Promotional Expertise

Manager of Waldenbooks & Brentano’s Books (1987-1992)

Media spokesperson for both Borders and Brentano’s for controversial books including American Psycho, Satanic Verses, and books by Wayne La Pierre, president of the NRA.  I have been interviewed by television many times.

Created in-store events & live music events in stores before it was fashionable. 

Community Relations Coordinator for Borders Books & Music (1994-1997)

Achievements include:
• Created an event a day, plus accompanying newsletter
• Created ads for in-store events
• Arranged autographings, live music events, children’s events, workshops, book clubs, seminars, & more
• Handled celebrities during high profile events
• Created specialty marketing for the Houston market (including the Bookmobile, a yearly art car) and participated as the PR rep, book handler and/or salesperson for major Houston events like the Houston International Festival, The Alley Theatre Gala, Jewish Community Center Book Fair, the Houston Area Booksellers Association, Poetry Fest, and more.   
       
• Did off-site appearances as publicity & income producers for the store, including festivals and conferences
• Coordinated off-site events with other businesses, charities, churches, schools, writer groups, & nightclubs for both publicity and income purposes
• Read & reviewed books daily, listen to & review new music releases daily
• Attended off-site functions re: books, art, music, literacy, etc. as representative of the Brentano’s/Borders brand
• Provided charitable services for non-profit organizations, including publicity, networking services, funds & fund-raising, ideas
• Provided off-site book fairs to schools, colleges, conferences, charities, non-profits, & more
• Participated as the PR rep, book handler and/or salesperson for major Houston events like the Houston International Festival, The Alley Theatre Gala, Jewish Community Center Book Fair, the Houston Area Booksellers Association, Poetry Fest, and more

• Borders and Brentano’s representative at major book conventions, such as Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, and Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators
• Created in-store merchandising campaigns and displays
• Organized publicity for trade with 4 different radio stations, nightclubs, movie theatres,  and various restaurants as well as large city arts and music organizations (Alley Theatre, Houston International Festival)
• Did public speaking on the book & music business for organizations and other interested parties

Sales & Marketing Director for Eight Friends Out dinner club, a dinner club for single professionals in Houston.  

Duties included:
• Creating 10-12 events per month
• Maintaining the website, once the web was viable
• Marketing emails
• Telemarketing
• New lead creation via community events
• Hosting events
• Creating sales and specials
• Customer sales and retention
• Promotion
She also helped create a 32 page monthly magazine for singles called SingleFile, as well as the online version (now defunct).  These duties included:
• Writing columns and copy
• Correcting and doing rewrites for columnists
• Writing and creating features
• Writing and creating ads
• Selling ads
• Copy editing
• Creating sales specials and press releases
• Paste up
• Distribution  (I drove around Houston and delivered, plus looked for new locations.)
• Everything except the editor’s paragraph!

Celebrities
with whom I have worked

President Jimmy Carter 
Newsman David Brinkley 
Historian Hedrick Smith
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin 
Rational Emotive Therapist
Dr. David Burns
Fiction writer John Grisham 
Comedian Steve Allen 
"Romancing the Stone"'s
Catherine Lanigan 
Baseball star Mickey Mantle and sons 
Mind Body Spirit author Joan Borysenko Embraced By the Light author Betty Eadie Spiritual author John Bradshaw Relationships Author John Gray 
TV host Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) *Power of Prayer researcher
Dr. Larry Dossey 
Romance Author Lisa Kleypas
“The Secret”’s Joe Vitale
“The Secret”’s Dr. John DeMartini
“The Secret”’s Marci Shimoff
NDE author Dannion Brinkley
Suspense & Romance Writer Nora Roberts
Self-help Author Bill Ferguson
Naturopathic Doctor Dr. George Redmon
Count Alfred de Marigny with Mickey Herskowitz  

Contact Andrea by email at afoster8@uh.edu or booklady@pldi.net.   Leave a phone message at 713.301.9843 or 405.368.5047.