Saturday, May 12, 2007

The End of the Road Show



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!



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



A placard advertising my event



The place was packed!



Who am I to argue with the sign?



Cool shirt!



Dinner afterwards at Swiss Chalet with members of Science Fiction London, the local SF club



Rob's old friend Richard Gibbens, a member of Science Fiction London

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site


3 Comments:

At May 13, 2007 12:15 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

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.

 
At May 13, 2007 12:17 AM , Blogger RobertJSawyer said...

Hi, Diane. There webiste is here.

 
At May 13, 2007 1:42 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

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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