the sham

We’re at 6 months until the pub date of The Sham! I signed the contract in June 2022 (!) so it seems like it’s been forever. I worked on it on/off for years, and then I went balls to the f*ckin’ wall from 2019-2022 querying and consequently getting tons of rejections and embarking on countless rewrites in between all that. It’s been a long road but it all ended up great. I really hope you like it. I mean, I like it But, you know. I hope people are nice about it.

Going back further, the very first draft came about in 2015, distracting me from The Hollow. (I tend to get tinker-y and obsessive and waste a lot of time on sections that end up getting cut. I’m really trying to work on this.) Never mind that in this time period, I got the big C and my mom passed and I had a baby and I switched careers & worked full time all the while…free time is tough. But that’s how it was born!!

News / Upcoming Things

Pre-order links (& please add to your Goodreads shelf!) Bookshop.org B&N Woodhall Audiobook Amazon
The publication date is September 5, 2023.
The audiobook rights were sold to Penguin Random House, which is super exciting. I get to have a say in the narrator and I freakin’ love audiobooks so winwinwin.
Next steps: getting the proof and doing a few more final editing rounds, hoping to catch any residual typos, etc. + the back cover blurb, and design approval. Then they’re sending advance digital copies to reviewers and trades etc. Then it’ll go on preorder, which I’ll post here. I’ll also do a Goodreads giveaway around that time…people ask why it takes so long to publish a book and there’s just SO much that goes into it, it’s insane…

How you can help meeee

Anyyyhooters—I’d be forever indebted if you could pre-order (adds to eventual rankings), add The Sham to your Goodreads shelf, follow @bookbarrell on Insta and if so inclined, join my email list (see pink box below). Is that too much to ask? Probably but thank you kindly in advance.

—xoxoooooo, Nikki