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The UK’s leading Fantasy publisher Voyager is celebrating its 10^th birthday this year.  ‘We have gone from strength to strength.’ says Jane Johnson, publishing director of Voyager, ‘Fantasy has come bursting up out of the literary underworld’.

 

Voyager has been phenomenally successful over the last decade with leading fantasy authors such as Robin Hobb, Raymond E. Feist, David and Leigh Eddings and George R R Martin - all top ten Sunday Times bestselling authors. In a competitive and a changing marketplace the imprint has grown and developed - matching the needs of their readers.

Constantly at the helm of this “ship” has been Publisher Jane Johnson and is herself now author of a series of highly acclaimed fantasy novels. With a Master’s degree in Old Icelandic, Johnson first worked as the Editor of the Tolkien Estate at George Allen & Unwin. In 1991 HarperCollins bought Unwin Hyman and Johnson came to oversee the Tolkien Centenary for HarperCollins. In 1995 she and her team launched Voyager.

“We are proud of our landmarks; we changed the face of modern sf with books like William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Kim Stanley Robinson's MARS trilogy, and set a benchmark in fantasy with George R R Martin, Raymond E Feist and Robin Hobb.  We continue to launch new exciting talents like Sarah Micklem and Naomi Novik (2006), taking fantasy into a new generation.”

 

Johnson has always known that you cannot pigeon-hole readers of fantasy fiction.  That the genre is read by socially-challenged teenagers with a taste for heavy metal music is in a myth. A market research poll carried out in 2003 by Cambridge Research proved that readers of fantasy are exactly the same readers -- male, female and of all ages -- who buy books by John Grisham and Bernard Cornwell. Which is hardly surprising, given the genre’s depth and breadth, encompassing as it does the likes of  J K Rowling, Clive Barker, Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing and of course J R R Tolkien whose Lord of the Rings was voted in 2003 by the UK’s reading public as the BBC Big Read best-loved novel.                                                                                                            …

 

Energy and commitment are two words that go hand-in-hand with Johnson.  Whilst proving to have a keen eye for great talent she embarked on a writing career.  With award-winning author M John Harrison under the pseudonym of Gabriel King, she wrote four supernatural romances for Random House; then under the pseudonym of Jude Fisher a highly acclaimed series (Fool's Gold) for Simon & Schuster. She is also the author of four Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling Lord of the Rings film tie-in books.  In March 2005 Johnson ventured into new territory with a fantasy adventure for children -- The Secret Country (Simon & Schuster) -- under her own name.

 

In addition to writing and publishing, Johnson is also an avid rock climber.  Her passion requires a mental and physical strength and courage that mirrors her creativity and determination. 'I love a challenge,' Johnson states cheerfully. 'Climbing up steep rock faces offers me tremendous physical challenge; fantasy fiction offers a fascinating parallel to climbing -- the same step off into the void as you enter a space defined only by the limits of your own imagination and concentration.' She pauses. 'Wilful risk may be something of an inherent theme in both sport and career: embracing the fantasy genre is not exactly the easiest way to the top of the ladder, as either publisher or writer…'

 

However, the international literary magazine Zembla noted: ‘Fantasy, long the embarrassing section of your bookshelves (…) has only upped and gone mainstream. Once it has been established that books with imagination are respectable, it’s hard to imagine them falling out of favour.’

 

Voyager will be celebrating its 10 years at the top of the tree with a major presence at Worldcon in Glasgow. We are very proud to have international bestselling author Robin Hobb in the UK to launch her new novel SHAMAN'S CROSSING. George R R Martin will appear at the convention ahead of the long-awaited release of A FEAST FOR CROWS (September). Kim Stanley Robinson and Greg Bear are also in attendance; as is Johnson herself. And Oscar-award-winning artist Alan Lee, who created the illustrated LORD OF THE in 1991, and soon after found himself masterminding the look of Peter Jackson's massive movie trilogy, is also a guest of the convention.

 

Here some of the reasons why Voyager is the leading fantasy publisher in the UK:

·        Authors launched from scratch: Feist, Donaldson, Hobb, Gibson, Baxter, Marshall

·        In Robin Hobb we've created the fastest-selling new brand name author in the field. Her sales to date exceed 500,000.

·We changed the face of modern sf with William Gibson's Neuromancer

·Raymond E Feist's Magician has sold 1 million copies and was in the BBC Big Read Top 100 books as selected by the UK public

·Kim Stanley Robinson's MARS trilogy created a benchmark for scientific fiction

·George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords set a benchmark in fantasy

·7 David Eddings #1 hardbacks

·Asimov hits the movies: I ROBOT a worldwide success

·Both Robin Hobb and Raymond E Feist were on the ST bestseller list last year

 

EVENTS FOR YOUR DIARY

• Voyager10 celebration: Saturday, 6^th August from 8pm: The Tall Ship, Glasgow Harbour (during the WorldConvention)

  Voyager10 celebration: Tuesday, 2nd August from 6pm: The Atrium, HarperCollinsPublishers, Fulham Palace Road
• Robin Hobb signings: Wednesday, 4^th August from 6.00pm at Forbidden Planet, London and Thursday, 4^th August at 6.00pm in Borders, Glasgow
• Alan Lee will be giving signings on and around WorldCon. Dates tbc