bite me: the week in bite-sized chunks

Orbit UK: completely bypassing the awkward ‘where’s my book?’ author queries, Orbit are releasing the eBook version of Paolo Bacigalupi’s award-winning debut novel The Windup Girl before the paperback in the UK. Print runs be damned. This title has won an astounding five major international SF awards this year, including Hugo, Nebula and Locus. In the words of Bella Pagan at Orbit, read a free extract HERE. It’s set in the near future of Thailand and the world’s food stuffs are depleting. What will America do? PB out 2nd December, for the hardcopy romantics still out there.

Black Library: their eBook Fridays have proved hugely successful – the first three they’ve put up, First & Only, Nightbringer and the first issue of Hammer & Bolter have been downloaded over 25,000 times. Sheesh. The best thing about it? They’re all still available. Have a look-see at the latest, Trollslayer, the first in the acclaimed Gotrek and Felix series. There’s also an audio book of their most popular title, Horus Rising. It’s probably no coincidence that they’ve launched their digital section this week with pre-ordering available. A lesson for other specialist publishers out there.

Solaris: Dark Fantasy writer, Gail Z. Martin’s blog is currently going with the Halloween theme as she’s detailing her Days of the Dead Tour. Go-to for free excerpts and a list of her guest blogs as she’s gone guest-post mad. Author of The Chronicles of the Necromancer, Martin is a lesson in exhaustive self-promotion. I need to read her.

Gollancz: is going competition MAD on their Facebook page. I’ve been entering but have so far remained prize-less. You can’t join their page, but you can coyly express your ‘like’ of them. Current competition is a Halloween one – two books in Suzanne McLeod’s Spellcrackers series, and some sweets apparently. As is Gollancz’s way, they’re using the billboard promotional method for their book covers and McLeod is no exception – her site spellcrackers.com is proudly perched between the title and her name on the front of the book. I am coming around to the idea that Gollancz are cheekily bold, rather than quite mad.