Angry Robot is a British-based publishing house dedicated to producing modern adult science fiction and fantasy, or as they call it “SF, F and WTF?!?”. The

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

-based company first released books in the UK in 2009, and since September 2010 has simultaneously been publishing its titles in the US as well, as a distributed client of

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

. All titles are released as paperbacks and eBooks.

History

Angry Robot was founded in August 2008, when

Marc Gascoigne Marc Gascoigne is a British author and editor. He is the editor, author or co-author of more than fifty books and gaming related titles, including '' Fighting Fantasy'' books, ''Shadowrun'' novels and adventures, '' Earthdawn'' novels and advent ...

, previously publisher of

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer (game), Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake ...

’s

Black Library The Black Library is a division of Games Workshop (formerly a part of BL Publishing) which is devoted to publishing List of Black Library novels, novels and audiobooks (and has previously produced art books, background books, and graphic novels) ...

and

Solaris Solaris is the Latin word for sun. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Sol ...

imprints, was hired by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

UK to create a new science fiction imprint. The intention was to create an experimental line that would complement the existing

Voyager Voyager may refer to: Computing and communications * LG Voyager, a mobile phone model manufactured by LG Electronics * NCR Voyager, a computer platform produced by NCR Corporation * Voyager (computer worm), a computer worm affecting Oracle ...

imprint, which focussed mainly on big-selling fantasy titles. Angry Robot would be able to trial some different business methods – buying world rights to allow co-publishing in the US and UK, issuing eBooks and potentially audiobooks as standard alongside print editions, and maximising online marketing through bloggers, Twitter and Facebook. Editor Lee Harris, previously best known for Hub, an online short story magazine, was recruited at the start of 2009. The first titles published by the imprint, released in July of that year, were '' Slights'' by

Kaaron Warren Kaaron Warren is an Australian author of horror, science fiction, and fantasy short stories and novels. She is the author of the short story collections ''Through Splintered Walls'', ''The Grinding House'', and ''Dead Sea Fruit''. Her short sto ...

and ''Moxyland'' by

Lauren Beukes Lauren Beukes (born 5 June 1976) is a South African novelist, short story writer, journalist and Screenwriter, television scriptwriter. Early life Lauren Beukes was born 5 June 1976. She grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. She attended Roede ...

. Both met with praise (''Slights'' won the Australian

Ditmar Award The Ditmar Award (formally the Australian SF ("Ditmar") Award; formerly the "Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award") has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention (the "Natcon") to recognise ...

for best novel, and the Shadows Award for Best Fiction). The company continued to release two or three titles every month, but in April 2010, book production was temporarily halted when HarperCollins and the imprint parted. Gascoigne purchased the imprint from HarperCollins for a nominal sum, in partnership with

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

-based

Osprey Publishing Osprey Publishing is a British publishing company specializing in military history formerly based in Oxford. Predominantly an illustrated publisher, many of their books contain full-colour artwork plates, maps and photographs, and the company p ...

. The imprint remained based in Nottingham. The monthly release of new titles resumed in September of that year, with titles publishing in the US as well as the UK for the first time. Among the first titles in the new wave of release was Lauren Beukes’ ''

Zoo City ''Zoo City'' is a 2010 science fiction novel by South African author Lauren Beukes. It won the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 2010 Kitschies Red Tentacle for best novel. The cover of the British edition of the book was awarded the 2010 BSFA ...

'', which went on to win the

Arthur C. Clarke Award The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award ...

for best science fiction book of the year in April 2011. The novel was also nominated for a

British Science Fiction Association Award The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, ...

(it came second, but its cover art – by Joey HiFi - won a separate BSFA Award) and a

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

. Also notable was a reprint of

K. W. Jeter Kevin Wayne Jeter (born March 26, 1950) is an American science fiction and horror fiction, horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. He has written novels set in the ''Star Trek'' ...

’s pair of seminal steampunk novels, ''

Morlock Night ''Morlock Night'' is a science fiction novel by American writer K. W. Jeter. It was published in 1979. In a letter to '' Locus Magazine'' in April 1987, Jeter coined the word "steampunk" to describe it and other novels by James Blaylock and ...

'' and '' Infernal Devices''. The imprint makes great capital out of its “Robot Army”, which is a street team of bloggers, reviewers and influential commentators from the science fiction world, who can access exclusive content and advance reading copies of Angry Robot’s novels. Angry Robot also uses its quirky branding to sell merchandise and eBooks (either singly or in multiples via ongoing subscriptions) direct to readers. In October 2011, at the

World Fantasy Convention The World Fantasy Convention is an annual science fiction convention, convention of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of fantasy. The World Fantasy Awards are presented at the event. Other features include an art sh ...

, Marc Gascoigne won the World Fantasy Special Award (Professional) for Angry Robot.

Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A

In November 2011, Angry Robot announced that they were planning a sister imprint, Strange Chemistry, that would be devoted to

young adult In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...

(teen) science fiction, fantasy and supernatural novels. Headed by blogger-turned-editor Amanda Rutter, it was launched in September 2012. A crime fiction imprint, Exhibit A, was launched in 2014. Both Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A imprints were closed in June 2014, after they were "unable to carve out their own niches".

Sale

In 2014 Angry Robot was sold by Osprey to Watkins Media, owned by

Etan Ilfeld Etan Ilfeld is a London-based entrepreneur and the founder of Tenderbooks, Tenderpixel gallery, Watkins Mind Body Spirit Magazine, Watkins Wisdom Academy, PlayStrategy.org, co-founder of Repeater Books. and the owner and managing director of Wat ...

2024 Israeli AI Controversy

In April 2024. Angry Robot announced that they would be using the Israeli Artificial Intelligence system Storywise to aid in the processing of submissions. This resulted in a social media controversy, given the use of Israeli Artificial Intelligence in alleged war crimes carried out by the Israeli Defence Force on Palestinian civilians, and concerns regarding authorial control of works submitted to this system. The controversy escalated when Angry Robot claimed that Storywise was not generative, despite reports that the system itself was actively being promoted by owner

's Remagine Ventures firm (of which he is a partner) as part of the Israeli "Generative AI Landscape" After multiple days of controversy, Angry Robot divested from use of Storywise, and no comment on the AI investments of

was given.

References

{{Reflist Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Nottingham Publishing companies established in 2008 British companies established in 2008