Angry Robot

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Angry Robot
Parent company Watkins Media
Founded2008
Country of origin United Kingdom
Headquarters location Nottingham
Distribution Penguin Random House (US)
Grantham Book Services (UK)
Simon & Schuster (Australia)
Pansing (Singapore) [1]
Publication types books
Fiction genres Science fiction and fantasy
Official website www.angryrobotbooks.com

Angry Robot is a British-based publishing house that publishes an array of science fiction, fantasy and horror titles. Angry Robot was founded in 2008, and has been publishing books in both the UK and US. markets since. In 2014, Angry Robot was sold by Osprey to Watkins Media, and has continued to build a strong list of bestselling books. They are the publishers of the Korean-translated bestseller The Cabinet by Un-su Kim; the epic Tiktok romantasy Glacian Trilogy by Stacey McEwan and recently the USA Today bestseller and instant Number 1 Sunday Times Bestseller, Evocation by S.T. Gibson.

Contents

In 2023, they launched their crime imprint, Datura Books. Datura focuses on titles with a strong sense of voice and place that push the boundaries of the genre, while playing with readers' favourite tropes. The list launched with its first title, Death of a Dancing Queen by Kimberly G. Giarratano in February ‘23, and has published an array of crime fiction from existing and debut authors including the multiple award-nominee The Graveyard Shift from Maria Lewis.

Angry Robot are currently based in Canonbury.


History

Angry Robot was founded in August 2008, when Marc Gascoigne, previously publisher of Games Workshop’s Black Library and Solaris imprints, was hired by HarperCollins UK to create a new science fiction imprint. The intention was to create an experimental line that would complement the existing Voyager imprint, which focussed mainly on big-selling fantasy titles. Angry Robot would be able to trial some different business methods – buying world rights to allow co-publishing in the US and UK, issuing eBooks and potentially audiobooks as standard alongside print editions, and maximising online marketing through bloggers, Twitter and Facebook. [2] [ self-published source? ]

Editor Lee Harris, previously best known for Hub, [3] an online short story magazine, was recruited at the start of 2009. The first titles published by the imprint, released in July of that year, were Slights by Kaaron Warren and Moxyland by Lauren Beukes. Both met with praise (Slights won the Australian Ditmar Award for best novel, and the Shadows Award for Best Fiction). The company continued to release two or three titles every month, but in April 2010, book production was temporarily halted when HarperCollins and the imprint parted.[ citation needed ]

Gascoigne purchased the imprint from HarperCollins for a nominal sum, in partnership with Oxford-based Osprey Publishing. [4] The imprint remained based in Nottingham. The monthly release of new titles resumed in September of that year, with titles publishing in the US as well as the UK for the first time.

Among the first titles in the new wave of release was Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City , which went on to win the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction book of the year in April 2011. [5] The novel was also nominated for a British Science Fiction Association Award [6] (it came second, but its cover art – by Joey HiFi - won a separate BSFA Award) and a World Fantasy Award. [7] Also notable was a reprint of K. W. Jeter’s pair of seminal steampunk novels, Morlock Night and Infernal Devices .

The imprint makes great capital out of its “Robot Army”, which is a street team of bloggers, reviewers and influential commentators from the science fiction world, who can access exclusive content and advance reading copies of Angry Robot’s novels. Angry Robot also uses its quirky branding to sell merchandise and eBooks (either singly or in multiples via ongoing subscriptions) direct to readers.[ citation needed ]

In October 2011, at the World Fantasy Convention, Marc Gascoigne won the World Fantasy Special Award (Professional) for Angry Robot. [8]

Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A

In November 2011, Angry Robot announced that they were planning a sister imprint, Strange Chemistry, [9] that would be devoted to young adult (teen) science fiction, fantasy and supernatural novels. Headed by blogger-turned-editor Amanda Rutter, [10] it was launched in September 2012.

A crime fiction imprint, Exhibit A, was launched in 2014. [11]

Both Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A imprints were closed in June 2014, after they were "unable to carve out their own niches". [12]

Watkins Media

In 2014 Angry Robot was sold by Osprey to Watkins Media, owned by Etan Ilfeld. [13]

Marc Gascoigne and the team continued at Angry Robot until the Nottingham Office closed in 2019. Eleanor Teasdale took over the helm at Angry Robot in 2019, and has seen huge successes in a short time including being personally shortlisted for IPG Young Publisher of the Year. In 2021, Angry Robot unveiled their new logo and website, making online purchases of their books much smoother. This rebrand helped Angry Robot cement its legacy in the SFF community. Since the rebranding, Angry Robot has been continuously publishing on-trend genre titles, as well as genre classics to their UK and US markets, regularly reaching award shortlists and bestseller lists. In June 2024, Angry Robot’s release, Evocation by S.T. Gibson, was a Number 1 Sunday Time Bestseller and a USA Today bestseller. Angry Robot continues to present the best of the genre, presenting fresh and diverse voices to the market, as well as reintroducing well-loved voices. In 2023, they launched their crime imprint, Datura Books. Datura focuses on titles with a strong sense of voice and place that push the boundaries of the genre, while playing with readers' favourite tropes. The list launched with its first title, Death of a Dancing Queen by Kimberly G. Giarratano in February ‘23, and has published an array of crime fiction from existing and debut authors including the multiple award-nominee The Graveyard Shift from Maria Lewis.


Awards

List of Awards

2023



2022

2021

2020

2019


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References

  1. ↑ "Contact – Angry Robot" . Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  2. ↑ "Press release #1: New Science Fiction/Fantasy Business Venture Launched". 6 October 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  3. ↑ "Hub Magazine | Free Weekly Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy Fiction – SPONSORED BY SOLARIS". Archived from the original on 22 November 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 16 July 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ↑ "South African author wins Arthur C Clarke award". the Guardian. 28 April 2011.
  6. ↑ Lutgendorff, Liz (13 August 2015). "I read the 100 "best" fantasy and sci-fi novels - and they were shockingly offensive". New Statesman.
  7. ↑ "2011 World Fantasy Award winners | The British Fantasy Society". www.britishfantasysociety.org.
  8. ↑ Science Fiction Awards Database: Marc Gascoigne (retrieved 9 July 2018)
  9. ↑ "Strange Chemistry". Archived from the original on 2 November 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
  10. ↑ "Floor to Ceiling Books". floor-to-ceiling-books.blogspot.com. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  11. ↑ "Announcing our new Crime fiction imprint, EXHIBIT A!". Angry Robot. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  12. ↑ "Angry Robot closes Exhibit A and Strange Chemistry imprints - The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  13. ↑ "Osprey sells off Watkins, Angry Robot and Nourish". The Bookseller. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
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