Angry Robot - Introduction

Genre Fiction 2.0 | Chris Michaels

Enter the Robots

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Genre Fiction

2.0


Genre Fiction 2.0

• A new business, not a new imprint: Sales, marketing and editorial independence married with operational infrastructure of a major publisher

• Global, not local: Acquiring, publishing and distributing worldwide

• Market-ready, not wishing the market didn’t exist: Reaching out to the customers we know, accessible to the customers you know

• Outward, not inward: High-impact product design for consumers we know care

• Digital, plus physical:Innovating in digital to drive sales of physical

• IP-making, not rights taking:Exploiting the rights we acquire to build a life for ourproducts beyond the page


Genre Fiction 2.0

• 2-4 titles per month•First titles July 2009 – soft launch to make sure everything works• Hard launch September 2009 – major launch marketing with global events, cover-mounts, consumer and trade advertising• Title offering across the most accessible and commercial areas of SF&F


Who are the Angry Robots?

Business Sponsor: Amanda Ridout, HarperCollins Group MD

• Executive leadership • Strategy and planning

Publishing Director: Marc Gascoigne

• Product direction• Acquisitions and commissioning• Operational management


Who are the Angry Robots?

Business Development: Chris Michaels

• Commercial strategy and planning • Sales, marketing and rights development• Key account management

Assistant Editor: Lee Harris

• Marketing, publicity and website management• Digital products • Editorial management


How – global, not local

Global sales, marketing and distribution – UK, US, Australia and New Zealand The network effect of simultaneous worldwide release, will help build sales worldwide, meaning travellers can find the book wherever, whenever they are

Our global approach is reflected in our author acquisitions– with the best talent acquired from South Africa, Fiji, Alaska and ... Maidstone

Our targets for medium-term growth are on the Far East and the Gulf – the strategic focus for genuinely global publishers


How – market ready, not hiding from the market

We know who the consumers are:• 4.3 million book consumers in UK market• Dominant male 29-42, BCD• Strength in male and female 14-18

We know how the market works:• Value driven by key hardback authors ... But only 10 can sell in this format• Massive diversity underneath – more than in any fiction market• Strength outside the major names comes from structured brand-building

We know what they want:• Average SF/F reader buys 4.3 books per year• Driving into online purchase – faster than the overall market• Historic early adopters of digital products• But not value driven – SF/F has the highest ASP of any market segment


How – market ready, not hiding from the market

We know how to give it to them:• Our marketing approach is simple: we trust our content, and want to create as many ways as possible for consumers to try it• That means digital and physical sampling wherever and however we can:

• The Robot Army is our affiliate and partnership marketing program – a global network of websites, blogs and forums distributing our content• Launching with covermount with SciFiNow, then a rolling extracts program – connecting different products together in store • Google Book Search and HarperCollins’ Browse Inside technology... And we want to work with our partners to reach further and better

We know how we want to work with partners:• We want to build new business models with our business partners:

• Our world rights model gives us financial flexibility• Our corporate backing gives us marketing opportunities to support our titles across the list• Developing new opportunities – we want to find new kinds ofpromotion with partners, breaking new ground


How – outward, not inward

We undertook qualitative research with SF/F fans using HC’s market researchteam and identified a 10-point sequence of what they want from packaging:

1. The first thing they see is on-book offers – value opportunities2. The second thing they see is dynamic space – high-contrast colour-

blasts, with lots of negative space3. The third thing they see is style: fonts and design elements that tell

them what genre the book is with clarity4. The fourth thing they see is the illustration: high-contrast, disruptive –

it must tell you what functional experience you’re going to have5. The fifth thing they see is the title: make it big!6. The sixth thing they see is the author name: make it small!7. The seventh thing they see is qualifiers: a proposition on front that

sets up the narrative set-up on the back; series navigation must be included if relevant

8. The eighth thing is recommendations: using other brands to quantify9. The ninth thing is other products: links to other digital products and

other books in series10. And finally, the information: calls to action to websites ... And price.


How – digital plus physical

We’re a content business first, and a product business second. That means digital products matter as much as physical products.

• We believe our audience wants them – the history of successful ebook retailers like Baen is strong, and podcasting has made genre-author careers like Scott Sigler• We want to give them to them - a governing metric of our business is what digital revenues we create: that means making ebook and digital audio as fundamental to what we do as paperbacks • We believe that in doing so we will increase sales of all formats: availability and awareness drives sales – having digital audio and ebooks available increases the ways consumers can find out about our content, try it, then buy it • Our Robot Army of digital marketing partners will enable us to meld the different formats together and create opportunities to buy


How – IP making, not rights taking

We know genre builds great IP – now we want to show we can use it to build our business:

• Developing a series of unique partnerships with film, game and TV companies to develop IP• The initial exercising of rights will build the perception of value in our content• The long-term development will bring value back into our business and present opportunities for new applications of our content


Next steps

Let’s work together:

[email protected]+44 (0) 7825 753 640

Angry Robot - Introduction

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