Rebellion Publishing: DRM Free Since 2006

‘DRM Free since 2006!’ It falls some way short of being a sexy headline, but how do you compete with other publishers apparently news-worthy headlines about going DRM-free in 2014, when it’s been 8 years since Rebellion took that decision?

Rebellion Publishing may not be one of the instantly recognisable names in the UK book trade, but for fifteen years we've been the home of the British institution 2000 AD, and first published our perennially bestselling graphic novel collection, Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 back in 2005 (we publish volume 23 this summer). The following year we founded our first fiction imprint Abaddon Books. And in those pre-Kindle, pre-Twitter days, when digital rights management was something most publishers assumed was a music industry issue, Rebellion also started selling digital files for download with no DRM.

How was it that we took the step that most digitally-savvy publishers came to many years later? We had one big advantage, Rebellion is also a tech company, one of the leading computer games developers and publishers in the UK (our latest, Sniper Elite III, is out at the end of June). Our founders and owners Jason and Chris Kingsley understood how important ownership was for a digital consumer, how being able to buy something and keep it was a vital part of the trust relationship between publisher and reader, and gamer. You bought the digital copy? Well that’s yours to keep forever, and not just until you change device or operating system. It can be put  like this: we value the support of legitimate customers more than we hate the activity of people who steal from us.

In the years since 2006 we've acquired the SF imprint Solaris books; begun simultaneous publishing in the UK and North America; launched the children’s and YA literature imprint Ravenstone; started our standalone ebook shop rebellionstore.com to go alongside 2000adonline.com; and have seen our books feature on the best-seller lists time and time again.

So, as a leading publisher of comics and genre fiction in the UK it’s great to have had Tor and others join us in the DRM-free world. The others will be along soon, we're sure.

www.rebellionstore.com

Get Rowena Cory Daniells' King Rolen's Kin trilogy as DRM-free ebook for just £3 each!

to celebrate the forthcoming release of the first in Rowena Cory Daniells' brand new trilogy, The Outcast Chronicles, we're giving readers the chance to experience her first best-selling series for Solaris at a fraction of the price! 

The King Rolen's Kin trilogy was a hit when it was released in 2010, with the three books being published over three months - something we're doing again with The Outcast Chronicles, beginning with the gorgeous looking Besieged in July.

The King's Bastard, The Uncrowned King, and The Usurper are now available for just £3 EACH as DRM-free ebooks from the Rebellion store!

Den of Geek gave The King's Bastard four out of five and said it was "exciting, daring and silly in all the right proportions", while SFX said it delivered the "page-turning, plot-twisting, breakneck adventure" that got them reading fantasy in the first place!

And don't forget that an exclusive ebook novella set in the world of King Rolen's Kin, The King's Man, will be coming soon!

OUT THIS WEEK: Beware the promises of a trickster god…

Age of Anansi

by James Lovegrove

EPUB ISBN: 978 1 84997 341 0

MOBI ISBN: 978 1 84997 342 7

£3.49/$3.99

E-book only EXCLUSIVE!

AVAILABLE FROM 1ST MARCH

From James Lovegrove’s New York Times bestselling Pantheon series, which has sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide, comes an e-book exclusive – a journey into a dark heart of deceit, lies and ancient gods.

Dion Yeboah leads an orderly life... until the day the spider appears. What this ordinary-looking arachnid turns out to be Anansi, the trickster god of African legend, and its arrival throws Dion’s life into chaos.

Lawyer Dion’s already impressive legal brain is sharpened. He becomes nimbler-witted and more ruthless than never before, both in and out of court. Then he discovers the price he has to pay for these newfound skills. He must travel to America and take part in a contest between the avatars of all the trickster gods. In a life-or-death battle of wits, at the end only one person will be left standing.

Age of Anansi is an e-book novella in the massive Panethon series. Age of Aztec, the next book in the series, will be published in 27th March in North America and 12th April in the UK.

“One of the UK SF scene’s most interesting, challenging and adventurous authors.”

– SFX on The Age of Ra

About the Author

James Lovegrove published his first novel at the age of 24 and has since had more than 40 books out, including The Hope, Escardy Gap (co-written with Peter Crowther), Days, The Foreigners, How The Other Half Lives, Untied Kingdom, Imagined Slights, Worldstorm, Gig and Provender Gleed. His short fiction has appeared in magazines as diverse as Interzone and Nature and in numerous anthologies. He has written extensively for reluctant readers, with titles such as Wings, The House of Lazarus, Ant God, Cold Keep, Kill Swap and Dead Brigade. He has also produced a sequence of teen fantasy novels, the Clouded World series, under the pseudonym Jay Amory. He is a regular reviewer of fiction for the Financial Times and lives in Eastbourne on the south coast of England with his wife Lou, sons Monty and Theo, and cat Ozzy.

Solaris Rising Signing - and Ebooks on Special!

Wotcher all,

So a couple of bits of news for you today. The first,

Solaris Rising Signing at Forbidden Planet!

So this is pretty cool. Ian Whates's powerhouse anthology, Solaris Rising: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction (spacerrific cover to the right, courtesy of our own Pye Parr), came out a couple of weeks ago, and is already causing a stir:

"After Solaris Books published ‘Engineering Infinity’ earlier this year, I pondered ‘I’d be surprised if there’s a stronger anthology in 2011′. Well, the same publisher has produced another anthology that is up there with it."
- BestSF

"The literary equivalent of a well-presented buffet of tasty snacks... the overall standard is impressive."
- SFX Magazine

"This anthology of new short stories is essential reading."
- BBC Focus Magazine

So if you haven't bought it yet - and I'll naturally be disappointed and confused if you haven't - you can roll down to London's Forbidden Planet on Saturday 26th November at 1pm, and meet some of these highly acclaimed authors! Hell, even if you've read it! I basically promise that you won't be pinned down and forced to buy another copy. Basically. Eric Brown, Pat Cadigan, Alastair Reynolds, Lavie Tidhar, Dave Hutchinson and Ian Whates will all be there, jumping to sign your books and have a chinwag. It should be a laugh.


...and the second piece of news is,

Pantheon Trilogy Ebooks Now On Sale!

Yep, you heard it. They've consistently been among our best-selling books for the whole time they've been in print, and frankly, with good reason. James Lovegrove's New York Times Bestselling Pantheon series - The Age of Ra, The Age of Zeus and The Age of Odin - are imaginative, complex, action-packed tours de force. Each stand-alone book tackles the theme of "men versus the gods" with a different pantheon and from a different perspective. And there's more coming: The Age of Aztec is due out next April (just in time for the End of the Fifth Age of the World, as predicted and dreaded by the Aztecs, natch), with two more full-length novels under way, and an extra-special, super-sekrit, cross-your-hearts-and-hope-to-die, yet-to-be-announced, hanging-on-the-edge-of-your-seats, I'm-dying-to-tell-you-but-I'd-get-into-trouble bonus novella, out next spring (I'm allowed to say this much: I hope you like spiders).

The Guardian called them "the kind of complex, action-oriented SF Dan Brown would write if Dan Brown could write"; SFX called them "yet more proof that Lovegrove is one of the UK SF scene's most interesting, challenging and adventurous authors." And they can be yours, O gentle ebook buyer, for the low, low price of £3 per book; that's half the listed price.

Jump on Rebellionstore.com right now to pick up any of these three ebooks - in .mobi or .epub edition - for three quid, right now. Hell, get all three and you've still got enough change of a tenner to buy a scatch card. That's not bad at all.

Rebellion Store Now Open!

Seriously. If you've seen or done something cool recently, it's Not As Cool As This. I promise you.

At long last, Rebellion Publishing has opened its own book store!

Do you like ebooks?  Course you do!*

Well, we got loads! And we're selling them online!

The new Rebellion Publishing Ebook Store, Rebellionstore.com, is the last word in Abaddon and Solaris ebooks. Almost our entire list of electronic is up there already, and they should all be up there very shortly.

And we have the best prices around for our ebooks.

So, why are you still reading this? Go! Buy our damn ebooks! Fill your reader!

*Or probably. I'm kinda going on faith here that you like ebooks. I mean, you like books, right? And you're online, so you must like e-things. So, ebooks! They're pretty cool, right? Well, to Hell with you, then. We like them.

Announcing our READ ANYTHING eBook campaign

READ ANYTHING

Ever wanted to read something different but didn’t want the world to judge you by the cover of the book?

Spaceships, wizards, hooded swordsman – we love them all. But it’s not the cover, it’s the insides that matter. So, Solaris and Abaddon books are here to tell you that you can READ ANYTHING.

The revolution in eReaders gives you, the reader, the freedom to read whatever you want – fantasy, science-fiction, horror, urban fantasy, Steampunk, historical action, ANYTHING. They’re perfect to explore genre fiction you never knew even existed!

The READ ANYTHING campaign from Solaris and Abaddon Books aims to do away with judging a book, or rather its reader, by its cover. At last, content shall be king with whole new worlds of genre publishing opening up to readers.

Solaris and Abaddon Books are two of the freshest genre publishers in the UK today, producing books that transcend lazy genre clichés. Explore the Steampunk world of Pax Britannia on your iPad, the terrifying sink estate of The Concrete Grove on your Kindle, or soaring SF epics such as The Recollection and The Kings of Eternity.

Solaris and Abaddon don’t just release eBooks – we want to provide new and exciting material for readers. Both imprints will:
• publish every new book as an eBook on multiple platforms on the same day as it sees prints
• publish the first chapter of every new book online, for free, ahead of publication
• publish selected future titles exclusively as eBooks
• introduce new ways to share eBooks with your friends and family.

“The world of genre fiction is as rich and rewarding as anything produced by the publishers of ‘literature’,” says Jonathan Oliver, editor-in-chief of both Solaris and Abaddon Books. “At Solaris and Abaddon we are committed to providing great fiction in a format to suit the reader. Now with the READ ANYTHING campaign you can jump into the world of genre without worrying what your fellow commuters will think.”

-

Sony Reader: King Rolen's Kin Bundle

The Sony Reader Store are now selling the King Rolen's Kin fantasy trilogy in bundle form.

With this best-selling trilogy Rowena Cory Daniells carved a big space for herself in modern Fantasy. The story of a winter-bound kingdom split asunder by intrigue and magic, its princes set against each other and rival powers circling like vultures, this epic fantasy is held together by its vivid characters. Byren, the King's second son must challenge his elder brother for the throne, Fyn the disinherited child with magic in his blood must become a leader, and Pyro the only princess and a secret magic-worker, is the pivot around which the world may turn for good or ill.

-

Free PDF! Nicholas Royle's "The Lure"

Hey all!

So, to misquote the beloved Golden-era Hollywood director Samuel Goldwyn, "How did you love our book?"

I refer, of course, to our underground-horror anthology, The End of the Line, edited by Jonathan Oliver.

In particular, I refer to Nicholas Royle's powerful, suggestive story "The Lure."

The very anthology, and very story, that have both been shortlisted by the British Fantasy Society for the British Fantasy Awards 2011, in the Best Anthology and Best Short Story categories, respectively.

You haven't read it!?

Well. I can't say I'm not disappointed. I thought you were better than that.

Still, dear reader - if indeed that is your name - panic not! We've had a bit of a chat around the office and decided to give the hell out of that story right to the public! You don't even need to buy the book or anything (although you totally should, and read it; it's awesome). You can read Royle's short story right now, in PDF form, just by downloading it:

Check it out!

We're just giving, caring people like that.

(And hell, you know, if you're a member of the BFS, and are maybe thinking of how to vote, or as it may be, you've got a friend who was at Fantasycon last year and is trying to decide how to vote, or something, you could, you know... keep these in mind?)

Brilliant.

Cheers,

David

Free Ebook! The Wizard's Coming...

‘Captain!’ Hosh’s shriek startled everyone. Up on the cliff edge, he was hopping from foot to foot, pointing out towards the distant horizon. ‘The wizard! The wizard’s coming!’

...and what's more, he's free.

That's right! Those of you who are especially loyal readers and have been picking up your lovely Solaris treats since right back in the beginning will know that the profoundly talented and many-hatted Juliet E. McKenna, author of the upcoming The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy, wrote a story, "The Wizard's Coming," for our anthology The Solaris Book of New Fantasy, way back in 2007.

What you may not have known is that the story actually serves as a kind of "prequel" for The Hadrumal Crisis, introducing some of the characters and revealing some of the events leading up to the first book, Dangerous Waters, which is hitting the shelves in August!

(It also, for really dedicated fans, ties in to her previous trilogy, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution...)

And, of course, it's a great story in its own right.

What's more, we're just plain ol' giving it away, right now! So you can have a read, and whet your appetite for when this baby hits the shelves in a few weeks. We got it in .epub, .mobi and even in good old-fashioned .pdf for those who don't get into the ebook thing so much.

Check it out:

The Wizard's Coming (ePUB)

The Wizard's Coming (Kindle)

The Wizard's Coming (PDF)

Outstanding.

Cheers,

David

Juliet E. McKenna ebooks: Irons in the Fire

Just a quick announcement to say that the first of our Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution spring ebook releases is now online. You can buy the first book in this stunning fantasy trilogy, Irons in the Fire, now, at amazon.com or amazon.co.uk.

There. Hasn't that brightened up your Monday morning?

The country of Lescar was carved out of the collapse of the Old Tormalin Empire. Every generation has seen the land laid waste by rival dukes fighting for the High King’s empty crown.
Tathrin’s parents apprenticed him in the distant city of Vanam to escape the recurrent skirmishes. He meets Aremil, another Lescari albeit from another dukedom, whose parents have their own reasons for sending him so far away. These two young men cannot forget their homeland. Can they persuade other exiles with Lescari blood that something must be done to relieve their kinfolk’s misery? If they can persuade Branca, the down-to-earth scholar, to share the ancient lore which she has studied, then this mismatched band of commoners, merchants and nobles can begin plotting a revolution.
Meanwhile, back in Lescar, Failla, a duke’s beautiful mistress, is risking her own life to help those already secretly working to frustrate their feudal lords’ selfish ambitions. Will Litasse, Duchess of Triolle, and Hamare, the duke’s spymaster, uncover this conspiracy before the exiles can join forces with these hidden rebels? Hamare’s ruthless right-hand man Karn already has his suspicions.

Full of rich characters and high adventure, this novel marks the beginning of a thrilling new fantasy series.

-

News update:

Rowena Cory Daniells at Supanova 2011!

Rowena Cory Daniells has been confirmed as a guest at SUPANOVA 2011, in Austrailia!

The dates are Brisbane, April 1st-3rd at the RNA Showground, and Melbourne, April 8th-10th at the Royal Showgrounds

She will be appearing at the Brisbane/Melbourne event, alongside fellow fantasy author Robin Hobb. Here's their Literary Wonderland page and Rowena's profile on the website.

Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution ebooks!

In March we will begin releasing Juliet E. Mckenna's stunning fantasy trilogy in ebook format for the first time! The books will be available through Amazon Kindle and the iBookstore, as well as many other ebook retailers.

The first book, Irons in the Fire is out in March, the second instalment, Blood in the Water, comes out in April and the brilliant conclusion to the trilogy, Banners in the Wind, will be out in May!


-

SciNow says 2011 could be the year of Eric Brown...

Newstand magazine SciFi Now has announced its SciFi Now Awards for 2010. Two Solaris authors have won first place in their categories!

Eric Brown wins the 'Olaf Stapledon Award For Most Under-Discussed Author'.


This seems like a good time to announce that both of the books mentioned, Guardians of the Phoenix and Engineman, which came out in print at the end of last year, are now available for purchase with an Amazon Kindle. Engineman buy US/buy UK, Guardians of the Phoenix buy US/buy UK.

Tim Akers, author of Heart of Veridon, wins the 'Rising Star Award'. SciFi Now writes 'we expect big things from him over the next few years.' Well, they're in luck, because Solaris will be releasing the sequel to Heart of Veridon this June, with Dead of Veridon...


Trouble finds Jacob Burn: kicked out of his house, out of his comfortable life – out of everything that is familiar – even turned away from his circle of criminal friends and interesting enemies. Two years after he saved an ungrateful city from a mad angel, thwarting the plans of every powerful faction in Veridon, Jacob is still trying to pull his life together.
And still trouble finds him. A bad job goes worse, and soon old enemies present themselves as allies, and former friends set themselves against Jacob as he tries to put the dead to rest and the living to justice. Things gets even harder when he’s appointed by the Council to investigate the rise of the cog-dead, while some hold him personally accountable, and others in the city work to use the chaos to their advantage...

-

A Very Solaris Christmas! Free ebook from Eric Brown...

To wish you a very happy Christmas (and/or shiny happy gift-giving winter festival of your choice) Solaris Books are giving away a free short ebook from Eric Brown!

DOWNLOAD 'The Blue Portal' HERE [.epub fomat]

If you don't have an e-reader, you could download some .epub reading software like this free and easy-to-use Firefox add-on, or you could read 'The Blue Portal' in PDF format.

Also available for free download on Apple's iBookstore.

'The Blue Portal' is an extract from the beginning of Eric Brown's upcoming novel The Kings of Eternity.

1999, on the threshold of a new millennium, the novelist Daniel Langham lives a reclusive life on an idyllic Greek island, hiding away from humanity and the events of the past. All that changes, however, when he meets artist Caroline Platt and finds himself falling in love. But what is his secret, and what are the horrors that haunt him?

1935. Writers Jonathon Langham and Edward Vaughan are summoned from London by their editor friend Jasper Carnegie to help investigate strange goings on in Hopton Wood. What they discover there - no less than a strange creature from another world - will change their lives forever. What they become, and their link to the novelist of the future, is the subject of Eric Brown’s most ambitious novel to date. Almost ten years in the writing, The Kings of Eternity is a novel of vast scope and depth, full of the staple tropes of the genre and yet imbued with humanity and characters you’ll come to love.

-

Cover preview: James Lovegrove ebook-only re-issues

Check out the shiny new covers we've got for James Lovegrove's newest ebooks!

We've got seven ebooks from James's backlist going up for sale through all good ebook retailers next January.

These colourful covers are designed by artist Pye Parr, who you might remember from his designs for our Monarchies of God series.

Pye is currently designing covers for Untied Kingdom and The Foreigners, the final two books we will be re-issuing in this set.

-

KRK Reviews and Kindle links

We love to hear from our fans overseas, and it seems we've got a big fan in Robert W. Berg, a writer and reviewer from New York City who blogs at RobWillReview.com.

Here's the full set of his reviews for Rowena Cory Daniells' King Rolen's Kin trilogy, Books One, Two and Three.

And these reviews co-incide nicely with an announcement I wanted to make - that after a slight delay with Amazon, all three of Rowena Cory Daniell's much-praised KRK trilogy are now available on the Kindle, both on amazon.com and on amazon.co.uk!

The King's Bastard - Kindle US Kindle UK
The Uncrowned King- Kindle US Kindle UK
The Usurper - Kindle US Kindle UK

-

King Rolen's Kin - enjoyed by Aussies and eBook readers alike!

Rowena just e-mailed us to say that her King Rolen's Kin trilogy is doing really well in Austrailia! It's number nine on the bestseller list in Sydney's premier speculative fiction bookstore, Galaxy Bookshop (think Forbidden Planet, just hotter 'cause they're in Austrailia).

Galaxy, obviously fans of Rowena's previous fantasy trilogy, The Last T'En, blogged about Rowena's new series last week with the jubilant words "She's back!" Rowena has written a guest post for them, here, and there's also the opportunity to win a copy of The King's Bastard.

There's more good news too - last week I created .epub and .mobi ebooks for several of our titles including Eric Brown's Helix, Necropath, Ian Whate's The Noise Within and all of Rowena's King Rolen's Kin trilogy! They should be out shortly, when the ebook elves have got them online... in the meantime check out great Solaris titles such as James Lovegrove's Age of Ra, Age of Zeus and Jetse de Vries' anthology of optimistic fiction, Shine, which we're already selling as ebooks in online ebook stores such as Amazon Kindle and Waterstones.

-

eBooks!

ROBO-&E7, the eBooks 'bot, has just rolled over to our booth, one wheel broken and trailing a USB lead, and asked us for requests for eBooks. So head on over to Mobipocket, check out our titles, and let us know any Solaris book we don't currently have available that you'd like to see. We don't have electronic rights to all of them - confound those tricksy copyright laws! - but put up a request here or email us to tell us your preference, and we'll let the little guys know.