Abercrombie moved into television production before taking up a career as a freelance film editor. During a break between jobs he began writing The Blade Itself in 2002. It was published by Gollancz in 2006 and was followed by two other books in The First Law Trilogy, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings.
In early 2008 Abercrombie was one of the contributors to the BBC Worlds of Fantasy series, alongside other contributors such as Michael Moorcock, Terry Pratchett and China Mi ville.