OK, people, the schedule for my UK tour this summer is coming together. A few details still to be confirmed, which I will inform you of as soon as I am able, but most of it appears below…
Sunday 29th June
6.30pm – Evening talk with Blackwell’s Edinburgh at Pleasance theatre, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ. Tickets are £5 available from Blackwell’s Bookshop, 52-63, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 IYS Tel: 0131 622 8218.
Monday 30th June
12.30pm – Signing at Waterstones Newcastle, Emerson Chambers, Blackett Street, NE1 7JF. For more information please contact the store on: 0191 261 7757
7.00pm – Talk at Waterstones Liverpool One, 12 College Lane, L1 3DL. Tickets are £3 / £2 with loyalty card and available in store or on 0151 709 9820
Tuesday 1st July
6.30pm – Talk with Waterstones Manchester Deansgate at Manchester Central Library, St Peter’s Square, M2 5PD. Tickets £6/£4 loyalty cardholders and available in store or on 0161 837 3000
Wednesday 2nd July
12.30pm – Signing with Waterstones Sheffield, 24-26 Orchard Square, S1 2FB. For more information please contact the store on: 0114 272 8971
7.00pm – Talk with Waterstones Nottingham, 1/5 Bridlesmith Gate, NG1 2GR . Tickets are £3 and available in store or on: 0115 9470069
Thursday 3rd July
12.00pm – Signing with Waterstones Birmingham, 128 New Street B2 4DB. For more information please contact the store on: 0121 631 4333
4.30pm – Signing at Goldsboro Books London, 23-25 Cecil Ct, WC2N 4EZ. For more information please contact the store on: 020 7497 9230
Friday 4th July
12.00pm – Signing at Waterstones Milton Keynes Unit 72, Midsummer Place, MK9 3GA. For more information please contact the store on: 01908 395384
Evening – Talk with Waterstones Oxford DETAILS TO BE CONFIRMED
Saturday 5th July
1.30pm – Signing with Waterstones Bristol, 11A Union Galleries, BS1 3XD. For more information please contact the store on: 0117 925 2274
7.00pm – Talk with Waterstones Yeovil, 37a Middle Street, BA20 1LG. Tickets are £3 and available in store or on: 01935 479832
Saturday 12th July/Sunday 13th July
YA Lit Con/London Film and Comic Con event and signing – EVENTS TO BE CONFIRMED
Wednesday 16th July
7.30 for 8.00pm – Talk at Toppings Bath, The Paragon, Somerset BA1 5LS. Tickets are £6 and available in store or on 01225 428111
Saturday 19th July
Edge Lit festival Derby
3.00pm – Panel: Are We Entering a New Era of Fantasy Fiction? Graham Edwards, Janet Edwards, Freda Warrington, Joe Abercrombie in Cinema 2
4.00pm – Guest of Honour Interview/Q&A in The Box
Lunchtime events tend to be signings of a queue up and get your book signed variety, evening events tend to be ticketed and follow a short talk, reading, Q&A style format, followed by signing. It would be only good manners to by something from the store that’s hosting, but if you bring other books of mine to sign I’ll do my very best to oblige you. If you bring a lot of books (typically meaning you’re a dealer and are going to sell them) or have extravagant requests above and beyond simple signing and dedication, you might have to join the back of the queue and wait for the end. We are somewhat at the mercy of the various shops’ staffing policies, so can’t absolutely promise to get to everything, but we certainly will try.
Further details as I have them…
20 comments so far
Blimey! Manchester is twice the price of Liverpool, a reflection of cultural appetites?
Joe,
Nothing in Brighton in the works?
Thanks,
Tony
[…] […]
Oxford! Excellent. No need to travel.
Consider the book more bought than it already was.
I was about to tongue in cheek ask when the New Zealand would be announced, but then I realised I’m actually going to be in the UK for most of these events! See you at the Manchester one!
I hope to see you in Oxford – might need to sort out the old schedule a little however…
Dammit, I’m not in Liverpool in June, hopefully I’ll catch you on your next tour.
I know it wouldn’t come under the heading of “UK dates”, but no Dublin? Come to Dublin, we’re just a hop across on the ferry, I’ll buy you a ball of malt.
Ok I’ll buy you a ball of good malt, OK two of them, and I’ve a friend you’ll buy you two more.
Dublin, home of the Jameson’s distillery, go on, you know you want to :p
Birmingham it is, see you there.
15 in England, 1 in the entire rest of the UK. I shouldn’t still be surprised or disappointed by this but, dammit, I am.
Apologies to people in places I’m not going to be.
I’m not really involved with the decision making of where we go. My publicist plans the tour based on a number of factors – pitches from bookstores that have requested a visit, track record of those stores with events, suitable space for evening events, and plotting a route that makes sense. It’s vital to hit as many stores and get as many books through the tills on the week of publication as you can, and that makes taking a couple of days out to, say, fly to Dublin and back very hard to justify, however much you might want to pay a visit.
That means you do tend to stick to well-travelled paths between big stores in major cities where they’re used to hosting authors. But I can tell you from first hand experience how bloody depressing it is to spend the morning on the train somewhere, slog through town with your luggage, and turn up at a bookstore only to find no-one put the showcards out or publicised the event because they’re not used to hosting authors, and you’ve got five people in the store.
Sorry for asking what’s probably a stupid question, but if I’m right in thinking the release for Half a King is July 3rd, are there opportunities to get the book before general release at the events such as Liverpool before the general release?
I’d like to get Half a King signed while you’re doing this, but Liverpool/ Manchester are the only places I can get to.
No problem if not, though, and good luck for the tour. 🙂
Peter Hughes,
Ha, yes, I should have made that clear. Final copies are being printed right about now, so the shops will have early copies. You can buy Half a King and get it signed at any and all of these events, regardless of the official publication date.
Haha, thanks. Not to worry, it’s the simple things we tend to overlook. Well, I’ll hopefully see you there!
Hi joe,
Any plans to come to Ireland? Specifically county Donegal, the land of inspiration?
Michael, if Joe can’t make it to Dublin (short ferry hop from Liverpool), I doubt he’ll make it to the wilds of Donegal :p
Though if you could mention any near by distilleries I’m sure it’ll help you case.
Joe, I wasn’t expecting a “Dublin! Never thought of it, sure I’ll make sure we stop there” reversal, more just letting you know if/when you do make it there’s more than one semi normal-ish Irishperson who appreciates your prose and that will happily treat you to a pint and a chat.
Hope all are well, Slán go fóill a chara.
Apologies if this question has been asked before but is it possible that you would be willing to sign your other books, too?
I have all of them so far and I would be concerned that a signed edition may get a little above itself when placed on the shelf with the others. I wouldn’t want a fight breaking out, now, would I? The First Law trilogy may think it is a bit tasty but it would be eaten for Breakfast by Best Served Cold. And I hate to imagine what devastation The Heroes would mete out….
dai bonehead, springtime on your bookshelf. And that means war.
There have been six books of blood. The ruthless ‘The Heroes’ is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling trilogy of ‘The First Law’ and between them they have stained the bookshelf red. While readers read and writers write, behind the scenes editors, publishers and older, darker bureaucrats play a deadly game to hit deadlines.
Writing may be hell, but for Red Country, by the Lord Grimdark, bleakest author in the British fantasy scene, it’s a damn good way of making money. Rave reviews of a signed coy of ‘Red Country’ have made it popular- a little too popular for The Heroes’ taste. Betrayed, stood on, and had its pages torn out, the book’s reward is a dirty cover and a thirst for vengeance. Now, whatever the cost, five book must die.
Its allies include A Song of Ice and Fire, America’s least reliable series, Malazan Book of the Fallen, Canada’s most treacherous saga and a writer from the North obsessed with fanfiction who only wants to do the right thing. Its enemies number a better half of the shelf. And that’s all before the most dangerous book in the world is dispatched to hunt it down and finish the job The Heroes Started…
Springtime on your bookshelf. And that means revenge.
Joe, so glad you’re heading back to Nottingham. It was a real honour to meet you the last time you were here, and can’t wait to meet you again and complete my collection of signed books by yourself. Looking forward to July 2nd.
are you doing Brighton (London-by-the-sea)? Please.