Angry Robot Books Shutters YA and Mystery Imprints

Posted on June 21, 2014

British book publisher Angry Robot Books announced that is is closing its young adult imprint Strange Chemistry and its crime/mystery imprint which is named Exhibit A. In a post on its website, the publisher said that although the firm has a history of innovation and trying out new concepts, unfortunately market saturation resulted in slow sales to those two imprints.

The imprints will be shuttered immediately. No new titles will be published. Angry Robot Books says its core imprint is "robust" and is in fact expanding. It will increase its output of releasing two books a month to three books a month. No other titles will be cancelled.

Angry Robot Books started out as a part of HarperCollins UK and was founded by Marc Gascoigne. The imprint went indie and got backing from Osprey Publishing. The YA line was launched n 2012, but had trouble making a splash in that niche. The new announcement has fueled rumors that Osprey is cutting costs prior to a sale.