FINALLY!

At last the painful wait is over, and I can reveal Joe McLaren's brilliant cover design for my third novel.

Everything Will Swallow You will be published on September 11th. Or, to put it another way, in just over two months.

At one point, not long ago, I wondered if it would ever be published at all.

I believe it's the best thing I've ever written.

If you’d like to pre-order the book, I can recommend Blackwells UK, who do free worldwide delivery, and - after a pause due to Trump tariffs - are thankfully now delivering to the US again: here’s the link.

I think Joe’s cover design is a perfect fit for the story, which is about many things, including - to name just a few - 1) the wonderful West Dorset, Devon and Cornwall landscape, 2) a hyper-intelligent four-legged creature not quite like any you will have met before, 3) old rare records, 4) the importance of community and friendship, 5) the special power and magic the dust of time can add to lovingly crafted objects, 6) the stark cultural differences between the 20th and 21st-Centuries, 7) knitting, and 8) how we gradually turn events, characters and stories we can’t quite rationalise into folklore.

I finished my edits on Everything Will Swallow You in early autumn last year and the book was originally scheduled for March publication, via my then publishers Unbound. But around the time I finished the book, Unbound - who had been late with payments for a long time - stopped paying me and their other authors. By mid-January I had still not been paid and the book had still not been sent to the printers. As a result of all this I reverted the rights (and to the the other six books I'd written for Unbound) in the nick of time, before the company went into administration, and moved my work to Swift Press, who, in addition to publishing Everything Will Swallow You, will be publishing the paperback of my previous novel 1983 in August and, in autumn, republishing my Unbound backlist

It would be the most gigantic understatement to say that the last nine months have required patience, plus reserves of emotional strength I didn't know I had, but I am hoping the publication of this book is going to begin to compensate for some of the injustices I’ve experienced at the hands of the publishing industry lately: not just a portion of the earnings that Unbound still owe me and I will now never see, but the vast amount of stress they have caused me, and the time (especially creative time) the situation has stolen from me. The most likely way for this to happen is if the numbers of pre-orders persuade booksellers to stock more copies of the book upon its publication, so I am enormously grateful to anyone who is able to purchase in advance. I can’t emphasise how much this helps: it’s not going too far to say these pre-orders are usually the deciding factor on whether a non-commercial, non-trendy book of this nature, released via a small publisher, sinks or swims.

I realise this is a big ask for those of you who pledged for the Unbound version of the book, trusting that your money was being used to support my writing, then - shockingly and appallingly - did not have your payments refunded when the company went into administration in March. I am now with a more transparent publisher who work - and pay - more conventionally and will be doing their best to get my books in the shops. As well as Blackwells, the book will of course be available through Waterstones and Amazon, but it would be even better if you could order it through one of the independent bookshops who do so much to support authors like me and make the world a more civilised, beautiful place. If you can’t visit one of these individually, Bookshop.org will help.

Unbound left me and my readers in an enormous mess with all this and I still feel like I have the mop and brush in my hand. But I can’t begin to express my relief at the knowledge this novel is going to exist… that it, and my other recents books, are not going to become lost (or not yet, anyway). Because as much as I romanticise lost and neglected pieces of art in my writing, the reality of making one yourself - the impact it can potentially have on your health and your finances - is not to be wished for.

Thanks so much for reading and/or sharing this. I’m hoping that the publication of this book is going to herald the start of a less fraught time.

Tom

If you can’t afford a paid subscription here but would like to support my writing you can do so here, via my website.

Here’s previous piece, in case you missed it: