This site has helped me find a readership for these books after my ex-publishers ran off with many £1000s of my earnings and almost ruined my career. www.tom-cox.com/a-brief-guid... But why does it also repeatedly try to make me feel like I'm doing something terrible by finding that readership?

A Brief Guide To My Books

Villager is where I'd advise you to start if you wanted to read one of my novels. It's also the one people most frequently tell me they reread. It's set on a fictional moor which just happens to be in...

tom-cox.com

Christine@christin-3.bsky.social · 4h ago

Honestly I wouldn’t have probably read your books if you hadn’t been forced to promote them here. So sorry that happened but you have measurably brightened my literary life. Take my lonely US Dollars please.

I happily promote my work, my friends' work, my neighbours' work, my social media mutuals' work, the work of strangers in the genres and niches I love, and stuff I just think looks cool! What else am I supposed to do with my bluesky?

My copy of Villager and copy of 1983 arrived from Blackwell's last week. I'll be starting Villager in a week or so (have to finish my current read). Looking forward to my Tom Cox introduction.

People are really this stupid.

Jet Stromfield@jetstromfield.secondlife.bio · 4h ago

... If they don't like you pushing your stuff out there... they can just unfollow you. It's that simple? Are... are people really this stupid?

Throwback to the time I found one of my cats practicing mindfulness in my garden.

The publishing industry largely ignored this book. But people on Bluesky read it, and keep saying stuff like this about it, so I figure it's worth mentioning it on Bluesky, despite the hate mail. You can get it here with free international delivery: blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...

Everything Will Swallow You

Have you ever been curious about how people live when nobody is watching? Have you wondered whether there's more going on than meets the eye? Eric and Carl live

blackwells.co.uk

Erin Green 🖖@erin-o-green.bsky.social · 4h ago

Testimonial from a rando: Everything Will Swallow You was my favorite book of 2025. The kind of book that tickles you and pulls you along, and then breaks you while also building you up again. Absolutely amazing book.

I appear to have a few new followers. Hello! You might also like to meet Jim. It's probably a bit easier to read about him here: www.tom-cox.com/jim/

Jim: An Insight Into One Of Our Finest Minds

Subscribe now I have made this post free for everyone to read but if you'd like to support my writing you can do so, at a price of your choice, from £2 per month/£20 per year, by clicking on the butt...

tom-cox.com

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 4w ago

THREAD. 3 & 1/4 years ago, with no warning, a brilliant orange farm cat wandered over from the draughty barn where he'd been living, in rural Cornwall, & decided he wanted to live with us instead. We decided to call him Jim. This is the first photo I took of him, on that night: December 1st 2022

I have written quite a few now. www.tom-cox.com/a-brief-guid...

A Brief Guide To My Books

Villager is where I'd advise you to start if you wanted to read one of my novels. It's also the one people most frequently tell me they reread. It's set on a fictional moor which just happens to be in...

tom-cox.com

Dr. Ellen Bauerle@bauerle.bsky.social · 4h ago

Point made, but it’s such a delight to find an author you‘ve just discovered has multiple other books available. There’s a reason publishers list prior books on the back cover or a frontmatter page, Terry Pratchett for example.

Testimonial from a rando: Everything Will Swallow You was my favorite book of 2025. The kind of book that tickles you and pulls you along, and then breaks you while also building you up again. Absolutely amazing book.

I love that real people promote their real things on here. I have bought groovy turntable mats, mugs, soap dishes, cooking spoon saucers, embroidery printed bags, cards, prints and BOOKS. Many, many books. And I've been able to tell other people that these things are great. It benefits *everyone*.

"Gentlemen, you yearn for victory just as I do. But achieved with the apparent effortlessness of gods." It's all just supposed to happen organically, with no apparent effort. Effort is so distasteful. 2/2

When I see comments complaining about the barest hint of self-promo, I think back to something Ben Cross's character, Harold Abrahams, says to the University Masters who take exception to his having hired a coach. Not 100% applicable, but the tone fits. 1/2

I would love to know what Amina is up to these days. She comes across as a bright spark.

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 10h ago

I stayed at a castle in Wales a few days ago, all on my own. It was a bit amazing, to say the least. I wrote about it here: www.tom-cox.com/notes-on-a-c...

Good evening from Lucille, who is suddenly MASSIVE. www.tom-cox.com/its-a-herrin...

I want you to stop talking about your books and start talking more about your epic novels filled with the most amazing stories, characters and world building. Oh wait. That's the books isn't it? Shit.

I've not promoted previous ones so hard but when you put that much more into a book than you ever had before, almost broke yourself writing it in less than a year, then your ex-publishers stole your earnings directly after you finished it, it does tend to lend a bit more urgency to the task.

@hamuelsanwich.bsky.social · 5h ago

Be shameless in your self promotion because you should have no shame in what you’ve produced.

Thank you! If you want to save a bit of cash, Blackwell's UK will send it to you with free international delivery... blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...

Villager

Villages are full of tales: some are forgotten while others become a part of local folklore. But the fortunes of one West Country village are watched over and i

blackwells.co.uk

@catydid1st.bsky.social · 5h ago

Brilliant! I can’t wait to get the book and read more. I found myself giving each person their own voice, what a fun way to tell a story!

Brilliant! I can’t wait to get the book and read more. I found myself giving each person their own voice, what a fun way to tell a story!

Tom's books are an absolute joy, and I would never have found them without his posts.

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 18h ago

A Bluesky user has written to me to ask me to stop mentioning my books on here. I wonder... Should I continue trying my best to make a living in a tough world via the writing I've spent decades putting my heart & soul into? Or should I obey them? Nah. I'm going to continue mentioning my books.

Me too, somehow he’d passed me by. 🤷‍♀️ Discovering his books was like finding a gold mine.

Anyone telling an author not to mention their books here can go fuck themselves Also anyone telling anyone else how to run their own social media accounts can go fuck themselves too If the way someone does their thing here bothers you, unfollow/mute/block them, but you don't get a vote otherwise

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 18h ago

A Bluesky user has written to me to ask me to stop mentioning my books on here. I wonder... Should I continue trying my best to make a living in a tough world via the writing I've spent decades putting my heart & soul into? Or should I obey them? Nah. I'm going to continue mentioning my books.

Quite often you back to a record and think "Ok, I sort of get why I liked it back then but time has not been kind" so it's great to return to 'Pod' by The Breeders every year or two and discover that it's still as thoroughly excellent as ever.

this is so sad. not the OP, the person who told him to stop sharing his books. if Tom hadn't shared HIS WRITING, or other ppl's funny reviews, i wouldn't've found him. i have one of his in my rucksack, ready to take on a plane & read tomorrow BECAUSE HE SHARES HIS BOOKS. make&share your art, ffs!

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 18h ago

A Bluesky user has written to me to ask me to stop mentioning my books on here. I wonder... Should I continue trying my best to make a living in a tough world via the writing I've spent decades putting my heart & soul into? Or should I obey them? Nah. I'm going to continue mentioning my books.

I'm always going to mention my books on social media. I try not to overdo it, but writing is my job and I need to sell books in order to eat and pay rent.

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 18h ago

A Bluesky user has written to me to ask me to stop mentioning my books on here. I wonder... Should I continue trying my best to make a living in a tough world via the writing I've spent decades putting my heart & soul into? Or should I obey them? Nah. I'm going to continue mentioning my books.

Nottingham Victoria Centre, summer 1994. Soundtrack: probably 'Bee Thousand' by Guided By Voices or 'Icky Mettle' by Archers Of Loaf. Photobooth near the Emett Clock. Passport photo for Interrailing. (Didn't go until four years later in the end.)

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 17h ago

One of the main symptoms of being 18/19 in 1994 was not realising how completely '1994' you looked.

I started Villager last night. Got through the first chapter and am SO intrigued.

I love the idea of her now in her 50s coming across this piece. If anyone knows Amina, please pass it on to her!

Reading this put a stupid grin on my face. Do click through, even if only to admire 9 year-old Amina.

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 10h ago

I stayed at a castle in Wales a few days ago, all on my own. It was a bit amazing, to say the least. I wrote about it here: www.tom-cox.com/notes-on-a-c...

People mollify themselves with "I can't do anything against juggernauts who'll hound my every moment while selling every bit of information on me they have, but I can annoy you!"