UK PUBLISHER MONTH 2012: Amy McCulloch from Harper Voyager – An Editor’s Life & Upcoming Titles (+ Int’l Giveaway – ends 01/06/12)
Throughout May we will be celebrating UK publishers and their books. There will be posts from editors and publicists revealing some of their upcoming titles for 2012 as well as giving us a glimpse into their working lives. Of course there will also be lots of fabulous giveaways! Check out the amazing line up below! Enjoy!
Day in the Life of a Voyager editor
Last night, I ended up having a discussion over Twitter with my US colleague, Diana Gill about how sometimes our job feels like time travel! Take a look into the day in the life of a Voyager editor and see if you agree…
Morning. 1970s.
Arrive at work, order a skinny latte from Cafe Carl and wince slightly as the barrage of e-mails comes through as Outlook starts up. Find an e-mail from an agent asking to look into the rights situation of an author we published back in the 1970s. Take a few deep breaths to prepare before entering the cave of old contracts, find the author’s file, and dig through a sea of faxes. Count my lucky stars I no longer work at a time where faxes are an acceptable form of communication.
Late Morning. Early 2000s.
Reprint e-mail comes through – would we like to update any material in these recently published books? Note that some of these titles are entering the double-digit reprint stage, which always puts a smile on my face!
Pre-Lunch. Present Day.
Day-dreaming about a fully-loaded jacket potato when a box comes in full of freshly-printed books. Stare happily at all the shiny! Tweet a photo.
Post-lunch. Next Six Months.
I approve the final pass of a book, making sure all the necessary changes have been incorporated, then send it off to press. Huzzah! That’s always a good feeling.
Afternoon. Next Year
Cover Art Meeting. Briefing book jackets for 2013 and beyond. One thing’s for sure: the future will be pretty. Also receive an e-mail saying that one of my author’s has delivered the second book in her series. Do a little happy dance and print out ready to take home for an edit.
Evening. Two Years from now and beyond.
Fill my handbag with submissions (guys: if you see a woman with a massive heavy handbag, maybe she’s not a shopaholic, but an editor? I advise to check hands for papercuts.) We’re scheduling to publish new books now in 2014 and beyond, so anything I look to buy now will be way in the future. And if it’s a trilogy, I could potentially be working with an author way into 2016 and beyond. Now that’s positively sci-fi.
Urban Fantasy, Horror and Dystopian HarperVoyager UK books coming soon to your future:
Stacia Kane – Sacrificial Magic (10 May 2012), Chasing Magic (Summer 2012) The fourth book in Stacia Kane’s fantastic DOWNSIDE GHOSTS series.
Magic-wielding Churchwitch and secret addict Chess Putnam knows better than anyone just how high a price people are willing to pay for a chemical rush. But when someone with money to burn and a penchant for black magic starts tampering with Downside’s drug supply, Chess realizes that the unlucky customers are paying with their souls—and taking the innocent with them, as the magic-infused speed compels them to kill in the most gruesome ways possible.
As if the streets weren’t scary enough, the looming war between the two men in her life explodes, taking even more casualties and putting Chess squarely in the middle. Downside could become a literal ghost town if Chess doesn’t find a way to stop both the war and the dark wave of death-magic, and the only way to do that is to use both her addiction and her power to enter the spell and chase the magic all the way back to its malevolent source. Too bad that doing so will probably kill Chess—if the war doesn’t first destroy the man who’s become her reason for living.
Richard Kadrey – Sandman Slim (7 June 2012), Kill the Dead (21 June 2012), Aloha from Hell (5 July 2012), Devil Said Bang (Autumn 2012)
Supernatural fantasy has a new antihero in Sandman Slim, star of this gripping, gritty new series by Richard Kadrey. Life sucks and then you die. Or, if you’re James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.
Now Stark’s back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But when his first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you’d expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future. Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.
Darkly twisted, irreverent, and completely hilarious, Sandman Slim is the breakthrough novel by an acclaimed author. “If Simon R. Green wrote an episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter, it would read much like Sandman Slim – violent, vivid, non-stop action of the supernatural kind. I couldn’t put it down.” Charlaine Harris
Janet Edwards – Earth Girl (16 August 2012) | Vicki Pettersson – The Taken (Autumn 2012) | Brom – Yule Lord (Christmas 2012) | Kylie Chan – Journey to Wudang trilogy (Autumn 2012)
GIVEAWAY
Harper Voyager are kindly giving away FIVE copies of Sacrificial Magic and FIVE copies of Sandman Slim to FIVE lucky winners!
This giveaway is International and ENDS 1st June 2012 - so you haven’t got long to enter!
To enter please follows Rafflecopter instructions below
GOOD LUCK!
HARPER VOYAGER ONLINE
Website | Blog | Twitter Voyager | Twitter Amy
7 Comments
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Wow, thanks for the interesting insight. It amazing working that far into the future. Thanks for the giveaway
Oh I forgot., my tweet didn’t work I pressed the button before putting in the tweet in. Sorry guys.
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Great interview and you job seems pretty similar to mine with regards to proof reading etc, except mine is not as anything as fun as books!
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This was an interesting interview. It sounds fun to get to work with so much different stuff, though.
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I was just looking at US cover of Sandman Slim yesterday and thinking I needed to put it on my wishlist
so great that you’re publishing it in UK as well. I also very much looking forward to The Taken and Earth Girl, and Journey To Woudang was phenomenal (I’ve read old print) – I have a weakness for UF with Asian culture, there are so few of them around! 
thanks for a fantastic giveaway!
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Another great giveaway – Sandman Slim sounds fun, I’ll have to look out for that one
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Thank you for the giveaway!
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