It’s been ten years since I started writing professionally and
nine years since my first novel was released. Since that time, I’ve learned a
lot about what it takes to succeed in this business and I continue to learn new
things every day. Case in point, the street team.
Until recently, I’d never heard of a street team. However, I
was noticing that a few of my favorite authors had a rabid fan base that seemed
to be helping boost their sales. These authors had a high number of reviews for
their books, most of which were four stars and higher. They were being promoted
all over social media. As a result of this promotion, their books were selling
and they were propelled to NY Times
and/or USA Today bestselling status.
Now, I will be the first to admit I’m terrible at marketing
my books. As a fledgling writer, I just didn’t have the budget to market and
social media didn’t exist. I did what I thought would work. I started a website
and emailed my friends and family to announce the release of my book. I
attended a few community events to promote my work and thanks to an email from
my mother in law, one of the local news stations even interviewed me for their
morning show. Somehow, I also managed to snag a couple of radio interviews.
Despite my best efforts, my sales never seemed affected.
In the last ten years, things have changed. The ability for
authors to market themselves has increased along with the affordability. It
costs me nothing but time to maintain a Face Book author page and Twitter
account, but it’s not enough to stop there. Enter the concept of the street
team.
So, what is a street team? Bibliocrunch.com defines a street
team as a group of fans that band together to support an artist by honing in on
word of mouth marketing by encouraging fans to share their love of your work
with others.
I don’t know who thought of street teams, but the idea is
genius. Take your existing fan base, who already love your work, and offer them
incentives in exchange for helping to promote your work. Most everyone has some
sort of social media account and we’re influenced by the opinions of family and
friends.
I think it’s time for me to join the ranks of my fellow
authors and get my own street team going and I need your help. I’m asking you
to join my street team. What do you have to do and what am I offering in
return? For starters, you’ll be given an advanced review copy (ARC) of all of
my upcoming novels free of charge. In return, you’ll be asked to post a review
of that novel on Goodreads (if you have account), Barnes and Noble and other
relevant sites. I would also ask that you promote my latest novel on all of
your social media accounts. By doing this, you’ll be eligible to receive free
promotional materials associated with my books. I will also hold semi-monthly
drawings for everything from Amazon gift cards to books and movies and more. And of
course, you will have my undying gratitude!
Does this sound like something you’d be interested in? Think
you can help me? All you have to do is contact me. You can either reply to this
blog or find me on my social media accounts or you can simply send me an email:
trishe@trishedmisten.com.
What are you waiting for? Join my street team today!
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