When I Came West (Part Twenty-Six)
While the OU Press publicist would be focusing on sending out review copies, it was up to me to get the word out about my book to my own readers.
I began working much more closely with my webmaster on this process, not only writing the extended blog to generate interest in the book's journey, but also listening and approving ways in which she hoped to reach a wide audience through the Internet. We would send out another newsletter to launch the book to my email friends and I would consider a postcard mailing to my list of 500 addresses if I could afford the printing and postage costs.
I also began to make a list of all the places I needed to contact to let people know my new book was available for review: the Polebridge Mercantile; the Kalispell, Montana, newspapers and bookstores; the newspapers and bookstores in Colorado where I used to live; my undergraduate university and graduate school college; certain resorts that I knew of that hosted writing retreats and workshops; and national conferences.
I booked three engagements immediately. The Story Circle Network Conference in Austin, Texas; the Writing the Rockies Conference at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, and the Women Writing the West Conference which would be held in 2010 at a resort in Wickenburg, Arizona.
Then Sandy See and I got busy brainstorming other places and ideas. Would I return to the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver if they wanted me to appear? Of course. Would I attend the Texas Book Festival in Austin next fall?
Of course. I did not even consider the monumental costs of travel, lodging and per diem expense. I would have to think about the financial part of the puzzle later. We only had this one narrow six-month window of time to get this book off the ground and going.
After working so hard for five years to get the book in shape for publication I couldn't afford not to do everything in my power to help the book find its audience.
