRINT, TO LAUNCH IN USA AND AUSTRALIA

Hachette Livre is to launch two new SF and Fantasy imprints in the USA and Australia. Orbit, an imprint of the Little, Brown Book Group (formerly Time Warner Book Group), is the UK’s leading SF and Fantasy imprint, and the launch of Orbit USA and Orbit Australia will give it a major presence in the three largest English-language markets in the world.

Orbit USA, to be launched by the Hachette Book Group USA, will be incorporated into its Little, Brown division under Publisher Michael Pietsch. Orbit Australia will form part of Hachette Livre Australia.

Orbit USA will be run by Tim Holman, currently Publishing Director of Orbit in the UK, who will be relocating to New York in July. He will also oversee the development of Orbit Australia, where an editor will be appointed to manage the local publishing. Both imprints, expected to launch within the next 12-18 months, will have a significant impact on SF and Fantasy publishing in their respective markets.

Tim Holman will continue as Publishing Director of Orbit UK and teen fiction imprint Atom. Darren Nash (currently Senior Editor) will be promoted to Editorial Director and George Walkley (currently Marketing and Publicity Manager) will be promoted to Business Manager. An additional Orbit UK editor will also be appointed.

Tim Holman, Publishing Director of Orbit and Atom, said: ‘Many of the challenges facing SF and Fantasy publishers are the same in the UK, USA and Australia – and many SF and Fantasy writers have truly international appeal. The success of Orbit in the UK over recent years would not have been possible if we had not published so many great writers from around the world, so the launch of Orbit USA and Orbit Australia is particularly exciting. This move will, of course, put us in an extremely strong position to offer global English-language publishing opportunities, while aspiring to publishing excellence in each market. I am hugely looking forward to working with new colleagues in both the USA and Australia, and strengthening ties between all of the Hachette Livre SF and Fantasy publishers.’

Ursula Mackenzie, Publisher and CEO of the Little, Brown Book Group, said: ‘This a truly exciting development for Orbit that can only result in a considerable strengthening of its presence and reputation in the UK and around the world. While we will all miss Tim Holman on a day to day basis, we are very fortunate to have Darren Nash and George Walkley ready to step up to more responsible positions. Tim will of course continue to oversee his global empire with his usual flair and attention to detail.’”

I think this could be very exciting – Orbit is a fantastic publisher of SF&F, with a great mix of some of the finest bestselling, established authors like Banksie while still introducing readers to newer talent, which is why I was introduced to excellent writers such as Marianne de Pierres and the forthcoming Winterbrith from Brian Ruckley (thanks for that one, George!). Hopefully it will lead to better deals for authors, better promotion and increased awareness of their work across the English language world and so more books sold and read. Since many of Orbit’s authors they publish in the UK are also published in America and Australia (indeed Marianne is Australian) I asked how this might affect them:

“It won’t affect our existing plans for these authors, but the launch of Orbit USA and Orbit Australia will increase our international profile and give us more opportunities for global publishing deals in the future.”

I’m especially pleased this is happening with Orbit since they are genuinely one of the best SF imprints around. Not just because they have a good professional publishing approach and good stable of diverse authors but because they are staffed by folk who, like our crew here, are really into what they do – it isn’t just a job, they read the same sort of books the fans do and have always worked hard to support and promote those authors; in fact George and I both used to contribute our time regularly to write reviews of SF&F for the Alien Online because we wanted more folks to read good books. I’ve dealt with George, Darren and Tim for a long time and know how keen they are to promote good books and think this is a great opportunity for them and for writers and readers. This move may be an astute business one but it also reflects the high standard the Orbit team under Tim have set, so congratulations to them all and nice to see that work being recognised in such a big way. For a brief roundup of some of the forthcoming Orbit titles check this post from the other week and for more updates stay tuned.