 On April 14 , 2009 , MTV News announced that Ellis had nearly finished the novel and it would be published in May 2010 . At the time , Ellis revealed that all the novel 's main characters would return . Prior to publication , Ellis had been convinced by his persuasive editor to remove some of the more graphic lines from Imperial Bedrooms ' torture scenes , which he later regretted . " My most extreme act of self @-@ censoring in Imperial Bedrooms , " he said , however , was to omit a three @-@ line description of a silver wall , because he felt that Clay would never have written it . Ellis stated he had no plans to make changes to the book as it stands in a second edition . Months prior to the book 's release , Ellis tweeted the first sentence of the novel , " They had made a movie about us . " The Random House website later announced the on sale date of June 22 , 2010 in both hardback and paperback . With it , they released a picture of the book 's cover and a short synopsis , which described the book as focusing on a middle @-@ aged Clay , now a screenwriter , drawn back into his old circle . Amidst this , Clay begins dating a young actress with mysterious ties to Julian , Rip and a recently murdered Hollywood producer ; his life begins to spin out of control . In Imperial Bedrooms , Los Angeles returns once again as the book 's setting . Along with New York , where Clay has been prior to coming home , it is one of Ellis ' two major locations . 
