Indigo - A New YA imprint from Orion (Press Release)

Orion Kids have been a force of good in my life, introducing me to a great many top quality authors since I started haunting the kids books section in Piccadilly Waterstone's about eight years ago.

It's been great getting to know Nina and her team of dedicated editors and writers through working on MFB so I am very pleased to be part of the blogging crew who have been asked to let the world know about Orion's brand new YA initiative called INDIGO.

Here is the press release:

The Orion Publishing Group announces INDIGO
A new imprint for young adults with stand-out fiction from new and established voices from the bestcontemporary writers The Orion Publishing Group is delighted to share the exciting news of the launch of INDIGO, the new imprint that will publish a wide variety of genres for teens and young adults by established authors and rising stars.

Launching in September 2011 INDIGO will publish four titles per month.

Fiona Kennedy will be the publisher of INDIGO alongside her role as publisher of Orion Children’s Books, with commissioning editors Gillian Redfearn (also Gollancz) and Amber Caraveo (also Orion Children's Books).

INDIGO will publish fiction for older teen readers focussing on the strengths of the publishing that currently sit on the popular and successful Gollancz and Orion Children's Books imprints.

A stellar list of authors will launch the new venture, becoming our first INDIGO authors:

Mia James, Cinda Williams Chima, Harlan Coben, Kate Harrison, Holly Black, Marcus Sedgwick, Sara Grant, Sally Gardner, Chris Wooding, Anna Kendall, Cliff McNish, Sarah Silverwood, Alan Gibbons, James Dawson, Chloe Neill and Annabel Pitcher.

Fiona Kennedy, Publisher, INDIGO says of the launch:

INDIGO will publish teen fiction with style and poise, as the clutch of starry authors on the list shows. It will give our teen titles an identity and status as a whole, and each book more profile individually. A number of our authors have been writing older novels and INDIGO will give them the support and freedom to develop their work for this readership, as well as giving us the perfect opportunity to extend the range of titles we publish. As always, our list will be one of hand-picked titles that we feel passionate about.

Lisa Milton, Trade MD of the Orion Publishing Group says of the new venture:

Finding growth in this challenging market is difficult, and encouraging children to continue as readers as they become young adults and are faced with myriad distractions is vital to the future health of our industry. INDIGO will publish books for teenagers that challenge, entertain, question and delight. Harnessing the potential of social networking sites we will create a community of Fierce Fiction readers. We are thrilled to launch with such amazing authors, and look forward to attracting even more to our lists.

 INDIGO will be launched with a comprehensive marketing and publicity campaign that plays on the strengths of the authors and books, and the list itself. A full and wide ranging digital PR and marketing campaign will reach our audience through the medium they most inhabit and value: online, in addition to more traditional routes.

Further details will be released on the list and promotion at an upcoming event.

INDIGO LAUNCH TITLES

SEPTEMBER 2011:

 DARKNESS FALLS by MIA JAMES
1st September 2011/ Hardback

First they killed her father. Now they're trying to kill her . . .
There are vampires at April Dunne’s school. Not Goths, or Emos in fancy dress. Dangerous, bloodsucking semi-immortals. They run the school. And they're using their influence to recruit smart,rich students - aka 'bleeders' - to their cause.

What is that cause? April isn't sure. But she knows they killed a rock star for it, and innocents who got too close to the truth. One of them almost killed her. But that's nothing to what's coming next.

Gabriel, her kinda-boyfriend, is dying and unless April can find a cure then not only is she going to be boyfriendless, she's also going to lose one of her major allies in the school. And she really needs allies.

SOUL BEACH by KATE HARRISON
1st September 2011/Trade Paperback

An email from her murdered sister sets Alice Forster on a chilling path - to solve the mystery of Megan's death, and the even greater mystery of her life AFTER death.

When Alice Forster receives an email from her dead sister she assumes it must be a sick practical joke. Then an invitation arrives to the virtual world of Soul Beach, an idyllic online paradise of sun, sea and sand where Alice can finally talk to her sister again - and discover a new world of friendships, secrets and maybe even love . . . .

But why is Soul Beach only inhabited by the young, the beautiful and the dead?
Who really murdered Megan Forster? And could Alice be next?

SHELTER by HARLAN COBEN
15th September 2011/ Hardback

The first in an exciting series of young adult thrillers from the master of the hook-and-twist.
Harlan Coben's very first young adult project will link in with the storylines in his up-and-coming adult thrillers as Myron Bolitar discovers that his mysterious tearaway younger brother, Brad, has a son – who is now a teenager.

When our series hero's father, Brad, dies in a mysterious accident in South America, Myron is his closest, albeit estranged, relative left and is assigned to be his legal guardian. Will uncle and nephew be able to live with one another? And will our hero be able to resist getting involved in solving a mystery disappearance at his new high school?

Sadly, the photo of The Warrior Heir will not load.  However, this is a link to Cinda Williams Chima's site.

THE WARRIOR HEIR by CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA
1st September 2011/ Paperback

An epic battle between good and evil...with Jack Swift caught in the middle.
Before he knew about the Roses, 16-year-old Jack lived an unremarkable life in the small Ohio town of Trinity. Only the medicine he has to take daily and the thick scar above his heart set him apart from the other high-schoolers. Until one day Jack forgets his 'medicine'. Suddenly, he is stronger, fiercer, and more confident than ever before. And it feels great - right up to the moment when he loses control and almost kills another player during the soccer team tryouts.

Jack is about to learn that he is Weirlind; part of an underground society of magical people who live among us. At the head of this magical society sit the feuding houses of the Red and the White Rose, whose power is determined by playing The Game - a magical tournament in which each house sponsors a warrior to fight to the death.

OCTOBER 2011:

MIDWINTERBLOOD by MARCUS SEDGWICK
6TH October 2011/ Hardback

What would you sacrifice for someone you’ve loved for ever?
Have you ever had the feeling that you've lived another life?

In a novel comprising seven short stories each of them influenced by a moon - flower moon,harvest moon, hunter's moon, blood moon - and travelling from 2073 back in time to the dark of the moon and the days of Viking saga, this is the story of Eric and Merle who have loved and lost one another and who have been searching for each other ever since. In the
different stories the two appear as lovers, mother and son, brother and sister, artist and child as they come close to finding each other before facing the ultimate sacrifice.

Beautifully imagined, intricately and cleverly structured this is a heart-wrenching and breathtaking love story, but it also has the hallmark Sedgwick gothic touch with plenty of blood-spilling, a vampire and sacrifice.

DARK PARTIES by SARA GRANT
20th October 2011/ Trade paperback

Sixteen-year-old Neva plots to escape her world where everyone looks the same and no one is allowed to leave in this compelling thriller about identity, trust and freedom.

Neva keeps a list of The Missing - the people like her grandmother who were part of her life but who have now vanished. The people that everyone else pretends never existed.

In a nation isolated beneath the dome of the Protectosphere - which is supposed to protect, but also imprisons - Neva and her friends dream of freedom.

But life is becoming complicated for Neva. She's falling for her best friend's boyfriend - and she's learning more than she ever wanted to know about what might be happening to The Missing...

WHITE CAT by HOLLY BLACK
16 October 2011/ Paperback

The extraordinary new adult fantasy of magic in our world and the price we pay for it
by the author of THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES.

Cassel is cursed. Cursed by the memory of the fourteen year old girl he murdered. Life at school is a constant trial. Life at home even worse. No-one at home is ever going to forget that Cassel is a killer. No-one at home is ever going to forget that he isn't a magic worker.

Cassel's family are one of the big five crime families in America. Ever since magic was prohibited in 1929 magic workers have been driven underground and into crime. And while people still need their touch, their curses, their magical killings, their transformations, times have been hard. White Cat is a stunning novel of a world changed by magic.

THE WIZARD HEIR by CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA
16TH October 2011/ Paperback

War is coming, and magic is spiralling out of control . . .
Seph McCauley has spent the past three years getting kicked out of one exclusive private school after another. And it's not his attitude that's the problem: it's the trail of magical accidents - lately, disasters - that follow in his wake. Seph is a wizard, orphaned and untrained, and his powers are escalating.

Worse still, Seph makes a discovery: the stories he's been told about his parents' life and death are fabrications. The people he most trusted have been lying to him. Who can he trust, when everyone around him is keeping secrets?

NOVEMBER 2011:

THE DOUBLE SHADOW by SALLY GARDNER
3RD November 2011/ Hardback

A girl tries to free herself from the terrifying double shadow of her childhood and forge her own future, but she is trapped in a memory machine created by her father.

Arnold Ruben has created a memory machine, a utopia housed in a picture palace, where the happiest memories replay forever; a haven in which he and his precious daughter can shelter from the war-clouds gathering over 1937 Britain. But on the day of her seventeenth birthday Amaryllis leaves Warlock Hall and the world she has known and wakes to find herself in a desolate and disturbing place. Something has gone terribly wrong with her father's plan.

Against the tense backdrop of the second World War Sally Gardner explores families and what binds them, fathers and daughters, past histories, passions and cruelty, love and devastation in a novel rich in character and beautifully crafted.

THE DRAGON HEIR by CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA
3RD November 2011/ Paperback

The final battle is coming . . .
For centuries, wizards have avoided making war on each other for fear of waking the legendary dragon that sleeps at Raven's Ghyll. But it is a new age. The Wizard Houses of the Red and White Rose have united against the Master of Games and keeper of the Dragonhold, and a moment when he and his sadistic son seem poised to seize control of all of the magical guilds. But then everything changes . . .

The final battle is coming, and the magical community of Trinity is about to risk the destruction of everything they care about in order to remain free. The outcome is balanced on a knife edge…

Please note that all final publication dates and jackets are subject to change, and information on ISBNs and price and individual images of jackets and authors will be available on request.

All launch authors may be available for interview and comment: please contact Nina Douglas for further information (020 7520 4318/ 07879 47 66 58 or email: nina.douglas@orionbooks.co.uk or @ninadouglas)

JANUARY 2012:

THE HUNTING GROUND by CLIFF MCNISH

RETRIBUTION FALLS by CHRIS WOODING

CROSSING OVER by ANNA KENDALL

THE DOUBLE EDGED SWORD by SARAH SILVERWOOD

FEBRUARY 2012:

HOLLOW PIKE by JAMES DAWSON

AN ACT OF LOVE by ALAN GIBBONS

DARK MIST RISING by ANNA KENDALL

MARCH 2012:

FIRESPELL by CHLOE NEILL

DARKNESS FALLS by MIA JAMES

RAINING FIRE by ALAN GIBBONS

THE TRAITOR’S GATE by SARAH SILVERWOOD

APRIL 2012:

MY SISTER LIVES ON THE MANTELPIECE by ANNABEL PITCHER

A BRIGHT AND TERRIBLE SWORD by ANNA KENDALL

With further titles to follow.

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*dabs delicately at mouth with napkin after drooling a tad too much*

These titles look so great - am really looking forward to reading some of them and sharing them on MFB.  And also, of course, running competitions in order to spread the word and share the love.