"Leverage" Drops in Four Months
The countdown to pub day is on
My darkly hilarious, grimly topical, and hella fun novel Leverage hits stores in four short months!
Will the book, which is set against the backdrop of a fictional financial crisis, be derailed by an actual financial crisis?
Let's hope not.
Or let’s hope the lines to buy the novel are at least as long as the breadlines.
But enough depressing shit! This is supposed to be a positive vibes post!
Below you’ll find the latest details and goings on related to Leverage, or the funniest novel ever written about the nightmarish grotesqueries of unrestrained casino capitalism.
Another Humbling and Incredible Blurb
Mateo Askaripour, the New York Times bestselling author of the brilliant satire Black Buck, last year’s genre-bending sci-fi epic This Great Hemisphere, and an all-around cool AF dude, recently read a Leverage galley and offered the following blurb as praise.
"With Leverage, Amran Gowani blows off the facade of high finance, revealing a world that is even more depraved than most think, where 'profits over people' is the rule of the day. Armed with years of Wall Street experience, the skill to weave a compulsively readable tale, and prose that'll make you go 'WHOA!', Gowani reminds us that the most valuable commodity on Earth isn't oil or gold, but the unshakable spirit to do better and be better which dwells within us all. A bell-ringing debut with high ROI."
I’m thrilled and humbled by Mateo’s response to the novel, and his blurb is doubly rewarding because Black Buck, a send-up of corporate culture featuring a single Black man working inside a tech company full of crazy ass White people, was the comparable title I used to pitch Leverage first to literary agents and then to publishing houses.
Here’s hoping “the market” loves Leverage as much as Mateo’s fantastic debut novel.
Leverage Launch Party on August 19
It’s early days and details remain scant, but a quick reminder the excellent independent bookstore The Book Cellar has agreed to host a Leverage launch party on the evening of Tuesday, August 19.
Event times vary, but if you’re planning to attend I’d recommend holding space on your calendar from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
More information to come!
Catch Me at Bouchercon 2025 in NOLA
My publisher, Atria Books, is an industry leader in the thriller, suspense, and mystery genres, sporting a bench of world-class talent including Jack Carr, Janet Evanovich, Lisa Jewell, and Brad Thor.
It came as no surprise, then, when I learned Atria puts on a big show at the annual Bouchercon event, which this year will be held from September 3-7 in The Big Easy.
Unlike past shindigs, however, the 2025 soiree will be the biggest and best yet because—for the first time ever—I will be attending. My registration is already secured and my hotel room is already booked. Now I just need to find a suitable roundtrip flight from Chicago and avoid being detained and deported by ICE. Fingers crossed.
I’m super excited about this conference and my publicist has promised me I’ll get the chance to embarrass myself in front of multiple famous authors. Plus, if I’m really lucky, I might be selected for a literary panel and find a way to get canceled once and for all.
Finally, if all that wasn’t exciting enough, me and Beyoncé will be celebrating our forty-fifth and forty-fourth birthdays, respectively, on Thursday, September 4.
You can learn more about Bouchercon 2025 and register to attend HERE.
Pre-order Your Dang Copy of Leverage!
Alright perverts, quit gawking at the GIF of Beyoncé’s butt.
Focus!
I’m trying to talk about my goddamned novel here!
Jesus Christ.
Scroll down.
Scroll down.
Scroll down.
Okay, good.
The Leverage publicity offensive is picking up steam—I’ve already got one magazine feature and one newsletter profile in the hopper—and I’m working on a neat social media segment which should coincide with Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 26. Presuming I don’t cock everything up, I’ll provide a link in a future post.
I'm also waiting on two possible blurbs for the jacket, both of which would be home run endorsements. Note: For the cynical, hardened writers in the crowd who realize the blurb game is rigged, rest assured I had no fancy MFA connections or favors owed to me. I’m thrilled with my blurbs because I procured them the old fashioned way: cringeworthy thirst and dogged determination.
Everything Leverage is coming up roses—for now—so the last thing left to say is: Buy a goddamned copy of the goddamned book!
I mean, if you’re so inclined. But also even if you’re not so inclined.
Pre-order sales are a crucial industry benchmark which influence “best seller” rankings and generate buzz within the literary community. Since buzz begets buzz, strong pre-order sales can become a self-fulfilling prophecy and lead to strong overall sales.
Is this ridiculous? Yes.
Is humanity doomed? Yes.
Do I still need you to pre-order a copy of Leverage so I can get super rich and my wife can feel like her entire life hasn’t been a sick prank? Yes.
You can select your preferred format (e.g., hardcover, e-book, audiobook) via these mostly vile vendors:
It’s gonna be a wild AF ride from here—presuming we don’t all die in a nuclear holocaust.
As always, stay frosty out there.
Amran