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NetGalley Info

***20/05/2013 UPDATE***

Hi again!

First off, thanks to everyone who has commented, tweeted, shared and participated in this conversation; it’s been very encouraging to see how much we all want to make NetGalley even better! I just saw this NG Tumbler post and think it’s worthwhile sharing as well: http://netgalley.tumblr.com/wellness. They’re running a Wellness Pledge programme to help users improve their profiles and usability of the site, with the aim being to get a badge posted to your profile showing publishers that you’re committed to being “NetGalley Healthy”! Here’s the page for the pledge: https://www.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=4ca06851f92c4ded943c5816b387caa4

I hope that further helps!

Caroline

***17/05/2013 POST***

So first off, I want to say how much I utterly love NetGalley; it’s an amazing tool for everyone involved and strikes up conversations about books prior to publication in a, largely, hassle-free manner.

But after working with it for the last month, I thought I’d put together a few, hopefully, handy tips and some advice. The aim is that this will help reviewers, bloggers, librarians, booksellers and everyone else who uses NG, understand what we, as publishers, would love to see in requests. If this helps us approve more requests, and gives you an insight into what we’re looking for, then I’ll be very happy! Thusly:

Profiles

When I was first applying for my publishing internship way back when I was still in college, my cover letter was all about how much I loved books, and thus this naturally meant I was made for the world of publishing. That is, until it was pointed out to me by my lovely publishing mentor that it’s a given to all involved with books that we’re voracious readers who absolutely love everything bookish. It doesn’t mean it’s not important that you love reading, but to us, what’s more important is what you’re going to do after you read our books. Ideally I’d love to see the following in your profile:

Links to your blog/website/online forums where you talk books
Your bio as a reviewer/bookseller/librarian (from here on, NG user as I don’t want to leave anyone out!) is really important:

how long have you been active whether reviewing, book club recommending, or as a bookseller, librarian etc;
where have you reviewed in the past
where do you think you’ll be sending this review
who will you be talking to about the book ie fellow students/bloggers/librarians/booksellers/customers

If possible, include direct links to some sample reviews or blogs/school library sites
If you’re a librarian, and registered with the American Library Association, please try and register your membership number with the NG site so you have the official ALA logo beside your name. That makes a big difference! I’m not sure how you do this, and am happy to be guided, and can include a how-to here if needed.
For bloggers/reviewers, we absolute love to see your stats: the most useful and helpful basic site statistics are:

dated eg as of 17 May 2013 I have xyz followers…
if you have a newsletter subscription, tell us how many subscribers you have
Page views per day (average)
Unique visitors per month

But don’t just tell us about your site, especially if you don’t have one! If you use Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads etc and will be talking about the requested book on these sites, you can still tell us how many followers, friends, interactions you have.

Requesting

Whenever we put a title on NG, we send out the respective group email: to the Robot Army, the Chemistry Set or the Witness Protection Programme. We always urge NG users to get requests in early, and I can’t stress that enough: there are often hundreds of requests and we cannot match that amount for each book so do get your request in as soon as possible
With that, please make sure you do have time to read the books you’re requesting, and that more importantly you download them as soon as possible: our books are generally only available for 4 weeks on NetGalley so if you’ve been approved, please do download the title

Posting Reviews

When you’re sending in your review, there are a few things that would really make my job easier…and also make me love you even more!

Please include the date the review was published especially if it’s a forthcoming review
If you run your own blog, or contribute to one, send us the link which the review will appear on, but also don’t forget to include the link for your Goodreads account, your Amazon reviews, twitter or basically anywhere else the review will appear. This not only makes it easier for me to remember how amazing you are, but also to help promote you and your work: if we’re not already connected on Twitter, I’ll tweet your review and link to you. We want you to get as much out of your work as we can.

Possible Reasons for Declining

First off, none of us like declining people…it makes us sad, really. We love our books, and so look forward to people reading them and sending back informed reviews, whatever way they may go. It’s the nature of the game that not all books are going to satisfy all readers, and we’re never going to decline you because you didn’t like our last book or anything silly. But it is a business, and we do need to make sure we don’t potentially undermine any book’s worth by sending out copies to everyone without seeing a value in it. So, to avoid you and I both feeling terrible, please bear in mind:

If your profile has no link to a blog, or any discernible outlet, but you maintain you’re a reviewer, it definitely lowers your approval chances
A profile with little info at all will also lower approval rates
If you provide a link to a website but there haven’t been any recent posts, or it doesn’t have any book reviews, that will look odd. If there’s a reason for this (you’ve been caught up in something else and are looking to get back to bloggging, for example, let us know that – add it to your bio)
No bio at all: unless you’re an extremely high-profile person or known to us personally, this is always worrying

I think that covers everything; if you think of anything you’d like clarification on or want to run past me/us, please comment below. I’d really love to hear from NG users as well, especially on what we could be doing to help you: this is a site that we’ll all get as much out of as we put in, so let’s start talking about how we could all do better and help each other out!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Caroline

Round-Up Time: Christian Schoon

Hi everyone, and welcome to my first Strange Chemistry Round-Up!

There’s been some fantastic coverage for so many of our titles over the past few weeks, but I’m going to start off with a post celebrating Christian Schoon and Zenn Scarlett in honour of his publication month! Next week will be a round-up of all books strange and wonderful, so let’s show Christian some book-love today and keep an eye out for next week’s all-encompassing summary.

The ever tireless Christian has been busy with Interviews & Guest Blogs galore. To whit:

Christian spoke to Stefan at Civilian Reader and it’s a great introduction to Christian, the novel – and its forthcoming sequel, and all things great & interesting on what brought Christian into writing…and also a brief mention to the time he was shot at by Minnesota police…more details please, Christian!
The Authoress interviewed Christian early in May; check it out for insight into the alien world of Zenn Scarlett and the link between his Iowa farmstead and Zenn’s world of animal biology and alien ethics.
YABC was another stop for Christian and I, for one, was fascinated with the revelation that Christian likes anything that Kevin Costner is in! But seriously, find out Christian’s movie dream team for the cast of Zenn Scarlett, and be in with a chance to win one of three copies of this amazing debut.
Christian’s Blog Tour has had many wonderful stops and Paper Cuts is certainly one of those as Rachel invited Christian to write about his time working at Disney.
Birth of a New Witch‘s blog tour stop opens up the topic of Aliens and ‘The Other’ and Christian’s writing process
Christian was left to his own devices for his Books Before Bed stop, and rather cheekily nabbed Scarlett’s own About Me questions to answer for himself!
The Reflections of a Book Worm took a dive into Christian’s head (careful now) and you can read how a “nameless girl knocking on the front door of my skull became a novel that will transport readers into a future universe full of some pretty interesting stuff”
The mighty SF Signal thought it was a simple question asking Christina about the inspiration behind Zenn Scarlett…little did they know it involves an American alligator named Lex Luthor!
To get more of an insight into how animals, and Christian’s love for them, inspired Zenn and her world, here’s a well-timed link to the Des Moines Register.
Buried in Books not only has a US giveaway for Zenn Scarlett but also an interview with Christian…and check out below for their review!

The Reviews for Zenn Scarlett have been many, and wonderful, and here’s some clickety-clicks to bring you to them:

Books, Bones & Buffy not only give Zenn Scarlett 4.5 stars but also have this to say: “a brilliantly imagined world, full of strange and delightful creatures, one adorable rikkaset named Katie, and an explosive but frustrating ending.” Good & bad news for you Tammy: Zenn will be back (with the beautiful title, Under Nameless Stars) but not until April 2014!
Seeing Night have happily awarded Zenn Scarlett 4 stars and rounded a great review off with an even better recommendation “This is young adult science fiction novel that will take you on a great adventure that’s out of this world, literally. Fans of the Unraveling series by Elizabeth Norris and The Host by Stephenie Meyers will love Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon.”
I hate to disappoint Finding Wonderland, but as I mentioned above, your wait for the sequel is near on a year…by gosh, is it worth it! Here’s what Tanita had to say about Zenn Scarlett: “This has all the earmarks of a great series: an engaging, realistically flawed main character, stupendously detailed world-building, and tons of new-things-per-page. It’s got adventure and heart”
Buried in Books‘ Heather, and her love of good characters, is certainly happy with the cast of Zenn Scarlett! She also makes some real-world insights: “Zenn learns that sometimes you have to let people in and you need people. That despite misgivings and earlier assumptions and actions can be forgiven in the face of selflessness. And sometimes people don’t leave, they come back.”
Awarding Christian’s debut 8 out of 10 stars is Mel’s Random Reviews, who had this to say: “the fantastic description of these truly alien creatures and how they actually work is wonderfully done.”
Vicky Thinks joins the gang longing for their own rikkaset with her review of Zenn Scarlett! Victoria raises some really good points about the novel, and if she thinks this is a “fascinating and well-executed” idea, just wait for the sequel!
Aoife over on Footnotes highlights Christian’s amazing creativity with his astounding menagerie of alien animals, as well as the themes of tolerance and learning that run throughout.
“Alien vets, strange creatures, a Martian colony, and a girl stuck in the middle of a conspiracy” and with that, Kindle-aholic was, in her words, a very happy reader!
The brilliant Popcorn Reads usher in Christian’s debut with terrific noise and praise: Schoon has given a whole new spin to a tale on Mars and whilst the “alien life forms, the starliners, and intergalactic political intrigue will keep sci-fi fans very happy”, Zenn Scarlett is also a great way for new readers “to test the waters” of sci-fi!
For Fantasy Book Review, “Zenn Scarlett is right up there with Ender’s Game, Partials and Katya’s World as one of my favourite YA sci-fi novels.” and they too mention that Zenn Scarlett will appeal to all readers, regular sci-fi readers or not. 9 out of 10 stars from Fantasy Book Review, go Christian!
“thoroughly enjoyable and beguiling”, with “mind-blowing” alien lifeforms whose “scenes captivated my imagination, especially as the novel progressed” … and so says For Winter Nights!
Ashley at The AP Book Club awards Zenn Scarlett 4 stars out of 5, and is, like most others, excitedly awaiting Under Nameless Stars!
Carole Finds Her Wings ”loved Zenn Scarlett for a number of reasons” and whilst it’s definitely worth checking out the full review, she highlights the characters, the world-building, the creatures, Christian’s level of detail, and his brilliant writing. Not only that but “I was won over by Zenn Scarlett‘s beautiful front cover and wasn’t disappointed at all by the story inside. I will definitely be waiting impatiently for the next installment to be released.” 5 out of 5 from Carole!
Sarah over on And Then I Read A Book also mentions the amazing cover (thanks yet again to Argh! Oxford) and whilst being left on such a cliffhangover was tough, Sarah praised Zenn and “her world [which] was a good combination of the alien and familiar” Roll on 2014 for the next book!
Reminding Tsana of James Cameron’s Avatar, Zenn Scarlett gets 4 our of 5 starts at Tsana’s Reads and Reviews
The rave reviews for Zenn Scarlett continue with Willing to See Less awarding it no less that 5 out of 5 stars, yippee! “Treat yourself to Zenn Scarlett. It’s a delight for fans of YA, sci-fi and animal lovers.”
Radiant Shadows call Zenn Scarlett “vastly imaginative and ambitious in scope” and whilst I could stop there, Radiant Shadows also says it’s “easily one of the most thorough and imaginative science-fiction/dystopian reads” she’s read this year!
We do like to keep readers and reviewers on their toes, here at Camp Strange Chemistry, and The Nocturnal Library happily call Zenn Scarlett “unlike anything that is currently being published” and “richly imaginative and breathtakingly original.” Not a bad quote at all to end this round-up on!

So, I’m now off for a mug of tea and to rest my eyes & typing fingers after this mammoth summary! Well done Christian, and happy publication month! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Danielle Jensen and Stolen Songbird

The title of this new post is a not-so-secret indicator that we’re announcing the signing of a new Strange Chemistry author. Today we’re incredibly happy to be bringing you the news that Danielle Jensen has joined our ranks!

Here are the official bits:

Strange Chemistry, the YA imprint of Angry Robot Books, is delighted to announce the signing of Danielle Jensen, in a three-book World English Rights deal concluded by Strange Chemistry’s editor Amanda Rutter and Tamar Rydzinski of the Laura Dail Literary Agency.

The first of the three books is called Stolen Songbird and will be published by Strange Chemistry in early 2014.

About Danielle Jensen

Danielle was born and raised in Calgary, Canada. At the insistence of the left side of her brain, she graduated in 2003 from the University of Calgary with a bachelor’s degree in finance.

But the right side of her brain has ever been mutinous; and in 2010, it sent her back to school to complete an entirely impractical English literature degree at Mount Royal University and to pursue publication. Much to her satisfaction, the right side shows no sign of relinquishing its domination.

Danielle can be found on her website danielleljensen.com as well as on Twitter @dljensen_

About Stolen Songbird

Trolls are said to love gold. They are said to live underground and hate humans, perhaps even eat them. They are said to be evil. When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and sold to the trolls, she finds out that there is truth in the rumours, but there is also so much more to trolls than she could have imagined.

Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus, the city she hadn’t even known existed under Forsaken Mountain: escape. But the trolls are inhumanly strong. And fast. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.

But something strange happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall in love with the handsome, thoughtful troll prince that she has been bonded and married to. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll/part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.

As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter from Goshawk’s Hollow. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch.

Quotable Quotes

Danielle Jensen said: “I am beyond excited to begin work on the trilogy with Amanda and everyone else at Strange Chemistry. It is a dream come true to see my novels on their way to publication.”

Strange Chemistry Editor Amanda Rutter said: “Stolen Songbird simply stole my breath and my heart as I was reading it. I’ve always loved fantasy novels, and this book feels like an absolute classic in the making. For Strange Chemistry to be the home of this trilogy is a great honour!”

Please give Danielle a very warm welcome!

Angry Robot Awards Announcement!

Could this be the best first-blog-post topic ever? Caroline here, the new Publicity Manager for Strange Chemistry, Angry Robot and Exhibit A, and I have some exciting news!

As you of course know, and probably agree!, we happen to think Angry Robot is great but some would say we’re biased…not so much now with the fantastic news that Angry Robot has been shortlisted for Best Publisher at this year’s Locus Awards!

Not only that but Madeline Ashby has been shortlisted for Best First Novel with vN (with sequel iD due for July release) and Aliette de Bodard is nominated for Best Short Story and Best Novella!

The competition in all of the categories is fierce, and the entire awards list highlights some of the amazing work being done in the SF & F genres today, and our congratulations go to the Angry Robot team, Madeline and all of the other finalists.

Locus Online has the full list.

Awesome artwork for The Weight of Souls

We have a treat for you today! We have our paws on the stunning artwork that is intended to grace Bryony Pearce’s The Weight of Souls, coming in August 2013. We’ve decided that we just can’t wait to show you, and so here is a very non-final version. Obviously we don’t have author name or book title in place just yet, but hopefully this should whet your appetite for what is to come! The artwork is by Steve Wood, who has handled such gorgeous covers as Blackwood and Broken (we LOVE him!)

Here it is – what do you think?

Here is the book blurb:

Sixteen year old Taylor Oh is cursed: if she is touched by the ghost of a murder victim then they pass a mark beneath her skin. She has three weeks to find their murderer and pass the mark to them – letting justice take place and sending them into the Darkness. And if she doesn’t make it in time? The Darkness will come for her…

She spends her life trying to avoid ghosts, make it through school where she’s bullied by popular Justin and his cronies, keep her one remaining friend, and persuade her father that this is real and that she’s not going crazy.

But then Justin is murdered and everything gets a whole lot worse. Justin doesn’t know who killed him, so there’s no obvious person for Taylor to go after. The clues she has lead her to the V Club, a vicious secret society at her school where no one is allowed to leave… and where Justin was dared to do the stunt which led to his death.

Can she find out who was responsible for his murder before the Darkness comes for her? Can she put aside her hatred for her former bully to truly help him?

And what happens if she starts to fall for him?

Happy Book Birthday to Zenn Scarlett!

Customarily we offer pictures of cake and fluffy animals to our authors on their book birthdays, but maybe Christian Schoon deserves something a little bit… stranger… considering the nature of his novel!

However, we can’t resist the fluff, so have a puppy *grins*