Big, big news

As announced on the Orbit Books website yesterday, I am utterly thrilled to have been hired as Orbit's new (online) marketing exec!

I officially start on April 7th, although as you can imagine there are plenty of emails flying back and forth already. And I'm not exactly a stranger to the Orbit offices, having worked on a few projects for George and the team already, including websites for Brian Ruckley, Philip Palmer and, of course, Iain [M] Banks.

It's an incredibly exciting opportunity and one that I know I'll enjoy getting stuck in to immensely: Orbit are one of the UK's largest and most forward-looking sf / f imprints and I'll be given the chance to work on a very wide range of online projects and promotions, with a bewildering array of global genre fiction talent, including some of the very best UK authors; established names and rising stars alike. Calling it the opportunity of a lifetime really wouldn't be a case of hyperbole on my part...

Of course, this does mean that I'm going to have to give up my freelance status and the work I've been doing with my non-Orbit clients. Letting everyone know has been a bit of a wrench, but every single one of the folks I spent a total of about five hours on the phone to yesterday were nothing short of delighted for me, and everyone has wished me nothing less than huge success in the future.

I've also been talking to someone who I think would make an ideal replacement webguy and all the clients I've mentioned the possibility to so far have been very keen on the idea. So, all being well, a successful handover will hopefully happen smoothly and quite soon.

Blogging-wise... let's just say that I'm reviewing the situation on an ongoing basis. I think The Genre Files may end up going into some sort of hibernation. Personally, I think it would be very difficult for me to post regular book reviews across a wide range of publishers' and authors' work. I suspect the implied bias of my position at Orbit will impinge on the perceived neutrality of my opinion to the point of rendering the exercise largely meaningless.

UK SF Book News will continue for the foreseeable future. Sandy and I were already working on plans to re-vamp the site again, putting an even stronger emphasis on news aggregation, link posting and original interview material. Our aim is to spread as much of the word as we can get our hands on as far and wide as we possibly can whilst providing as much original interview content as we have time for. The site will also become ad-free and affiliate-free, but then that's no bad thing as the time saved by not having to add affiliate info to items will mean more content posted in the long run.

Beyond that, who knows? I'm always coming up with ideas for new blog-based projects. I'll just have to see how much time is available once I've settled into my new role.

Wish me luck! :D