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THE STREET TEAM: YES, YOU NEED ONE
by Jillian Boehme

So, you’ve got a book to sell. Are you ready to sit back and watch your Amazon rank climb while you sip a latte and plan your next story?

Planning the next story is a good idea (and so is the latte), but sitting back and expecting your book to sell is the worst possible choice. For as much as political campaigns and fundraisers need grassroots efforts, so, too, do authors with a release date looming.

It’s no secret that authors need to put significant time into their own marketing. Even if you’ve landed deal with a major house, you’re still going to have to put in a lot of effort if you want your book to have its best chance possible. There are myriad courses out there on “how to launch a bestseller” and “book marketing 101”. I don’t claim to be an expert on any of that. I only know that, in addition to everything else I’ve been working on, my street team is a vital part of my overall marketing approach.

SO, WHAT’S A STREET TEAM?

Simply put, it’s a group of people who are dedicated to cheerleading for your book. There are two approaches to building your teams, and several options for what you’d like these people to do for you.

APPROACH #1: Reach out to people you know personally (online or in real life). These are the people who are most likely to agree to help because they care about you personally.

APPROACH #2: Reach out to a broader audience. These are the folks who follow you on social media, read your blog, or are fans of books you’ve already published. Many of these folks will also care about you personally, but their main draw is that they’re fans of your work and/or your online presence.

(And, of course, you can combine these approaches for a mixture of folks on your team.)

HOW DO I REACH OUT?

The easiest way is to create an online form for people to fill out. I use Google Forms; it’s quick and easy to input your questions and send out your survey, and equally easy for people to respond.

WHAT DO I SAY?

First, write a brief description to let them know what they’re signing up for. For instance: “Thanks for your interest in joining my Street Team for BOOK TITLE! Please check all that apply.” Then decide what it is you want help with and add those items to your check-off list. Here are some examples:

1. I’m interested in received an ARC and reviewing BOOK on Goodreads, Amazon, and other places online. If you have advanced review copies to hand out, this is a great way to distribute some of them in exchange for early reviews. If you don’t have any ARCs, you can utilize this option once your book is out.
2. I’m interested in buzzing your book on social media. This option is for folks who want to help, but don’t want to commit to reading and reviewing. These are the folks who love to post pretty things on Instagram and gush about things they’re excited about on Facebook and Twitter.
3. I’m a book blogger and I’d like to interview you. This one’s self-explanatory.
4. I’m local and I’d like to help create local buzz. Here’s the ideal option for your local (probably extroverted) friend who wants to systematically chat up your book to booksellers, librarians, teachers, youth group leaders, neighbors—you name it.

Basically, it’s up to you how you’d like to utilize the people on your street team. Once you’ve got a group together, organize them according to what they signed up for. That way, you can create mailing lists for the separate groups and communicate with your team according to what they’ve offered to do.

And here’s an extra bit of advice—don’t be pesty! Just because people have signed up to help promote your book doesn’t mean they want to hear from you every other day. Communicate regularly enough to keep you on their radar, but don’t inundate them! If they start feeling annoyed or pressured, they’re not going to be motivated to do anything for you.

IMPORTANT: Not everyone who signs up to help is going to love your book. I made the mistake of not asking my ARC recipients to reach out to me privately if they felt they couldn’t give my book a 4- or 5-star review. Consequently, one of my team members gave me a 3-star, not-very-complimentary review.

It’s perfectly fine to give a book an honest 3-star review! But that’s not your role as a street team member. At that point, the team member should either a) leave the team and give the honest review independently; or b) admit that it would be difficult to give the book 4 or 5 stars and offer to do something else to help promote it instead of a review.

In the end, a dedicated street team is going to have your back. You can’t rely on them to do the bulk of your marketing—that still rests squarely on your shoulders. But their behind-the-scenes support will make a difference.

Now go forth and gather your street team!

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About the Author:

JILLIAN BOEHME is known to the online writing community as Authoress, hostess of Miss Snark’s First Victim, a blog for aspiring authors. In real life, she holds a degree in Music Education, sings with the Nashville Symphony Chorus, and homeschools her remaining youngster-at-home. She’s still crazy in love with her husband of more than thirty years and is happy to be surrounded by family and friends amid the rolling knolls of Middle Tennessee.

Enter here PREORDER GIVEAWAY for Stormrise here.

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Still have questions? Read more WORDS FOR WRITERS here or ASK ME HERE.

 

About the Book

A proudly out bisexual, Jessie Franklin was supposed to be going on vacation to celebrate her graduation. Instead, she’s pulled from what should have been a watery grave by an intriguing British Naval Captain– the only issue? It’s 1805! Stuck in Regency-era England, Jessie is left with no choice but to enter into the services of the Captain’s sister as a maid and companion in return for what shelter her new employer can provide. She resigns herself to a life of quiet servitude, and forever hiding her sexuality.

But she didn’t count on the sister being Margaret Goodenough – the world famous authoress whose yet-to-be-completed novel was the first lesbian kiss in the history of British Literature, and a clever woman. Clever enough to know her new servant has a secret. Now Jessie is caught. Margaret’s own perception of her place in society is transforming, the text of her novel is slowly changing, and Margaret herself is finally unafraid to embrace her own desires – and Jessie. Jessie must tread the tenuous line between finding her own happiness in a world where she is alone, and accidentally changing the course of history.

What is a twenty first century gal to do?

Read The Novel On Wattpad  GoodReads

Occasionally, I have the great joy of opening up my email and finding a beautiful, heartfelt letter from a reader who has found my work and really connected with it. This letter came from a reader who has given me permission to share it. Please excuse me while I go die of happiness and sob a little bit.

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I am 65 years old. I am a woman. I have never written to an author before. I read Tolkien’s books in high school -as they were published the US .I had to wait a year between the books

 I re-read them every year of my life. Well, the hobbit and the Lord of the Rings!

I’ve also read as many others as possible, the Simarillion, etc.
my son introduced me (reticently,lol)to George R R Martin’s books years ago. During major surgeries I became the oldest asoiaf geek,podcasts,reddit,etc.,rereads…

I read Piers Anthony’s books as they came out. I found you as I was looking for reviews on Xanth, again re-reads due to surgery..tho I have my paperbacks of the entire series I’m no longer able to reread them because the print is too small… And many of them aren’t available on Kindle.
I was a feminist. I was involved in civil rights .my friends and I worked so women could work and it would be okay .I experienced sexual harassment before there were laws against it.

I worked as a psychologist in an all-male maximum-security prison for 30 years . I also had a private practice.

As a result of reading your Xanth comments and review, i just finished your book ,the untold tales. I sit here in tears because my whole life I’ve been waiting for the fantasy writer you are… .A women as a complex,realistic,strong protagonist ,gay characters as just strong characters. I read your book in one sitting today, well, sitting and driving ( thank you for having this voice enabled )…I remain committed to the old Kindle keyboard,because I have had one for over 17 yrs… 

I have no means to thank you enough for what you’re doing except to continue to buy everything you are writing!!! Sometimes magic happens..
I’ve had such a sense that what WE fought for-the right for women to have careers AND families,to be acknowledged NOT as sexual objects, the protections afforded by sexual harassment laws,and the right not to be held PERSONALLY RESONSIBLE [sic] for their own rape & be victimized during prosecution,to be GAY AND PROUD (instead of suiciding as one of my best friends did in 1975,rather than ‘shame’his family)…. I was married to a black man for 28 years. now our biracial sons, 25 and 30 are experiencing unprecedented (for them)) harassment from random law enforcement…. and one of them is a law student at Stanford …

I have just been feeling overwhelmed by rampant cultural darkness.
Your book gave me HOPE!!!and I mean this.I hope YOU realize how ABSOLUTELY important your work is.

for me today , your writing was the candle in the darkness of current politics, racism and sexism that I needed. in addition reading your blogs and those of other young women, I see hope that the work that we did will be carried on. That the walls that are trying to be erected in this election are NOT going to be completed . 

I thought as a country we had become a kinder gentler place ,but when I started reading live chats,seeing the use of the N-word &the c-word I was truly shocked. my younger son said mom where’ve you been for 10 years…. 
We fought hard for women not to be treated as sex objects -while the old white men promoting music videos continue reinforce women as disposable,and african -americans as thugs…the absence of people of color on tv,etc.

I’m not nuts. I didn’t mean to write a dissertation,lol! . I just want to say thank you and tell you again YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!!!

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If you’d like to send me a letter, you can email me at scifrey@hotmail.com

Start from the very beginning with me…

So, perhaps I’m a bit of a fool, with the Tumblrpocolypse potentially coming, but I was backing up all my Tumblrs and sideblogs (see the above-mentioned Tumblrpocolypse) and realized that I never really did anything with my sideblog about my short story The Maddening Science. I never got around to producing the short film, and I had to back-burner the full-length novel version when I got the contracts for The Accidental Turn Series and The Skylark’s Saga. 

I considered just deleting the sideblog – there were only a few posts – and then I realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to form a Writing Process Blog so my readers could follow along with my new novel from the very moment I begin it. 

I plan to use this blog to archive articles, photos, and any discussions of interest pertaining to the themes and events of the novel. I also want to use it to chronicle my writing process and accomplishments (or failures!), and share snippets of the novel in sneak previews. I’m also be open to questions, suggested articles from readers, and conversations about the book in specific or writing in general.

You can read all about the intended novel project here.

If this sounds interesting, please come follow me there! 

I hope that Tumblr doesn’t implode, and that you enjoy the content! I am always happy to interact with readers, so please don’t hesitate to drop me an ask, message, or note!

The Accidental Collection, the fourth and final book of The Accidental Turn Series. 

Releasing July 3rd 2018!

You can preorder your copy of The Accidental Collection right here.

Once again, REUTS Publications and Publisher/Cover Designer Ashley Ruggirello has smashed this one out of the park. I specifically requested a purple cover because Pip’s magic, unlike the Viceroy’s, is violet. (The same color as a Mary Sue’s eyes!) It was also important to me to get the enchantment on this cover, because the third and final Accidental Novella – Magic  – is debuting exclusively in this collection.

Isn’t it pretty? I can’t wait to get a photo of the whole series on the shelf together.

If you haven’t had the chance to start the series, now’s the time. You can get a free copy of book #1, The Untold Tale, by signing up for the Voracious Readers Only newsletter this month and selecting “Fantasy”. You’ll also be automatically signed up for my newsletter as well.

For those of you who didn’t know, I have a past life as a musical theatre performer. Yes, I sang, danced, and acted my way across the boards in my youth. (And I still do so in community theater productions where I can, on occasion). But this means I love singing.

So when someone hooked me up with Brigit O’Regan, the famous YouTube Electric Violinist, you better believe that a song was going to come of it! In the process of building a culture and world for Forsyth Turn, I had the joy of getting to write a lullaby for book #2, The Forgotten Tale. Forsyth sings it to his daughter Alis in the opening chapters, and Brigit composed a melody that sounded exactly as if she had reached into my brain, plucked it out, and laid it gently on paper.  I also had a freaking hoot recording with Brigit – she’s bright, bold, and brilliant. And it was awesome to hear her go “yaaaaas!” every time I hit the high notes.

So without further ado, here is For Calling Children In From Play:

https://youtu.be/6hpd9YL4HSU

Lyrics:

Ah! The fields are dappled over, my love,
And the spring sings high and sweet!
Ah! The fairies flit and spin, my love,
And so it’s time for us to meet!

The sun sinks ever lower, my love,
It marks an end to play,
So come straight to my side, my love,
Now at the close of day.

Come not through murky forest, my love
Where trolls and goblins bide,
Come not oe’er standing pools, my love
Where kelpies wait and hide.

Come not through vasty deserts, my love
Where sun and djinn are cruel,
Come not through the icy wastelands, my love
Where reflections baffle fools.

Come not past cavern mouths, my love
When they issue smoke and steam,
For those are the homes of dragons, my love
Where they hoard things bright with gleam.

Heed not to the call of sirens, my love,
Nor any creature deep,
For they long to sing away children, my love,
To hold, to drown, and to keep.

Go not through the lofty halls, my love,
Made of fir, or ash, or pine,
For those are the realms of the elves, my love,
And to trespassers they are not kind.

Nor too, through the deep mountain kingdoms, my love,
Though the dwarves are a good and fair race,
They like not surprise from strangers, my love,
When they find folk out of their place.

Oh, the road goes ever onward
No end to sea and sky.
And Quests may call you forward,
But many go awry.
Just promise, heed my word, love,
Wherever that you roam:
Ensure your eyes stay on the route,
For that will bring you home.

When you come to me, my dear sweet love,
Come safe, come sure, and come true.
For adventures are all well and good, my love,
But home is now calling for you.

Come only to the parlor, my love,
Come only down the stair,
Come to the fire with me, my love
And sit with your family there.

Like the song? Want to learn it for yourself? You can download a copy of the sheet music – written, and transcribed by Brigit O’Regan – Right Here!

See you on JULY 3RD for the launch of THE ACCIDENTAL COLLECTION.