March Madness

March Madness

In should really in no way be surprising that given my book is coming out next month, a lot of fun and exciting news has found its way into my inbox this month. That final stage of publicity and marketing is really starting to kick into gear and my wonderful teams at both Voyager and Riverhead are getting lovely responses from the book community around the world, from individual readers to independent book sellers to larger trade publications.

So, where to start?

Publicity

There’s been some really nice publicity cropping up this month across a variety of platforms. Notably, I appeared in Entertainment Weekly in their Spring Preview of the 15 biggest books to look out for in 2023. They described Ascension as “Literary nightmare fodder like Scott Smith's The Ruins and Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation” which is just delightful.

Over here in the UK, I also appeared in The Sunday Times last weekend, where they named Ascension one of the best sci-fi books of 2023. If you can’t access the linked article because you don’t have a subscription, here’s a pic I took of the review in the physical paper I bought last Sunday. “Accomplished and clever”, apparently.

The wonderful Goodreads, who picked Ascension out as one of the top books to anticipate in 2023 back in December, have put me on a few more of their recommended lists this month. Specifically, you’ll find Ascension on their Most Anticipated Books of Spring list, their Biggest SFF Books of Spring list, and I also made Managing Editor of Goodreads’ Danny Feekes’ curated picks of books he can’t wait to read this year.

In fact, the Goodreads generally has been loving Ascension. With now well over 100 ratings over a month before publication, the high majority of them are 5 stars and effusive in their praise, which has been both thrilling and humbling to see.

Here’s a few examples that really tickled me from readers that Ascension has connected with:

I could go on, but I won’t right now. Thanks for allowing me a little bit of self-indulgence. If you want, you can check out the reviews on Goodreads and join the ~30,000 people who have added it as a to-read, if you haven’t already.

More to come on the publicity side as we roll into April, I think, so keep an eye on my Twitter for updates there.

Podcasts & Appearances

I’ve recorded a few things this month. At the start of the month, I was on a panel with other debut authors Mia Tsai and Hadeer Elsbai chatting about books and writing with Lili at Utopia State of Mind.

I then recorded a great chat with Marco and Tariq at Page One Podcast, which will be released next month at some point. As a regular listener and lover of their podcast, it really was such an honour to be on.

And this week, I’ll be showcasing a completely new short story on The Tiny Bookcase Podcast. Or at least, we’ll be recording it. It won’t come out until next month too.

There’s more on the horizon here, so, as ever, check Twitter for updates.

Marketing

Some of the physical marketing that has been going into making this book stand out is also just gorgeous. Here’s a sneak peek from the US, where we now have the full hardback covers printed and they just look brilliant:

These are being packaged up to send out to key reviewers and influencers in a bespoke ‘influencer box’ that includes, as well as the book, a ‘handwritten letter’ from the book, a collection of polaroids straight out of the book, and a couple of other goodies. Look how amazing they are:

The UK hardback editions have also been printed and look absolutely GORGEOUS:

And here they are all together!

Foreign Covers

While we’re talking about things looking good, the covers for some of the translations have come in. Spain and Finland have decided to mimic the UK cover, and Germany have decided to mimic the US.

Special Editions

We’re still on covers here, guys, because in case you missed it, the wonderful Broken Binding are doing a special edition in the UK. It’s a limited run of 1000 signed hardbacks with fancy sprayed edges and they just look utterly fantastic. They’ll also be including Ascension in their ‘To The Stars’ subscription package, which is a new venture for them into the realms of sci-fi.

They go on pre-sale on April 1st at 12pm on the Broken Binding website, so if you want one then keep a close eye on it. Once they sell out, they’re all gone!

Book Clubs

Ascension has also been picked up as a book club pick for the lovely Aardvark Book Club in the US. They do lovely special box editions and have a really interesting community discussion model and I can’t wait to see what they do with it. They usually deal with quite established authors, and I’ve been told that to be picked for a book club as a debut in the US is an ‘exceptional prospect’, so it’s lovely to hear that people are getting excited. They’re going to make it a specific pick for their June read and it’ll be great to see people getting involved a few months after publication!

Audiobook

In other edition news, I’m thrilled to announce that the inimitable Peter Kenny will be narrating the audiobook for both the UK and US editions of Ascension. Anyone who listens to SFF will have almost certainly heard his voice before — he’s notable for being the narrator for all of Iain Banks / Iain M Banks’ books, particularly famous for his delivery of the Culture audiobooks. He’s also big in the fantasy world, again notably for his narration of Andrzej Sapkowski’s renowned ‘Witcher’ series.

He’s got such a talent for characters and emotion and I couldn’t be more happy that he’s going to be the one bringing Ascension to life in audio form. These can be pre-ordered on Audible.

Book Launch

You might have also noted if you’ve gone to buy a ticket that my book launch is currently SOLD OUT. This is extremely exciting news, because we literally can’t fit any more people into Blackwell’s (their capacity is around 70 or so).

But if you were really keen to come, fear not! Blackwell’s are looking to move to a larger venue so more of you can come. Watch this space!

What I’ve Been Reading

That’s all on Ascension for just now (there’s some other exciting fires in the oven, but nothing that’s quite ready to share with the world just yet).

In the last month, I’ve read a fair few books. I really enjoyed Christopher Priest’s Inverted World, a mind-bending SF classic that I’ve not got round to reading until just now. I’ve been a fan of Priest ever since The Prestige (and the wonderful film by Nolan), but since I’m going to be joining him on a panel at Cymera, I thought I’d get through a bit more of his work! Inverted World is just my type of story — a bizarre mystery that you can quite pick apart until the big twist at the end. It’s weird and claustrophobic and surprising. I thought it was great.

I also read Lyndsey Croal’s fun little novelette Have You Decided On Your Question? which is like a mini black mirror episode about memory, obsession and simulated realities. Croal has a really deft hand with dealing with these big concepts and manages to make the pages turn quickly and thrillingly. A great little story and I devoured the entire thing in one sitting.

The real standout was Richard Swan’s The Tyranny of Faith though. I enjoyed his first book The Justice of Kings so much that I went in with really high hopes, but this book just blew all of them out of the water. I could sit here and write all day the things I liked about it, but it was just such an ambitious story with so many perfect elements coming together. It’s a masterclass in taking all the great stuff you set up with Book 1 of a series and building on it in Book 2. Hats off to Swan. I’m really impressed.

That’s all, folks.

That’s all from me for the moment. No doubt you’ll hear more from me as we approach launch next month. If you’ve read it and haven’t left a review yet, please do. If you’re interested in it, but haven’t pre-ordered yet, please do. I’m not going to go into the complexities of the publishing industry right now, but let’s just say that pre-orders make such a huge difference to an author’s career and trajectory, so please consider placing one if you’d like to read it!

See you soon — hope you all have a lovely Easter!