Orbit is Hachette's science fiction and fantasy imprint, set up in 1974. Its US books carry a number line whose lowest figure shows the printing, and many modern titles first appeared in paperback.
Orbit is a science fiction and fantasy publisher founded in London in 1974 as part of Macdonald Futura, and now a group of imprints in the UK and US owned by Hachette.
In 1992 Macdonald Futura's parent was bought by Little, Brown, then part of the Time Warner Book Group, and in 1997 Orbit took over the Legend imprint from Random House. Time Warner sold Little, Brown to Hachette Livre in 2006, and that year Orbit expanded abroad: publishing director Tim Holman moved to New York to set up Orbit US within Hachette Book Group, an Australian list was set up at the same time and a French one followed with Calmann-Lévy in 2009. Today Orbit publishes under the Orbit, Redhook and Orbit Works names.
Its authors include Iain M. Banks, Joe Abercrombie, N. K. Jemisin, Ann Leckie, Kim Stanley Robinson and Andrzej Sapkowski. Orbit published Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, in June 2011, the first novel of the series adapted for television as The Expanse, and Ann Leckie's debut Ancillary Justice in October 2013, which won the Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke awards.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Orbit's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Orbit first editions
What to look for
1970s to 1980s
We have not yet found two independent sources describing how Orbit marked its books in its first two decades, when it was part of Macdonald Futura. Look at the copyright page for a first publication line and any list of reprints.
1990s
Dealers selling Orbit UK firsts from the early 1990s, such as Iain M. Banks's The State of the Art (1991) and Feersum Endjinn (1992), make a point of the jacket being unclipped, so check that the price corner of the jacket is intact.
UNVERIFIED: An Orbit paperback of Excession states it was first published in Great Britain by Orbit in 1996, then lists each later reprint year and carries no number line. On Orbit books of this period, a first printing should show no reprint entries.
From 2006
Orbit's US books carry a number line on the copyright page and the lowest number gives the printing: dealers describe copies as the nineteenth or twenty-seventh printing from the line, and a first printing as having the full line down to 1.
UNVERIFIED: Many Orbit novels appeared first as paperbacks; Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice (2013) was issued in paperback, so for such titles the first printing of the paperback is the first edition.
UNVERIFIED: A dealer offers a 2011 Orbit hardback of Leviathan Wakes as a first edition, first printing with the full line to 1, so ask which format a seller means before paying a first-edition price.
UNVERIFIED: From 2021 Orbit issued tenth anniversary hardbacks of The Expanse novels, which dealers sell as first printings. They are first printings of that anniversary edition only, not of the original book.
1970s to 1980s We have not yet found two independent sources describing how Orbit marked its books in its first two decades, when it was part of Macdonald Futura. Look at the copyright page for a first publication line and any list of reprints. 1990s - Dealers selling Orbit UK firsts from the early 1990s, such as Iain M. Banks's The State of the Art (1991) and Feersum Endjinn (1992), make a point
How many Orbit books does MyVolumes track?
We track 226 editions published by Orbit, 110 of them first editions, across 203 books.
