"Congratulations, it's a book!"

The Long Game exists! It's real, and it's out there in the world! The official release date isn't for another week yet, but Ten Acre have started sending out the pre-orders and some people have received their copies today - including me! Complete with a note from Stuart at Ten Acre telling me "Congratulations, it's a book!"

In fact, the entire first print run has now sold out ahead of the release date - although Ten Acre are already reprinting, so please do still order if you were thinking about doing so! This was probably helped by the Radio Times kindly publishing a piece about the book on their website on Saturday, using some preview quotes which we had arranged to give them. In fact, it was briefly the lead story on the site's main front page:

The Radio Times story also ended up being picked up by a few other sites, Yahoo News, the Metro newspaper and Digital Spy. Not quite in the same league as Morecambe-and-Wise-versus-Monty-Python back in August, but all good publicity for the book nonetheless!

I've also been doing some more personal publicity for the book with another podcast interview. This one was for the Something Who podcast and came out last week - it was great fun chatting not just about the book but about the story of my own personal fandom of the show, too. You can find that here:

Something Who: episode 49: The Voyage Home

But probably the most pleasing thing this week has been today, seeing tweets from people who have received their copies of the book and are either excited about starting to read it or have already started and have said very nice things:

So this arrived today - and straight into new insights into the BBC's reaction to the 1996 #DoctorWho TV Movie from Alan Yentob and its BBC executive producer Jo Wright. @the_questmaster and @tenacrefilms deserve every success with this book. pic.twitter.com/xHZdSGRSiN

— Dr Matthew Kilburn (@Matthew_Kilburn) October 25, 2021

It's here! Thanks @tenacrefilms & @the_questmaster - it's leapfrogging straight to the top of my reading list! #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/dR5jKrPUPl

— Ian McArdell: Flux (@IanMcArdell) October 25, 2021

This beauty arrived today, thanks @stuart_manning @ #PaulHayes already riveted by it!#TheLongGame @tenacrefilms pic.twitter.com/0Auvn6rz2A

— jonathon spears (@jonspo) October 25, 2021

Received my copy today. Utterly engrossing. I can't put it down. A must for the seasoned #DoctorWho fan.@the_questmaster has produced a scholarly and engaging tome. pic.twitter.com/t8shbVBYal

— Will Hadcroft (@willhadcroft) October 25, 2021

The Long Game has arrived!✨
Rather pleasant suprise to come home too after my lectures. Can't wait to dig into this area of dr who history, the first print has now sold out on @tenacrefilms so it's looking to be a popular one!

Second round of printing is November I think pic.twitter.com/yM1ywbIRWz

— Ben Lett (@hostproductions) October 25, 2021

It's hugely flattering to know that people are as interested in reading this as I was in writing it. And a relief too, of course! I'm incredibly pleased with how it's been received so far. And that I have a real, live book out there in the world again, after ten years since the Treasure Quest book!

If you would like to buy a copy of The Long Game, you can order one from Ten Acre's website by clicking here.