A couple of people have asked me recently what’s going on with Head of State, and why it’s not out yet, so I thought I’d just post this to save time. Basically, the simple answer is that books take time to get published, and it’s still happening.
It can take up to a year from delivery of a manuscript to the book finally appearing. I delivered the second draft of my book in February, but there were several books “in the queue” ahead of mine (Obverse is a small publisher) — a Sexton Blake novel, Paul Magrs’ book on the Doctor Who annuals, two anthologies edited by Philip Purser-Hallard, and a Faction Paradox anthology edited by Kate Orman. Two of those have been released now, two (including the one with a story by me) will be released in the next month, and Obverse’s Facebook has just posted that the FP anthology is going back to Kate Orman for a final check of the text before that, too, is published.
That means my book is at or near the top of the pile. Which doesn’t mean that a release date will be announced tomorrow or anything — it’s entirely possible that Stuart (the editor) will want me to make more changes to the manuscript before it’s released. This is, after all, a first novel, and an insanely ambitious one, and publishing’s an iterative process. But I’ve received my advance, I’ve seen roughs of the cover painting, and everything is proceeding according to plan.
So for those of you who have been worried that it’s been a while since I posted anything about the book, don’t be — it’s just that publishing takes time. But it’ll be worth it, I hope.