Book Launch Party with a Little TLC… and TTC

Well, the news is: “Bulls, Bands, and London” is now available – with paperback and e-book versions (Kindle, Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble, etc.)!

Just check my homepage for all the info on how to purchase your copy – or head over to Amazon.ca – or any one of your favourite e-book stores.

And if you missed out on “Bullets, Butterflies, and Italy”… that’s still available too (at all the same places)!

••••

I also want to thank all my guests at last Thursday’s official book launch party at the Artful Dodger Pub. It was great to see so many friends come out and celebrate the book. And then leave with smiles on their faces and a book or two in their hands!

It was especially gratifying to meet so many strangers who had no idea the pub was hosting a book launch. And then bought a book anyway!

So here’s the passage from Bulls, Bands, and London that I read out loud to my guests. It’s nothing earth-shattering, really. It’s just a short section of the book which speaks to just about all of us living here in Toronto: our disheartening relationship with the wretched subway system (AKA the Toronto Transit Commission… or TTC).

So on page 59, Neil Jarvis has just arrived in London from Toronto when he takes the legendary London Tube for the first time and then quickly compares it to Toronto’s inadequate subway system:

“…Greater Toronto, at roughly half the size of London, only has two pathetic subway lines. A bent U-shaped line traveling north and south and a straight line that crosses through its center ambling from east to west. (Yes, there’s a small northern line too but very few people use it.)

And God help us all whenever there’s any whiff of trouble. Toronto’s two separate subway lines, which barely cross paths with one another, somehow become mysteriously entangled into one huge chaotic mess whenever there’s a problem. An issue at one station inexplicably causes the entire system to shut down. Anything will do: a signal failure, a faulty door, a light drizzle on the outdoor tracks, a small child’s lost balloon. Somehow one station’s minor irritant, fifteen stops away, can instantly bring your own subway car to a screeching halt and mess up your entire day.

So while London’s Tube announcements may obsessively remind you to “mind the gap,” Toronto’s subway announcements only beg you for forgiveness. “Sorry for the inconvenience… once again… jerk.” In London, the Underground will even give you a refund if your journey is delayed by more than fifteen minutes. In Toronto, I believe the policy is a poke in the eye for even suggesting such nonsense…”

More to come about the new book over the next few weeks…
 
For more posts on book marketing, check out:

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/book-festival-categories/

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/the-art-of-selling-books/