T minus 3

Three days (Oct. 1st) until Small Crimes is out in the US. I wrote Small Crimes in 2003, sold it to Serpent's Tail early in 2006 and now over 2 1/2 years later it will finally be available here. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. The book was published in the UK this past March, and so far the reviews from the London papers, UK web magazines, trades and web reviewers have all been good to exceptional, with some of the reviewers saying amazingly enthusiastic things about Small Crimes. I've also been hearing some really good things from mystery and independent bookstores that have so far read the book.

Serpent's Tail is a great publisher for Small Crimes, and I'm thrilled to be joining an amazing list of authors that they publish, but there are things that are tough being a US author published by a UK house. First, that 6 months additional wait while the book is first put out in the UK, made even more frustrating by being an ocean away and unable to do author events over there. Also, by the time the book is sent to the trades here, it's no longer an ARC but a final product, so at least for this printing we can't put on the cover "Deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy, starred review, Publisher's Weekly" as we'd be able to do if this was a US publisher. Of course, there are also big advantages to being published by a UK house, namely, I'm being published also in the UK by a prestigious house that's well respected by readers and the London papers, which means my book's already coming over here with strong reviews from the London Times, Guardian and Sunday Express. Another big advantage, although this is more specifically related to Serpent's Tail, is that they have kind of a more old-fashioned way of looking at things in that they believe in quality more than "perceived commercial viability" and are willing to give books they publish the time to develop a readership.

Anyway, while I had to wait for what seemed like forever for this book, my next one, Pariah, will be hot on it's tail, and out in the UK this January.