Ian Whates conducts a ‘Behind the Scenes Interview’ with those responsible for new Harper Collins imprint Angry Robot

IW: Launching a new imprint at a time of worldwide economic uncertainty is a very bold move.  Who came up with the idea – did Marc make the initial pitch to Harper Collins, or did they approach him?

Marc Gascoigne, Publishing Director, aka Marco: A bit of both, really. I’d used the success of my Black Library imprint at Games Workshop to set up Solaris, which from the off was blatantly working to a specific, different strategy. As a result, we were approached by Chris Michaels of HarperCollins to discuss possible ways of working together. Nothing much came of that at the time, but the moment I became available, it’s fair to say they pounced. After a bit of to-and-fro, there was actually a moment when the then-MD of Harper Fiction, Amanda Ridout, said, “Look, let’s take a step back. Simple question: if we gave you some funding, what sort of imprint would you want to run.” Well, I talked without taking many breaths for about fifteen minutes, everyone smiled and nodded, and we were away.

That was July 2008. That man Lee Harris came on board the following January. I’d come to know him after a wild chat at 3am at Fantasycon the year before – you see, you should never go to bed first. And Chris Michaels remains deeply involved, being our man at HarperCollins’ HQ. We remain in an office in Nottingham, which keeps costs down and I guess keeps us away from too much influence from the more traditional approaches of HC, allowing us to be focussed squarely on Robot business.

IW: Branding is clearly an important consideration in any venture… So why ‘Angry Robot’?

Marco: Oh, you should have seen some of my first list of possible titles. It was like I was trying to use the word “Solaris” again, with every suggestion I came up with being in the same vein. The evening after Dave in Harper legal came back having done all the tedious trademark searches, I sat and looked at all these dreadful hackneyed names, cleared and ready to go, and changed my mind. I had a few drinks, sat up late surfing websites in search of buzzwords, terms to trigger thoughts, and scribbling wildly. And genuinely, when I woke up in the morning I had eight words that could work in almost any combination. I assembled a few two-word phrases, batted them back to Dave, and the very top of the trademark-free list was Angry Robot.

Since then, we’ve had one of two responses really: a knowing nod and a chuckle from those for whom it implies so much, or a bemused WTF from the older publishing types with leather elbow patches and their dinner in their ties. We rather love it.

IW: What makes Angry Robot different?
Lee Harris, Assistant Editor, aka… Lee: We have a few differentiators, I think, but for me, the main one is passion. While I do not believe for a second that other imprints at other publishers do not have passion for their work, we don’t just wear ours on our sleeves – we’ve had it tattooed onto our private parts (and there’s absolutely no truth to the rumour that Marco had to use a small font). When we shout out our love of the genre, and of the books we’ve bought, and of the authors we publish, I think it’s obvious that we’re not just spouting marketing-speak.

Marco: Well, apart from that unorthodox way of announcing his imminent resignation, my colleague is spot on with that one. For me there’s something else, too, which is a commitment to “crossover”. In 2009 our pop culture is a mash-up of every influence ever, and genre fiction doesn’t reflect that enough. Partly it’s down to the bookstores’ need to pigeonhole, or at least shelve, our output. That then leads to straight-jacketing if you’re not careful, and in a way that rarely affects other media that deal with genre topics. No one mithers about what shelf to put a Final Fantasy computer game on because it features both magic and steam trains. Increasingly, and chats with influential folks within the store chains are feeling this too, genre may just be one big section and anything goes.

 Of course, some old-timers like their entertainment pure. We still get the odd review that states “hmm, this book was crime, but with a horror twist – didn’t the author know what book he was writing?” Such small-mindedness will never quite go away, but for many readers the ability to pluck different aspects of fantasy, horror, cyberpunk, SF, alternate history or whatever, and mix them together is refreshing. Which is not to say it’s never been done before, of course, but that’s another essay-length reply altogether.

IW: Obviously you rely on support from many people in many areas, but at its heart Angry Robot is just the two of you.  What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a small team?

Marco: Well, it’s the three of us actually – Chris is a full team member.

Lee: The main advantage is autonomy and control. While we have amazing back-end systems at HarperCollins, we’re able to get on with the general day-to-day business with a surprising lack of in-house interference. Also, of course, as we are multi-skilled (rather than being full time editors) we’re a lot closer to every aspect of the publication of our titles – as well as acquisition we take care of advertising, marketing, cover briefing and sometimes design too, typesetting and everything in between. Sales is handled ably by Chris Michaels and the HarperCollins sales team, but we poke and prod at everything else. Ironically, this level of multi-tasking is also the main disadvantage, as prioritisation is not always as straightforward as it might be for larger teams – when deadlines loom (they never approach, do they? They always loom) there’s no one to whom we can delegate. Well, Marco has Muggins, of course. 

IW: Clearly, for this relationship to work you must have faith in each other, but there have to be times when you disagree about a given author or novel.  What happens then?

Lee: We draw a chalk circle in the middle of the office and don our sumo gear. Sometimes, though it’s a draw (we both get out of breath very easily – the curse of the desk job) so we talk things through. While there is a lot of crossover in our tastes, it’s important for the imprint to be more than just one person’s. We’ve bought books because Marco championed them, and we’ve bought titles because I’ve been excited by them, but where there is a major disagreement Marco’s is the deciding vote – he’s been in this business for over twenty-five years, and for good reason.

Marco: Let’s be clear though – books aren’t just bought because an editor is excited by them. They are considered for business reasons, fit to our world-wide range of releases, fit to what Angry Robot is about (we talk about that one the most, I suspect), fit to what our schedule demands.

IW: You seem to be publishing works from across the genre spectrum, incorporating SF, fantasy, horror, and a few places in between.  Why such an all-encompassing policy?

Lee: Why not?

Marco: Yeah, why not? And what you gonna do about it?

IW: When a new manuscript hits your virtual desks, what in particular are you looking for that makes you think, “Yes, this is an Angry Robot novel!”

Lee: In order: strong characterisation, a journey I care about, solid writing. I think Marco’s list will differ from mine. There should also be a sense of danger to the novel – I want to care about what the characters go through, and I want the writer to put them in situations that make me say “oh, shit” out loud.

Marco: I’m more of a seeker after a trip. I want books that make bombs go off in my mind, as the book suddenly flies (metaphorically, most of the time) into the heart of the sun. Everything louder than everything else. A rollercoaster. Aaaaand, after reading genre books since the early 1970s, I want to be surprised.

IW: One of your first two publications, Lauren Beukes’ critically acclaimed Moxyland, was not a brand new title as such, having previously appeared in her native country.  What risks, if any, did you see in launching a new imprint which strives to be original with a reprinted work?

Lee: We’ve actually published a few novels that have appeared in other territories or other formats. Moxyland was published in South Africa as a small press title, and did extraordinarily well. SA is a relatively small market, though, and we knew that sales here wouldn’t seriously dent the worldwide sales of the novel. In fact it acted as an excellent testing ground for the book, and the sterling work Lauren did in promoting the title showed us what a great advocate she would be for future titles, and for Angry Robot. So, no risks that I can see.

Marco: It’s a bit of a dodgy question really. In my head, it wasn’t the launch book, it was one of eight launch books in our first season. Slights was alongside it, with two more on sale four weeks later. Also, “a reprinted work” that had only ever been sold in South Africa, and frankly demanded being taken to the outside world as soon as possible. And you say “critically acclaimed” – well, let’s just say, it is now.

IW: What are your ambitions for Angry Robot?

Marco: Going to be dull here. That we make money and profit for our overlords, which allows us to continue to publish more great books from all corners of the globe and in all genre styles, as mashed up as you like. And maybe get to a plateau, allowing us to start applying our particular publishing strategy to other genres or sub-genres as well. We already have the name for the next imprint. We just have to get there.

IW: This has doubtless been an exciting ride for the both of you.  Now that the first books are out and Angry Robot has arrived, is it still as exciting, and, if so, why?

Lee: At the time of answering these interview questions I’ve been with Angry Robot for over ten months, and I’m still in the honeymoon period. If anything, I’m enjoying it more now than when I started. There’s always something new to do, and every month brings with it new books and new challenges. It’s the best job in the world – apart from being Angelina Jolie’s personal masseuse, of course, but sometimes Marco lets me bring the aromatherapy oils into the office.

Marco: So that was what the smell was.
 
IW: If you could revisit anything you’ve done during the imprint’s development and do it differently, what would it be?

Marco: I notice Lee has pointedly not put anything in here, and I wouldn’t want to implicate him in anything either, not outside the four walls of an employment tribunal anyway. From my POV, there are always going to be niggles – there’s a dodgy footnote in the first printing of Triumff, a drop shadow on one of the covers I’d change, that sort of thing – but most of the time our eyes are aimed squarely at the future. The past has happened, except for cleaning up at reprint stage, so we don’t worry about it. Bring on the future. Ooh, look at the next question; my powers are strong…

IW: Could you give us a taste of some of the titles we can expect from Angry Robot over the next twelve months?

Marco: For sure. Fabulous Steampunk from Lavie Tidhar with The Bookman, possibly the cheekiest, most reference-packed, mash-up-tastic Victorian fantasy ever – and the killer line “My name is Verne. Jules Verne.” Mind-expanding Aztec fantasy from Aliette de Bodard in Servant of the Underworld – she’ll take you somewhere very different. Thomas Blackthorne’s Edge and Point are among the angriest novels I’ve read recently, using near-future Britain to explore just what’s so screwed up about our own society, like the best SF always has done. No wonder John Meaney has employed a pseudonym to distance it from his other recent work. Guy Adams, channelling Clive Barker and Philip José Farmer in equal measure in The World House. Kaaron Warren giving Ursula le Guin a run for her money in her extraordinary island fantasy, Walking the Tree. Three books by the same author in April, but we can’t talk about that. Two long out-of-print genre classics coming back after 25 years, but we can’t talk about that. A hilarious supernatural police procedural, but we can’t talk about that. A couple of starship-centric SF novels that bring something fresh to that sub-genre. And some bloke called Ian Whates writing… well, I have to admit, writing the most engaging science fantasy I’ve read in years. But we would say that, wouldn’t we?

Lee: We’ve a few first-time novelists who are bringing some astonishing titles to the table, some of whom we can talk about, and some where the ink isn’t quite dry, yet. We’ve some great hard SF, some fantastic fantasies (of all flavours) and the occasional scary tale. You’d be better off heading over to the website for full info, though – details at the bottom of this interview, fact-fans!

IW: And finally, does Lee still own the pink shirt that saw him thrown off after the first round of ‘The Weakest Link’ despite getting all his questions right, and does Marco tolerate him wearing it to work?

Lee: Yeah, thanks for bringing that back up – the wounds are still fresh, you know. Marco – are we too late to shred this guy’s contract?

Marco: Yes we are. Also, I should remind you, Ian’s books are seriously good, so if anyone’s going to have to go, mate… well, it’s been nice working with you. No, take the shirt with you.

IW: Marco and Lee, thank you.

www.angryrobotbooks.com