The Devil’s Playbook

I’ve written a book. It’s called, as the title of this article may indicate, The Devil’s Playbook. It’s my first novel, and came about as part of the Nanowrimo challenge of 2015, where I created the first draft pretty much on the fly over the course of an amazing month.

It’s a contemporary fantasy fiction novel, set in modern London. It introduces a world where angels and demons are not only real, but are secretly embedded in our society, mixing and mingling with us every day, seeming just like any other person on the street. It’s a lighthearted tale about why the head demon, The Devil, just decided to reveal all to an unassuming blogger, one Saturday morning in a Starbucks.

I’m currently putting the last touches on it via a WhiteSmoke review, and am then going to publish to Amazon as an e-book. I purchased the ISBN number at the end of July, and it came thought at beginning of August. There’s a chance I may be able to go live this weekend.

The novel weighs in at about 79,000 words, making it fairly short, but right in the ball-park for what an agent may want from an unknown author’s debut. Sure, I’m self-publishing for now - I’m frankly too excited not to. But I wouldn’t mind getting an agent if that would help get the novel published more formally.

I’m on a shoestring budget, despite working in the City, so I’ve mostly had to self-edit and do my own proof reading, although I did get a lucky break when a published author kindly gave it a read through and offered some welcome thoughts. It also means I’ve had to make the cover art myself, which you will find below. More after the image.

The plan is to pitch the novel at £1.99. Some of the stuff I’ve read about price points indicates that may actually be too low, suggesting that it is of low quality, but I have to say that starting with anything higher runs against my sense of modesty. If I get enough positive responses to justify charging more, then maybe I will reconsider, but to start with I want potential new readers to be able to easily make the purchase. £1.99 is cheap, less than a sandwich, making an incentive to give the novel a whirl. At £1.99, I should get about £1.07 back from Amazon, and then I have to work out how to manage the taxes on it. I’m not planning on making much to start with, I just want to get it out into the world.

Test readers have all loved The Devil’s Playbook. Sure, they are mostly friends and family. There were, however, several readers who are not in my immediate circle, and these were encouraged to be critical. They also loved it, and that’s a very positive response.

I’m going to use posts on Medium to help promote my novel and to discuss aspects of my experience in writing it. It’s been so rewarding, and I’ve developed so much insight into my own writing over the past nine months. I’d like to say that I’ve gotten better as a result, too, which is something that will definitely benefit me in life, no matter where I end up. I’m also going to post more in-depth updates on Medium as I got a little teased for doing it on my public Facebook profile, and figure that’s because the audiences want different things. Here, people want more information. There, they would prefer a pithy update. It’s not a criticism, just an observation about what people are using each site for.

If you made it this far, apparently you have a tolerance for my writing style. As such, I urge you to check out the novel when it comes out - hopefully you will enjoy it, too.

The Devil’s Playbook, coming shortly to Amazon.