I Signed a Thing 🥳

It's Real. Now What?

It’s been a couple of years in the making but I’m pleased to share that my second book Relentless will be published by De Gruyter and launched in Spring 2026.

Pause for dramatic effect.

🥳 🍾

Who? Yes, De Gruyter. They’re a major academic German publisher based in Berlin, established in 1749. I’ll be label mates with The Brothers Grimm, so best I keep any academic failings to myself for the time being.

This is totally ridiculous but I can confirm it’s real.

In time honoured tradition, I’ve already had a few sherberts (slang for alcoholic beverage for my non UK friends) to acknowledge this life milestone, but in all the recent madness (I found all this out whilst on a digital detox in Costa Rica—timing, eh?) I thought I’d take a minute and share some behind-the-scenes stuff that most people don’t get to see.

We all see the final book, the perfected audiobook, the words on pages looking effortlessly brilliant. But until that’s actually a thing, you’ll get the bloopers, the rejections, and the “what the fuck am I doing?” moments. Who knows, some of you may find that way more interesting than the book itself. You won’t, the book is fucking brilliant.

So where shall we begin this little ditty?

The Independent Route vs The Industry

Discovery of Less I did all myself. As an independent author, I had no idea what the rules were, which sometimes worked in my favour. Because Amazon lowered the bar to entry, I didn’t necessarily need a publisher to publish a book. But I had to pay and outsource everything I couldn’t do.

However, there’s definitely a ceiling to that approach, and I was intrigued about this whole traditional publishing industry and how it could help amplify my work. So once the concept for Relentless was cemented in my head, a book about working less to prevent burnout, in fewer words and fewer pages than your average non-fiction book, I pitched it to a number of agents and publishers.

I didn’t think that excessively busy and burnt out people had time to read a full business book. 400+ pages? 70,000+ words? Fuck that. I cut it in half. All killer, no filler.

This book had a chance to help people as the numbers for stress and burnout from overworking continued to rise. Surely it would make a difference.

It turns out if you always follow the rules with everyone else, you’ll compete with everyone else.

Processes are great. They provide a clear path, but they become a bit of a roadblock when everyone’s trying to go the same way. Sometimes you need to find other routes to get where you want to go.

The Irony of Ironies

My editor had started a new role working with a publisher that was part of Hachette book group—Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen King, proper big league. So I pitched the book through him and just as it landed in the commissioning editor’s inbox, they were signed off sick for months… through burnout.

How’s your fucking luck?

I thought this was unbelievable. What a story! The person who would potentially buy the rights to my book about preventing burnout was too burnt out to see it. Are you kidding me? The solution to their overworking was literally sitting in their overstuffed inbox.

So I waited.

And then waited some more.

The publishing industry makes you wait.

Here I was thinking, when they came back to work there would be this eureka moment and everything would move on quickly with the commissioning editor doing the foreword how this book could have saved her.

I’m usually a very patient guy, but my patience got as thin as the plot of any Fast and Furious film.

They loved it. But they’d already decided to invest in another similar book. One that arrived in their orbit after mine. What can you do?

But I took the feedback and saw it as a sign that this book idea had something. That gave me hope, but I’d had enough of hope. I’d had enough of telling people “I’m in talks with…” Less talking, more doing.

Templated rejections sprinkled my inbox. Ghostings became a regular thing. Even months later, the odd one-liner from someone random saying “thanks but no.” I’d had enough. I was ready to turn my back on doing it the ‘proper’ way, it was time to go independent again.

The Dave Grohl’s Roadie Moment

Then a chance opportunity dropped into my inbox to help promote a friend’s new book.

I’d been on their podcast a while back and they reached out to get my address to send me a copy before it launched. On the cc in the email was the marketing executive of their publisher, Bloomsbury. Yep, Gillian Anderson and JK Rowling’s Potter series. That Bloomsbury.

I sent my address over and then it clicked. There was the contact, there was the connection, there was the opportunity for me to go… “oh by the way, seeing as you loved my friends work, can I send you my book proposal…”

It was a loose ‘in’ and I had nothing to lose in just asking.

It was like handing a demo tape to Dave Grohl’s roadie.

From there I had an email from the commissioning editor of Bloomsbury Business asking me to join a Teams call. Here we go I thought!

The call went great. I’d jumped the queue and sent an official proposal to the person that mattered. Then I waited.

I waited a bit more.

Then a little more.

It was like trying to get anywhere on Southern Rail.

Bloomsbury loved it….

But it didn’t happen.

“We’ve been discussing your project internally and we think it sounds great, however we’re not the right home for this right now. It’s a great book and you have a really nice engaging style. I fully expect you to find a great home for it and do let me know when you do.”

I was so deflated. All these stories about people getting tons of rejections and persevering to finally ‘make it’ made no difference to me. I didn’t need to do this. I already had a great portfolio career, life was good. I questioned why I was putting myself through it. It all seemed pointless.

But the pattern was there. I was getting way closer by actually speaking to people, by them meeting me rather than reading yet another proposal in a slush pile.

One More Shot

Blair Partnerships came next and I went to their NPR Tiny Desk Concert-style offices for a meeting with a friend of a friend. We talked about Relentless and my mission to support people be less busy and do what matters for over an hour. They loved it, but yep, you guessed it—not the right time.

But this “ignore the process and just speak to people” approach was clearly the way forward. So as one last throw of the dice, I asked Bloomsbury to recommend someone who might be interested.

And here we are.

Right timing, right publisher, right commissioning editor.

The Actual News

I signed the contract with De Gruyter a month ago (it’s not as fancy as you think) and they’re so into it that they’ve decided to make it one of their flagship titles for 2026, with full PR and marketing backing, something an author usually has to do themselves. They release a 1000+ books a year, yet 4 get the flagship treatment. 4!

That was real confirmation and validation.

It turns out the classic clichés really did work: jump the queue, talk to actual humans, find connections and sometimes the rejection that feels like the end is just redirecting you to where you’re supposed to be.

But the energy it takes to just keep going ain’t no joke.

Relentless will be in bookshops, yes possibly in the airport as you wander aroudn waiting for your gate in Spring 2026. It’s less words, less pages, and designed for people who are too busy and burnt out to read another bloody business book.

Pick it up, read a chapter, put it down and try something - less than 5 minutes.

I’ll share more as we get closer to launch, the cover design process (and all the options), getting endorsements, the editorial chaos, the marketing strategy, all of it.

For anyone interested in book writing, or just love behind the scenes stuff, come and get your fill.

For now, I’m going to have another sherbert and try to process the fact that I’m published by the same house as the Brothers Grimm.

More to come…

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