It’s neat to tell people that I’m doing a “west coast tour,” though it is probably not as fancy as people think.
I’m having a hard time finding a place in San Francisco and a place in San Diego to do either a reading or just a signing. I have been emailing requests mostly, calling rarely. Next week, I will pick up the phone and just call. Introduce myself and let them reject me in person. I need to bulk up my backbone.
This week, I finished compiling a list of everyone I know, organizing it by city and state. That way, when it’s time to do the readings/signings, I will have a built-in list of people to email my event alerts to. And hopefully I will be able to solicit a large audience for each locale. I hope that these people will in turn notify their networks, etc. etc. and I can really get the word out. So far, the response has been positive for the few people I’ve notified about some of my upcoming readings. Yeah!
And on a nice note, talk about thoughtfulness: I received a handwritten missive from Kevin Larimer, editor of Poets & Writers, along with two complimentary issues of the magazine with my article in it in the mail yesterday. He thanked me for my essay and knows readers will love it. I hope so, Kevin!
Seriously, the note made my day.
