DIY Book "Tour" and Other Ways I'm Promoting My Book (Digital Playgrounds)

Anyone connected to me on social media or who knows me irl is well aware that I have a new book out, published by the University of Toronto Press and released in July/August 2021 (Digital Playgrounds: The Hidden Politics of Children's Online Play Spaces, Virtual Worlds, and Connected Games). Super exciting and my publisher has been in touch a couple of times to follow up on things I said I would do to promote the book, like contacting book review editors (which is tough, actually, because not as many journals seem to do this anymore), and applying for book awards (where applicable, since of course you mostly can't self-nominate for those). Apart from that, though, I've been pretty much left to my own devices when it comes to promoting the book and, at a more basic level, raising awareness that it even exists. And I haven't done a spectacular job so far, which is starting to stress me out, since soon the book won't be "new" anymore and thus no longer eligible for "new titles to watch" lists or book reviews or media coverage or most awards, etc. 

The ongoing pandemic has played a major role here, of course. I'm still scrambling to do my usual everyday job, and it's been really hard to find the time and enthusiasm to put into extra work that also feels a lot like blatant self-promotion. Argh. Anyway, it's been a lot tougher than I thought it would be. 

Luckily (so lucky), I have a supportive network of other academics and students who are stepping up and giving me some really important and exciting opportunities to talk about the book at a number of conferences and events this Spring (2022). This is in addition to the lovely Book Launch hosted by the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies at York University in January. 

Here's the list of stops on my totally unofficial "book tour" so far. More to come, I hope. As soon as I finish grading papers for the year and have a moment to reach out to non-academic community groups, apply to more conferences, and maybe make some of the content/key findings available via accessibly written blog posts or articles (or an OpEd?).   

Meet the Author Events:

Meet the Authors: 2022 CCA Book of the Year Award Nominees, at the Canadian Communication Association (CCA) Annual Conference at Congress, May 17, 2022.

CGSA Book Launch Event (Meet the Authors), at the Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) Annual Conference, June 2, 2022. 

Keynote Talks:

Grimes, S.M.(2022) Call to Action on the Digital Playground. Keynote address to be delivered at the Visions of Change: A CMP Graduate Student Conference, University of Calgary, May 10, Calgary, Alberta.

Grimes, S.M. (2022). The Politics of Children’s Digital Playgrounds. Keynote address to be delivered at Digital Society @ Manchester Symposium, June 6-11, Manchester, UK.

Invited Talks:

Grimes, S.M. (2022). Digital Playgrounds: The Hidden Politics of Children’s Online Play Spaces, Virtual Worlds, and Connected Games. Critical Computing Seminar Series, Third Space at the Dept. of Computer Science, University of Toronto, May 25, Toronto, ON.

Grimes, S.M.  (2022) How Digital Games are Redefining Children's Rights Online. Stress-Free Degree Lecture Series (Alumni Reunion), University of Toronto, May 25, Toronto, ON.

Conference Paper (peer-reviewed):

Grimes, S.M. (2022). Children’s Rights In/And Digital Games. To be presented at the Canadian Communication Association (CCA) Annual Conference at Congress, May 20, Virtual Event.  

Journal Article/Foreword:

Grimes, S.M. (2022). The politics of children’s privacy. European Data Protection Law Review 8(1): 14-18. Available here.