So today was Drake’s release day.

Well actually it went out into the wild in America and Canada on Tuesday but I’m English so today’s UK launch was my real release day. This was the day my friends and my colleagues and some total strangers started reading it.

Except some of them they already have, of course. No book goes out unread, and I don’t just mean by the publisher’s editorial team. Every author has their own tireless beta readers, those poor sods who get to read your book while it’s still “rough around the edges” and who help guide you towards making it a tad more presentable before your agent or editor ever sees it. Nila, Chris – thank you.

Then of course there are the pre-release reviewers, the journalists and bloggers who get sent what’s called an ARC or Advance Review Copy for free in exchange for writing an honest review of the book. People who receive ARCs really are honest too – if they don’t like it they’ll say so, don’t worry on that score. Thankfully Drake’s pre-release reviews have all been very positive, but that’s by no means guaranteed.

Even so, all these folks are still part of that strange amorphous entity you might call “publishing”. They’re not end-user consumers. They’re not the punters.

This week the actual punters got hold of it – quite a few of them I think, as Amazon UK sold out on the first day. Reviews are now starting to trickle in, reviews from people who paid their own money for my book, out of choice, because they wanted to read it.

I don’t want to get sappy about this but it’s hard to describe just how fucking amazing that is.

All I can say is thank you, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.