Coach Teresa, how do I continue promoting myself after an event or a book signing or a reading?

Here’s my answer:

You’ve spent weeks, maybe even months, publicizing your event.  You deliver the event (and I hope you had fun), then you, the audience, everyone involved in coordination . . .  you all go home or on to another event. Have you forgotten something? That something is “follow up” work.  Who did you talk to at the event?  What did you promise? Below is an example – how to follow up. Angela Pang and her coworkers at AsianWeek work extremely hard each year orchestrating the Asian Heritage Street Celebration.  This is my Email to her; I cc’ed my booth partners Margie Yee Webb and Patricia Tsang, M.D.

May 22, 2011

Dear Angela,

If you need quotes from us for post-event newsletter . . . here goes;  also, 3 photos attached.

Who were the authors at this year’s AHSC? Margie Yee Webb (Cat Mulan’s Mindful Musings: Insight and Inspiration for a Wonderful Life), Teresa LeYung Ryan (Love Made of Heart; Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days), and Patricia Tsang, M.D. (Optimal Healing: A Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine).  Margie Yee Webb says: “California Writers Club is proud to once again be part of the Asian Heritage Street Celebration to encourage everyone to write their stories.  We are also pleased to support schools through donations to the School Raffle Program.” Teresa LeYung Ryan says: “I thank Margie and Asian-Week Foundation for re-connecting me to the Asian-American community. My third year at AHSC, I had so much fun with my friends.”  Patricia Tsang, M.D. says: “A street fair with food, culture, art, literature, martial arts, health science, and more. What can be more enticing to an Asian?  The celebration gave me a chance to reconnect with my roots as well as share information about my book.”

Angela, thanks again for making our experience enjoyable!   Margie & Pat, I’ll email you more photos later 

Sincerely,

Coach Teresa LeYung Ryan  on facebook!

Check out Teresa’s YouTube videos http://www.youtube.com/teresaleyung

http://writingcoachteresa.com

You notice how I embedded our URLs in our names? (so that if Angela or AsianWeek e-newsletter readers want to read more about us and California Writers Club. . . they’d be taken to our websites).  By the way, my two booth partners and I are also members of Women’s National Book Association -San Francisco Chapter.

Coach Teresa here has a lot of follow-up emails to send and photos to resize and rename. To see a partial list of people I met at the Asian Heritage Street Celebration, please go to my May 22, 2011 post . Thanks.

Have fun building your writer’s platform!

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan (click on my name to get to my YouTube videos)

***

Click on book cover to go to Amazon

A recipe for a fun book launch:

• 1. Consider your guests – audience – readers
• 2. Choose location location location
• 3. Pick a meaningful date

Cat Mulan’s Mindful Musings: Insight and Inspiration for a Wonderful Life

1. For Margie’s delightful gift book–cat lovers, pet lovers, friends of cat lovers, animal advocates.

2. The Market Place in Rancho Cordova, CA – lovely showroom setting in a home and garden improvement mall.  They provide cashiers. Plenty of parking.

3.  People for Animal Welfare in El Dorado County (PAWED), Animal Rescue League, FieldHaven Feline Rescue, and Sacramento SPCA were able to send representatives and bring felines to Margie’s book launch on March 12, 2011.

I met Shaun who was taking plenty of photos of author Margie Yee Webb, her festive exhibit, and the representatives and cats from above referenced organizations.

I met authors Kevin “James” Richardson and Don Ricardo.

I chatted with author Hazuki Kataoka of http://storycardtheater.com We had met when I presented “Build Your Name, Beat the Game” at the 2010 Northern California Publishers and Authors Conference (Margie had connected me with NCPA).

It was pure joy to see Margie interact with her old fans and new fans; it was delightful to see Margie’s mom, siblings, nieces and nephews.

Margie had created over half a dozen cat-theme gift baskets–raffle ticket donations support the animal organizations.

Lakshmi Kerner (LakshmiLove), thank you again and again for driving and cheering and staying to meet Kimberly A. Edwards (Lakshmi and Kimberly both write memoirs).

***  

Margie, I am so very happy for you and Cat Mulan.  Kimberly had the purrfect description of your event–Margie’s book launch is a model for authors.

Look what Angela Pang of AsianWeek wrote about Margie and Cat Mulan:

http://www.asianweek.com/2011/03/10/chinese-american-releases-new-inspirational-cat-book/

Margie Yee Webb promotes pet awareness and encourages people to make a difference in the lives of cats and other companion animals. A portion of every sale of Cat Mulan’s Mindful Musings will be donated to animal welfare organizations and shelters.

Cat Mulan and Margie encourage you to support your local animal welfare organizations and shelters.

* * * * * * * * *

To continue celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and AsianWeek (the voice of Asian America) I’m thinking about these books and authors:

Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

China Boy by Gus Lee

The Jade Rubies by Valerie Lee (I’m looking forward to reading this book this year)

Peony In Love by Lisa See

My Splendid Concubine by Lloyd Lofthouse

Wordsworth the Poet by Frances Kakugawa

My Half of the Sky by Jana McBurney-Lin

This Place Called Absence by Lydia Kwa (Ms. Kwa is Canadian)

Kiyo’s Story: A Japanese American Familys Quest for the American Dream by Kiyo Sato

Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston & James D. Houston