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Let’s prove the theory that a podcast sells books!

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
Standard Podcast [ 3:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I was thrilled and grateful when McClelland & Stewart allowed me to podcast The High Road, in its entirety, chapter-by-chapter, for free. The wonderful digital team at M&S made a strong case for the podcast, and it worked. I’m very thankful. But giving it away for free as a podcast is a difficult notion for some. I believe strongly in the theory that listeners who really enjoy the podcast will want to purchase the book. It makes sense to me and it seemed to work with my first novel, The Best Laid Plans, which I also podcast. But let’s be clear, it’s still just a theory, and The High Road podcast is the experiment that I hope will prove it. But that’s really up to all of you who have been listening to, and I hope enjoying, the podcast. And now is the time to step up and justify McClelland & Stewart’s decision to podcast the novel for free, so that I might be allowed to follow the same path with novel number three, whenever it’s finished.

So while I have always preached that social media is not really an appropriate platform for hardcore selling, I’m going to cross the line this once, but I think all for a good cause. If you want to have a hand in reshaping the approach traditional publishers like McClelland & Stewart have historically adopted, please take a second to buy The High Road. Here are Amazon and Indigo links, and you’ll also find links in the left hand side bar.

If we can show that the podcast helped to drive early sales, M&S will be more likely to consider podasting to be an effective way to promote new titles. As always, thanks for all the support. The High Road hits bookstores today (September 7th), so now is the perfect time to place that order. Besides, the holiday season is just around the corner. Thank you all, I’m grateful…

Update: It seems I’m not the only one with this idea. Check out this wonderful post by Mark Leslie, the writer and forward-looking bookseller at Titles, McMaster University‘s great bookstore.

Posted in Canadian political novel, CanLit, comic novels, McClelland & Stewart, podcast novel, Terry Fallis, THR Podcast, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Heading up to Thunder Bay for Sleeping Giant

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

I’ll be on a plane tomorrow afternoon (Friday) for beautiful Thunder Bay for the Sleeping Giant Writers Festival. I’ll be reading with my friend and editor/publisher Doug Gibson, and with the wonderful Miriam Toews on Friday night. Then on Saturday, I’ll be delivering two workshops on how to build and sustain an audience for one’s writing. I’m really looking forward to it.

We’re now less than two weeks away from the official publication of The High Road.

Posted in Canadian political novel, CanLit, Doug Gibson, McClelland & Stewart, podcast novel, Speaking gigs, Terry Fallis, Uncategorized | No Comments »

One Book, One Community really works!

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

It is truly wonderful to have had The Best Laid Plans chosen as the 2010 One Book, One Community selection in the Waterloo Region. Here’s some tangible evidence of the power of this program to mobilize an entire region to read the chosen book. Here are the “hold requests” in the three major public libraries in the region (Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo). I’m not sure what surprised me more — that each library had ordered so many copies of TBLP, or that so many people had put it on “hold” to read. As for book sales, reports are that TBLP is selling briskly in local bookstores as well. If the past few years are any indication, by the time I head to Waterloo for three days of readings and related events in September, several thousand Waterloo residents will have read TBLP. What an honour…

Posted in Canadian political novel, CanLit, comic novels, Leacock Medal, One Book One Community Waterloo Region, Public Libraries, Terry Fallis, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

TBLP radio interview on CKWR in Waterloo

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Standard Podcast [ 18:34 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A few weeks ago, I did a radio interview with Waterloo librarian and CKWR Monday Night with the Arts contributor Alannah d’Ailly. This was related to my One Book, One Community good fortune. It was a phone interview so the sound quality on my end is not always great, but you get the idea. Many thanks to Alannah and CKWR for the interview.

Posted in Canadian political novel, CanLit, Leacock Medal, Media, One Book One Community Waterloo Region, podcast novel, Terry Fallis, Uncategorized | No Comments »

My “blurb” on Don Gutteridge novel makes cover

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

When Simon & Schuster Canada asked me if I’d read an advanced copy of Don Gutteridge’s fine historical thriller Turncoat, I readily agreed. I love anything historical and Don does a wonderful job evoking life in 1830s Upper Canada. The story reels you in and holds you till it’s done. I really enjoyed the story and the central character, young Ensign Marc Edwards.

Here’s what I submitted to Simon and Schuster Canada:

“Don Gutteridge has taken up his quill and written a riveting yarn of 1830s Upper Canada, steeped in conspiracy and political intrigue. Gutteridge is not only a master of this historical period, he writes like a veritable visitor from it. He put me right there alongside his young Ensign Marc Edwards on this first exciting adventure, and I’ll be with him for however more there’ll be in this wonderful series. Canadian history has never been more gripping and enlightening. The story burns, the pages turn, and reader learns. Fans of Bernard Cornwell and Patrick O’Brien and Don Gutteridge and his Marc Edwards Mysteries.”

Terry Fallis, author of The Best Laid Plans

I never expected a portion of my blurb would make it to the cover of this great novel.

Posted in Don Gutteridge, Simon & Schuster, Terry Fallis, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Thrilled to appear at the Elora Writers’ Festival

Friday, June 4th, 2010

I’m really looking forward to participating in the Elora Writers’ Festival this coming Sunday, June 6 in the picturesque village of Elora, Ontario. I’m humbled to be included among such a stellar constellation of Canadian writers. I’ll be one of six writers reading at the event. The others are this year’s Giller winner Linden MacIntyre, 1999 Giller winner Bonnie Burnard, Trillium Book Award winner Pasha Malla, Canlit stalwart Ray Robertson, and Barry Dempster who was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for his poetry. What an amazing lineup. Oh yes, and I’m there as well.

Posted in Canadian political novel, CanLit, Elora Writers' Festival, Leacock Medal, Media, Pasha Malla, podcast novel, Speaking gigs, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Flurry of coverage from THR podcast story

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

I was not expecting the news release McClelland & Stewart issued yesterday morning to attract as much media attention as it did. The idea was simply to announce that M&S would, for the first time, release a book (in this case, The High Road) in a serialized, chapter by chapter format, as a podcast, as I did with The Best Laid Plans back in 2007. And that it would be available for free. The President of M&S, Doug Pepper, was interviewed and the stories started rolling in from across Canada. In a spasm of self-indulgence, here’s a quick selection preserved on the blog for posterity’s sake.

Posted in Canadian political novel, CanLit, comic novels, Leacock Medal, McClelland & Stewart, Media, podcast novel, Terry Fallis, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

TBLP quoted in organization’s Annual Report

Monday, May 31st, 2010

I received an email this afternoon from a good friend who had just perused a copy of the Annual Report of the Ontario Centre for Engineering and Public Policy. Much to my surprise and delight, on the inside back cover of the annual report is the following quotation from The Best Laid Plans:

“The engineer’s critical and methodical approach to problem solving is well suited to realms beyond the scientific. What are the knowns? What are the unknowns? What are the constants? What governing laws are at play? It’s the scientific method brought to life in a different setting.”

Terry Fallis, The Best Laid Plans

It took me a while to place the passage but I eventually found it. It’s part of Angus McLintock’s diary entry that closes Chapter 13. I had no idea that it had found its way into the Annual Report of CEPP but I’m thrilled just the same.

Posted in Canadian political novel, CanLit, Leacock Medal, Media, political novels, Terry Fallis, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Author photo change for The High Road

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

My identical twin brother Tim, an accomplished photographer in off-hours, took the author photo for TBLP and, we thought, took the shot that was originally to have graced the back of The High Road. I quite liked the new photo but some have said that I look a little too serious for the writer of novels that are supposed to amuse the reader. I appear a little serious because I usually look like a raving idiot when I smile for the camera. You think I doth protest too much? You haven’t seen the reams of smiling photos still lying on the cutting room floor. They could scare little children. Enter Clarence Johnson. Clarence is a photographer with an interest in eyewear. He snaps photos of people and their glasses and posts them on his interesting blog, picpu. Clarence happened to be in the audience when I read at Word on the Street in Toronto in September, 2008, shortly after the McClelland & Stewart edition of TBLP was published. I noticed the shot on the picpu blog months later when it popped up in a Google search. Because I didn’t know the photo was being taken, it doesn’t have that posed look that I deplore. Seems a few folks saw the shot on my blog and a consensus emerged that it might in fact be a good author photo as it seems to capture the spirit of humour, laughter, Leacock, etc. So it looks like we’re going with Clarence’s shot as the official author photo. Thankfully, he kindly granted permission. I’ve broken the news to my brother. He lay on the floor kicking his feet and flailing his arms a bit, but eventually accepted the decision. Just kidding. Tim’s been great about it and given what he had to work with, I think his shots are still the best non-candid photos ever taken of me. So my thanks to Clarence and to Tim for their support and understanding. Here’s the photo:

Yes, I know it’s closely cropped at the top, but that’s not a bad thing for a guy with an ever-expanding forehead!

Posted in Canadian political novel, CanLit, comic novels, Leacock Medal, McClelland & Stewart, PICPU, Speaking gigs, Terry Fallis, Tim Fallis, Uncategorized, Word on the Street Festival | 1 Comment »

Books & Brunch event in Uxbridge tomorrow

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

I’ll be in Uxbridge tomorrow for brunch and a reading oragnized by Shelley Macbeth and her wonderful Blue Heron Books store. Apparently, more than 100 tickets have been sold for the event so I can feel my abdominal butterflies assembling. I have some family and friends kindly attending the brunch so there’ll be a few familiar faces in the crowd. I truly enjoy meeting readers of TBLP and my publisher is encouraging me to keep up the events with The High Road due to hit book store shelves in September. I believe there are still tickets available so if you’re in the neighbourhood, I’d love to see you. You can score tickets by calling 905-852-4282.

Posted in Canadian political novel, CanLit, Leacock Medal, podcast novel, political novels, Speaking gigs, Terry Fallis, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

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