Archive for Contents

Lili Saintcrow – NYT Bestseller!

Yeah Lili!

lili_stcrow-betrayalsLili hit the New York Times’ Children’s Paperback Bestseller list at #5, kicking ass with her YA novel, Betrayals.  I am very proud to work with her and I’m SUPER  excited for her.  Now I can introduce her to you as NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, Lili Saintcrow!! Yeah!!!Saintcrow_Flesh Circus (MM)

We also have the newest Jill Kismet from Lili out this week – FLESH CIRCUS.  The Cirque de Charnu has arrived – and they’re ready for fresh meat.  Jill Kismet can’t do anything without destroying a fragile truce that has existed between the hellbreed, the hunters, and the Circus.  But when circus performers start dying grotesquely, it’s all Jill can do to keep her head in the game – and out of the lion’s mouth.

Would you like to work for Orbit?

The Orbit team in London are looking for a new recruit! We want to employ an ambitious, talented marketer to work on marketing campaigns for Orbit UK books and on the digital marketing of titles published by Orbit’s parent company, Little, Brown Book Group.

The right person will be a big science fiction and fantasy fan, will have a marketing or book trade background, a track record for producing innovative and impactful online content, and will have strong technical skills (ideally including accessible XHTML / CSS / WordPress).

If you think this person could be you, and you’re excited by the possibility of working in London for the UK’s market-leading SFF publisher, then please apply in writing with a full CV, covering letter and current salary details to ann.woodhall@littlebrown.co.uk.

Alternatively, hard copies can be sent to:

Ann Woodhall,
HR Director,
Little, Brown Book Group,
100 Victoria Embankment,
London EC4Y 0DY

The closing date for applications is 13th December

New York Book Show 09 Winners!

450_Poster2010The New York Book Show is an annual competition held by the Bookbinders’ Guild of New York, which is a professional publishing organization focusing on design & production of all kinds of trade, academic, and specialty books. It’s one of the few design competitions every year that focuses just on books, and I entered some of our Orbit titles from 2009.

The judging was just completed, and Soulless by Gail Carriger & Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler both won in the mass market paperback cover design category. Thanks to everyone who was involved in the cover designs, especially Donna Ricci, our model for Alexia Tarabotti & mistress of all things Steampunk Fashion, and Sharon Tancredi, the illustrator for Tempest Rising. Go Team!

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I love it when our authors get creative…

I have been too busy designing covers lately, but recently Jeff Somers has been making awesome videos and you should all check them out on his blog. There’s some hilarious peeks into the writing process and general frustrations of being an author.

But here is the most recent and the giant floating covers crack me up. Enjoy!

Now Jeff, when are you getting your tattoo?

Cover Launch: TERMINAL STATE

ts1Here’s a brand new Avery Cates novel from author Jeff Somers, book #4: Terminal State. I really liked the original trade paperback covers for this series that Jae Lee illustrated, but I have to say I have been really enjoying designing the mass markets in this really graphic monochrome look. The new covers for Electric Church (#1) and Digital Plague (#2) are hitting the stores in November & December, so go check them out in person. Eternal Prison (#3) releases in July and Terminal State in August.

I can’t wait to have all 4 of them lined up on my shelf. (more…)

Author Branding?

Vampire Heart-1Tempest Rising author Nicole Peeler wants to know: Should she get this fabulous vampire heart from her first book tattooed on her? I am sure the illustrator Sharon Tancredi agrees with me: ABSOLUTELY!

But leave room, Nicole! Sharon is designing a special heart for each book. Next you’ll have to get the fire-and-dagger heart from Tracking the Tempest! (more…)

Behind the Scenes: BITTEN IN TWO

IMG_0888The Art Department is deep into working on the covers for Fall/Winter 2010-2011 and has moved from deciding directions on books and choosing artists right on to the fun part: photoshoots! Today yours truly was at the studio with the crew responsible for the Jaz Parks series by Jennifer Rardin (hey, Bite Marks is out now, don’t forget).

The next book in the series is lucky number 7, tentatively titled Bitten in Two. Jaz and her motley crew of vampire hunting/demon slaying/werewolf shooting misfits are in Morocco this time, hunting for a way to evict the evil spirit locked in the back of Jaz’s skull. If you haven’t read this series, it’s all action, ass-kicking, and one hot vampire. No swooning maidens here. (more…)

Full Circle, Out Now

full_circle_smallThe final book in the Castings trilogy is now out! This is the conclusion to the story that began with Blood Ties and Deep Water. Pamela has written a beautiful story – one where the ghosts walk the land, where old wounds have never healed and where one woman must reach back into time. It’s a fabulous story and if you haven’t checked this series out, you should now that the compete series is in hand.

Cover Launch: BEST SERVED COLD

PrintNow in bite-sized format: the mass market edition of Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. Now even more bad-ass.

I may have gone over this before, but you may ask, “Why would you change the cover from Hardcover to Paperback?” and my answer usually is “Why not?!” — there’s always more than one way to portray the story in a book, and why not take the opportunity to do something new and maybe even attract a few new readers that you may have missed the first time around. There’s some seriously publishing-geeky conversations over here between Editorial and Art about audience, readers, how people browse in bookstores vs. airports vs. bog box chains, etc. but in my book I will usually always go for reshuffling the elements at least — keeping the art, but playing with the crop, size, order, type on a cover. (That is, unless the Creative Director hasn’t had a lot of sleep that week, or some other art emergency is draining manpower when the cover change comes up for discussion, so don’t go back thru the backlist and nitpick me, ok? Ha.) (more…)