Following up our earlier stories about Orbit‘s search for a new editor, Orbit announces that they are, indeed, expanding. They plan to “double the size of the list over the next three years, taking title output to 70-80 titles per year by 2011” in the US, according to Marketing and Publicity Director Alex Lencicki. In the UK, “where Orbit is already the biggest SFF imprint, it will increase the size of the list by approximately 10% each year over the next three years.”
Publisher Tim Holman said “The support that we’ve received for our launch season in the US—and the success that we’ve achieved internationally—has given us great confidence in our publishing strategy. There is a clear and significant opportunity for any SFF publisher looking to expand the core readership, and we intend Orbit to be at the forefront of the effort to attract more readers to SF and Fantasy. We will continue to publish a wide range of authors from across the spectrum of both genres with a common purpose: to reach the widest possible readership for each. I’m thrilled that we have this opportunity to increase the size of both lists over the coming years.”
As we surmised, they are expanding the editorial team in the US with the search for an additional editor, and they expect to further increase the US staff in the future. There have already been several staffing changes on the UK side: Bella Pagan has been promoted to Commissioning Editor; Marketing Executive Samantha Smith is taking on editorial duties; and Darren Turpin is a new hire as an additional Marketing Executive (focusing on online marketing).
Holman emphasized the unity of the company, despite oceanic separations: “Key to our future plans is the ongoing collaboration between our publishing teams in the US and the UK, as well as Australia, where Hachette Australia will start to publish SFF titles under the Orbit imprint later this year. We will continue to work closely together, not just on individual publishing plans for shared authors, such as bestsellers Iain M. Banks and Trudi Canavan, but also on our general publishing strategy.”
Their non-genre efforts are reflected in Hachette Book Publishing India, which just opened for business behind Managing Director Thomas Abraham. Their first titles—which were released in the last few days—include The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow and Cold Steel by Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey. Their books will be published in English and priced in Indian rupees.