Saturday 5 December 2020

 The Violet books - at least two of them - are set in Toronto and cottage country north of that city in the first decade of the last century. They are very much historical fiction, but based on real people. 

Thanks to Goodreads and Amazon, I have had several positive reviews from people who would not have any particular interest in Toronto or its musical history. Readers in South Africa, India, Ireland, England, the USA and Australia have said very nice things about The Violet Trilogy.  One English reader called Imagining Violet Married "a gem of a book". 

One of the challenges of self-publishing is that you do all the marketing yourself. I have been trying everything I can think of to sell the book to Toronto. No, I didn't expect the Globe and Mail to give me a review, but I had assumed that Toronto media would be interested in historical fiction set in that city. I had expected to be able to reach  music students, classical music fans, members of music clubs and so on. Yet I am having zero success cracking that market.

Living on the west coast of Canada, makes it more difficult, but I hoped I would see a little more enthusiasm from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and its many departments. I thought that the first book, the story of Violet's student life in Leipzig, might appeal to members of the TSO youth orchestra. I thought that people who volunteer for the TSO might find a palatable history of the orchestra enjoyable. The archivist at the TSO has kindly responded, indicating he intends to purchase, but I guess he's been too busy so far. 

I'd be grateful for any ideas anyone has to offer.