The End of the Road Show
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The by-car Southern Ontario book tour for Rollback could not have ended better. We had a packed house at the Chapters Bookstore on Fanshawe Road in London, Ontario. They'd originally only had a handful of chairs set up, but people kept pouring in, and they had to keep getting more chairs. It was a great audience, with great questions, and, at the end, the events coordinator there said to me, "Thank you for showing me what's possible for an author event." Go me! :)
I hit the road four weeks ago today promoting Rollback, starting with the book launch at Toronto's Bakka-Phoenix Books. I've done events now in Toronto, Ontario; near Rochester, New York; Albany, New York; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; Richmond, Virginia; Alexandria, Virginia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Vancouver, British Columbia; Edmonton, Alberta; Calgary, Alberta; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Oshawa, Ontario; Vaughan, Ontario; Kitchener, Ontario; Sarnia, Ontario; and London, Ontario. I did events at a nice mixture of science-fiction specialty stores, independent bookstores, big chain stores, and public libraries.
I hit the local bestsellers' lists in Winnipeg, and Canada's national BookManager bestsellers' list.
I got major review coverage; lots of radio interviews, including nationally on the CBC, CBC affiliates in Regina, Calgary, and Windsor; other stations in Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Philadelphia, Olympia (Washington state), Nashua (New Hampshire), and even Vienna, Austria, plus the National Public Radio affiliate in Rochester, New York; TV interviews in Toronto, Kitchener, Edmonton, and Winnipeg; lots of online and blog coverage; and major write-ups in the arts weeklies in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Saskatoon; and the cover of Quill & Quire the Canadian publishing trade journal.
And now, at last, I'm done with the different-city-every-day whirlwhind. I still have events in Denver next weekend and Orlando the weekend after, but the marathon of book touring is over. Whew!
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The Chapters chain has always been very good to me, and I'm very grateful for their support; this is the sign on the London store
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A placard advertising my event
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The place was packed!
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Who am I to argue with the sign?
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Cool shirt!
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Dinner afterwards at Swiss Chalet with members of Science Fiction London, the local SF club
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Rob's old friend Richard Gibbens, a member of Science Fiction London
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
3 Comments:
As an observation, Science Fiction London could do a little more to promote themselves. Speaking as a fan who lived in London for 17 years, this is the first time I've ever heard of them.
Hi, Diane. There webiste is here.
I must say, a fantastic job Robert! I've been a fan for a while and it was great to hear you speak. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book (and the next book tour!)
--John
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