‘A book written just for me’

Abstract In its first six months of publication, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin became a surprise bestseller in the UK. A novel about gaming and friendship, it was notoriously difficult to both categorize and summarize. As its publishers described it, ‘It’s not a romance, but it is about love.’ Its author was also 17 years into her career with 10 books and no major UK adult fiction breakthrough, presenting a challenging start for her publishing team, who were aiming to make her stand out in a crowded fiction market. In this article, we track the acquisition, publication, and promotion journey of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow on both sides of the Atlantic to understand how a literary novel about games developers – from a relatively unknown author, at least in the UK – became one of the most talked-about books of recent years.