#MFRWorg Authors Secret Weapon: Street Teams

Author Street Teams. Likely, you've heard this term before. They're popping up all over the place as authors take advantage of their most valuable resource - their readers. Readers -especially bloggers/ reviewers- are vital to a book's success because their opinion goes a long way. Some readers have an established reputation as being a person to turn to for book recommendations. Why not partner with them if they love your books/ series?

That's exactly what creating a street team is... partnering with readers who like your books so much, they want to share them with other readers.

A Street Team is an author's secret weapon. In this article at Kobo Writing Life, an in-depth description of one author's experience puts it all into perspective. Read it here.

A Street Team is a group of readers/bloggers that are fans of a particular author and want to spread the word about books they love. They're just doing what they already do - reading what they like and telling their friends. There's no recipe as to how many members per street team, benefits to offer or rules to follow. Each author has their own style.

Here are some Basic Guidelines:

• Provide a central place/ method to communicate. Many authors use a private facebook group, google+ group or yahoo group. Regardless what you use, be sure to interact. Place a reminder on your calendar to post an update weekly.
• Choose a creative name that suits your branding. Google "author street teams" to see what others are already doing.
• Share WIP previews, excerpts and cover reveals.
• Ask if any are interested in serving as beta readers/ proofreaders. DO NOT use them in place of editors!
• Chat and give updates often, and always in advance, to the group.
• Honor and recognize their commitment by commenting when they post on their blogs or other social media sites.
• Have target tasks that you'd like members to help with... ask them to host a blog stop, like your books at on-line sites, place reviews on goodreads, share cover reveals, pin on Pinterest, post updates on facebook or tweet about your new releases. In general, you want them to spread the love for your book.
• Have contests just for your street team. Be creative: winner chooses a name for a character in your next book!
• Create perks. Provide swag and ARCs. Blog badges that members can display on their own blogs or social sites are great too. Not only do bloggers love them but it also increases your visibility.
• Allow your street team members more "personal" on-line access to you. Answer their requests quickly. Group them for ease and then interact with them on facebook, google+, twitter,etc.

There are a lot of books in the world and authors need help to spread the word. A street team is a fun way to interact with fans while asking them to do what many already do … and it has added perks (for you both).

Here's a list of links to some author's street teams for ideas on how to begin your own:

Cat Johnson  |  J. Kenner/ JK Beck  |  Heather Hildenbrand  |  Donna Grant  |  Sabrina York

I began my own street team after a few readers requested it. I keep it small and simple. There's no gimmicks or contests. Each member gets an ARC as soon as they're available in exchange for honest reviews on as many on-line sites as possible. And every week, I post an update and try to engage on facebook mostly. For the details, CLICK THIS LINK. 

Talk to me.

Do you have a street team? Post it in a comment to share. Do you want to know more about creating a street team? Just Ask. - Paloma

#MFRWorg Newbie's World: Do I Need A Blog?

Newbie’s Corner: Do I need a blog?

Big question. There are as many opinions on this one as there are, well, you know how that adage ends…

The question always comes down to, will this bring me more readers? Will more people buy my books if I’m blogging?

Let’s explore.

Advantages:

• Trust: In order for readers to buy your books, they want to trust you, the author. So if you are continually serving up great content on your blog, then a potential reader might e more willing to buy your books. 
• Writing skills and time management: blogs are a great way to get out short, great messages, as well as a way to improve your dedication. 
• SEO: You want to be on the first page of Google, right? Well, blogs are liked by the magical Google spiders because they are updated more regularly than a static site. 

Disadvantages:

• Time: Ah, if only we had days and days filled with nothing but time to do what we wanted. But in our crazy writer lives, we are limited. So in between Facebook, Twitter, updates to our regular website, and actually writing, do you need another weekly commitment? 
• Platform: what are you writing about? It’s great that you have kids, recipes, and writing in your life. But do others want to read about that? (this is not meant sarcastically at all – some people have great blogs on all of the above. But is that your platform?)
• Reciprocity: A big part of blogging is the reciprocal aspect. Blog hops, sharing other’s posts, gaining new followers by posting comments to others’ blogs, linking to Google+ and Goodreads blogs, Triberr…it’s a long list, once you go down the rabbit hole of blogging. Do you have the time and energy for it? 

There is no easy answer for this question. For me, personally, I know that my readers like to read paranormal romances. But I don’t feel that I read enough in this genre in order to generate new content on a weekly basis.

My compromise with myself has been to write for others’ blogs or group blogs (like Heroes and Heartbreakers). This way, I’m reaching a larger viewership with established readers. And, the pressure is off for a weekly (or monthly) commitment.

However, I still need to relate everything back to Erin Moore, the author. That means keeping my messaging consistent – any of my readers could read anything I wrote. Here are some other general rules for writing for others:

1. Google Authorship: You want to make sure that you own your content so that Google searches for your name or books will link back to you. Here’s a very detailed explanation of how to do this.

2. Search for blogs in your genre with a large readership, but don’t neglect the small or medium blogs, either. These may have very dedicated followings. Trying to land a big blog? Try these tips.

3. Promote your guest post as you would for your own blog.

I know, I know…I still haven’t answered the essential question. Unfortunately, hard data on whether blogging promotes sales seems extremely hard to come by. If anyone has seen any real numbers on blogs increasing book sales, would love to hear about it!

For authors with their own blogs, the only way to determine if it is truly bringing in readers is by measuring traffic. Do blog readers click on buy links after finding your post?

In the end, like everything, it is a personal decision. Hope some of this information has been helpful.

Tell us what you think!

Is a blog necessary, or not? How do you negotiate the world of blogging?

Sources: Small Blue Dog  |  Jane Friedman  |  Savvy Book Writers  |  Boost Blog Traffic  |  Weblogs  |  Pushing Social

POSTED BY ERIN MOORE

Erin has been writing her entire life, but only recently found her voice in the paranormal romance world.

She's an avowed chocoholic, loves travel and good tea, and finds her inner peace by meditating and writing. Fantasy, historical fiction, and romance are her inspirations.

What Authors Should Know About Promo @jeffmp3 #MFRWorg #amwriting

Marketing for Romance Writers welcomes JP Adkins, founder of the new social media site MyAwesomeFans, for a look at authors and promoting well.

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MyAwesomeFans.com 

Share about who are you vs. what you're doing.

We all know creative artists for whom the only reason they go onto social media is because they need to promote their book, blog, or whatever. Authors and other creatives typically have many different accounts for each pen name, but rarely share insights as to who they are as a person. The secret of social media is that if you are not giving people the "why" of what you are doing, they will not care about the "what" you are doing. Social media is a powerful platform to grow your "knowability" and "likeability", two of the most important factors for why people choose your products and services.

Remember when you created for fun?

When you were not worrying about deadlines or bottom lines? I have found that when you rely on your creativity for your food supply, it becomes a mad dash to reach more people, figure out how to get more sales, figure out how to climb the Amazon Rankings, how to get another review, etc. Sound familiar?

The issue we find is that in order to reach the most people, we have to be on many different media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook (Wall, Groups, and Page), G+, Pinterest, Instagram and the list goes on and on and on. We simply don't have time to  be human on all of these platforms and still have time to create. I have a couple of tips that can help authors create engaging content while allowing yourself to stay focused on creating awesome products that please you. In the end, if it doesn't please you, it'll never please anyone else.

If you can't add value to a community, drop it.

What are you doing to help the community along? Are you there just to promote yourself? Is everyone in this group just promoting themselves or are they genuinely trying to help each other? These are all questions that you should be asking yourself. Facebook Groups for example. I know authors who are in forty-five+ groups and more than half of them are full of other authors cutting and pasting their promo-of-the-day. The only advantage to staying in that group is search engine hits, but most of the groups are secret and won't even be crawled by the search engines.

So, how do I do it all and stay sane?

I say do what makes you feel good and automate the rest. I personally use Facebook as my main social media platform. I have a Twitter account, a G+ account and a Tumblr account I use for various reasons. My Twitter life was changed when Kayelle Allen talked to me about Paper.Li! It creates digests of content from sources you select. I have two. One is full of inspirational speakers such as Dr. Wayne Dwyer, Deepak Chopra, and others, while the second is full of author friends. They both get tweeted out daily and I get a digest so that I can keep up with everything without spending much time on Twitter. If I see something that inspires me, I generally retweet it or I may share a quote. Twitter is my inspiration station. I want to get on there, get an inspirational bit, then go do whatever it is that I was doing.

My Tumblr account is my naughty side. I use it to inspire some of the erotic artists I know. Most of this is through reblogging, although I have shared links and snippets too naughty for Facebook.

I use my G+ account more for the Hangouts feature than anything else. I enjoy sharing meditations on Monday where my friends can tune in. The rest is promo, but I will say most of my circle follows me on Facebook and really doesn't use G+ for anything but promo either. The reason I even do that is because Google said it will no longer search through Facebook or Twitter statuses.

This brings me back to Facebook. I have a page for MyAwesomeFans, my wall, and belong to more secret groups people keep adding me to than promotional groups. I only have one account my family follows, so I try to keep things generally clean. What that does is let people know who I really am. They know why I am doing whatever it is I am working on from a very personal place. I am human. I am not just a robot on the other side of a screen just trying to sell people something. I do promote, but it isn't the only reason I exist. I also share things that make me feel something, engage in conversation, and try to help others achieve their dreams.

It's about connections.

In the end, it is about connecting with people. When we can remind people that there is another person on the other side of the screen, one who is very much the same as they are, it creates rabid fans and maybe a friend or two.

About JP Adkins

JP Adkins is an artist, writer, designer, Zen master, and marketing guru. He likes to see himself as someone who works hard at making life better for the people he comes in contact with both professionally and personally. He created the new social media platform http://MyAwesomeFans.com to help creative artists to better reward their fans while saving creators time and to help them make a little more money while they do it. You can set up your Fanclub free for one month using the coupon code: MFRW

Author Social Media

Twitter https://twitter.com/jeffmp3

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jeffmp3

Fanclub http://myawesomefans.com/index.php/groups/viewgroup/1-jp-adkins

#MFRWorg The MFRW Newsletter History

When I started the January issue of the MFRW Newsletter, I reflected on how far we’ve come since we began back in November of 2008.  There weren’t very many of us in MFRW back then and the Newsletter was about ten pages long each month.  Now we’re up to sixty-plus pages some months, and in January we had a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author on our cover.  Who ever would have thought we’d be helping a best-selling author to promote her books?  Incredible.

I now have a staff of three assistant editors without whom I couldn’t possibly get this baby out the door.  Each month in this column, I’ll highlight one of us so you can get to know us better.

So:  How do you put together a successful Newsletter?  First, decide how often you’re going to issue it.  Once a week? Month? Quarter?  I wouldn’t go any farther out than quarterly.  You want to keep your audience engaged.  I think monthly works, unless you have help.  After all—you want your newsletter to be attractive, fun, and informative, but you also need time to write and keep up with your other promotional activities.

Next, what information do you want to disseminate in your newsletter?  Of course you want to announce new releases and maybe keep your readers apprised of how you’re doing on your works in progress.  Do you want to have guest authors?  How much space do you want to give them?  Do you want to post a bio? Interview? Tag Line? Blurb? Excerpt? What about cover art and photos?  Don’t forget—the same copyright rules apply to photos you use in your newsletter as on your blog.  How do you assemble this material?  We’ll cover that in upcoming months.

Meanwhile, check out the MFRW Newsletter.  You can access it both in our files and at Issuu.com.  Here are the URLs.

Our Files:  https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MarketingForRomanceWriters/files/MFRW-Newsletter/2014%20MFRW%20Newsletter/

Issue:  Issuu.com:  http://issuu.com/mfrw/docs

And here’s a bit about me:

Rochelle Weber is a Navy veteran and holds a BA in Communications from Columbia College in Chicago with an emphasis on creative writing.  “Would you like fries with that?”  Her non-fiction article, “Bulimia,” was featured in Hair Trigger 9 & 10, the acclaimed Columbia College student anthology.  Her first novel, Rock Bound, is available at CreateSpace, Smashwords, Amazon and BN.com.  The digital version of her second novel, Rock Crazy is available at MuseItUp Publishing, Inc., and the print version’s available at CreateSpace and Amazon.  She edits the Marketing for Romance Writers Newsletter, and for Jupiter Gardens Press.  Rochelle lives in Round Lake Beach, Illinois.

Website:  http://www.rochelleweber.com

Blogs:  http://rochelleweber.blogspot.com

http://rochellesreviews.blogspot.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=1067356188

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/RochelleWeber

Amazon Author’s Page:  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002HVPRVM

#MFRWorg Blogging Etiquette: Be A Good Guest

How Polite are You?

Blogging Etiquette from contributing blogger, Vicki Batman

Don't you just love having different folks guest on your blog? I do! It's an opportunity for both of us to pique the interest of other people. 

I asked fellow Plotting Princesses—Michelle Miles, Liz Lipperman, Pamela Stone, Karilyn Bentley, and Sylvia McDaniel—and top-notch authors who host blogs—Paloma Beck, Kayelle Allen, and Christina Cole—for their thoughts about blogging.

Do you ask others to post on your blog? I invite loads of folks for Handbags, Books...Whatever and the Plotting Princesses. I have placed my contact and submission information in yahoo groups' databases.

At Ye Olde Inkwell, Michelle generally asks writers she knows who have a new release. Paloma told me she has moved toward creating special features at Romance Beckons with invited guests who fit in with her own writing. Christina says she asks people to post on two of her blogs, Time for Love and Seasons of Love. Kayelle doesn't invite guests on her personal blog, Unstoppable Heroes. However, the Romance Lives Forever blog is geared toward guests.

Do you share the post with your followers? Michelle, Sylvia, and I funnel our blogs through Triberr. I post to yahoo groups, FB, and Google+. Michelle uses a special Wordpress plugin which spreads the word. Pamela says yes, especially when on the Plotting Princesses or on a guest blog via Twitter, Facebook, and email.

Paloma writes her post goes to Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and, of course, Triberr. If it's an author she has read or knows personally, she'll do a bit more to promote; otherwise, it's just the standard in these social media outlets. Christina actively promotes all guest posts through Twitter and Facebook.

Kayelle's blog is shared via Networked Blogs, Bloglovin', and Linky Followers, automatically shared on Facebook and Twitter, and feeds to Triberr which amplifies the post thru a network of like-minded bloggers on Twitter. It's tied to Paper.li, a newsletter that auto-curates material based on the blog's RSS feed and the hash tag #RLFblog. Guests on Romance Lives Forever get an average of two newsletter mentions and about forty-five mentions on Twitter, plus links to at least three pages on Facebook.

Do you have rigid submission formats for the blogger to follow? Ms. Lipperman told me no, and Michelle asks the post be sent at least 24 hours in advance since she schedules posts. I do have requirements for my #handbag Monday posts as this day is about my favorite accessory; however, I do let authors include a jpeg, one line blurb, and one buy link. Sylvia doesn't have submission formats either; however, her blog is new and she is learning.

Christina tells me on Seasons of Love she has a very strict format regarding how the information is to be posted and presented. On Time for Love, it's more "anything goes" -- as long as it doesn't include promotional material.

I've had to format posts with a specific font and size. Fix my jpeg a called-for size. On Handbags, Books...Whatever and the Plotting Princesses blogs, I've dealt with Rafflecopter. Pictures here and there. Crazy html—yikes! All takes up too much time when I should be writing.

Paloma uses guidelines but wouldn't call them rigid. She has a specific page on her blog with all the information. Check out how she does this at this LINK.

On Romance Lives Forever, Kayelle provides specific formats for five interviews. She has spent too much personal time cleaning the posts for publication. Images are placed in areas for the most views, and the font is easy to read.

Princess Karilyn likes blogs with questions; however, guidelines are helpful. She likes to talk about her books, but not craft. She also adds that in her head, no comments has her wondering if anyone saw the post, but realizes the trend is not to comment.

Several of us think keep it simple is most beneficial. 

What are pet peeves? Ms. Lipperman and Pamela say they're annoyed when people don't check back to respond to comments. I agree. I am also upset when the blogger doesn't share my URL in any social media outlets like I have.

Paloma doesn't like late submissions. Would you arrive at a dinner party an hour late? I think not. So please be mindful of your time when coming as a guest to my blog.

She adds: Not promoting yourself. Guests should promote their post and encourage others to visit the blog. Then they should be there to answer questions and engage with those who comment.

Christina is peeved when guest bloggers ignore the rules: sending a 150-word "blurb" over the asked for 25 words or less, or ignoring the "no promotion" restriction and sending a post all about their latest release.

Kayelle finds it annoying when formatting requests are ignored, for example: all URLs must be written out and not embedded because the free promotion the author will receive is being included in a pdf at the end of the year that provides the author's buy links for their books. You'd think people would love that, but often the links are embedded anyway. That's not just annoying; that's rude.

 

Anything else? Kayelle says if you build a good social media platform with your blog, you will get results.

In summary, for the Blogger, I recommend:
1. Share the post with your followers, yahoo groups, Facebook, Twitter, Triberr and anywhere else you can think of.
2. Don't ramble. A 250 word post is really long enough.
3. Turn in your post on a timely basis.
4. Don't over use fancy fonts.
5. Send pictures in jpeg and note in the post where to insert each one, but don't overdo the picture thing.
6. Writing about a proper topic and not shouting "Buy My Book" or whatever.
7. Provide working URLs.

For the Host, I recommend:
1. Share the post with your followers, yahoo groups, Facebook, Twitter, Triberr, and anywhere else you can think of.
2. Don't overdo the formatting requirements.
3. Do provide reasonable content guidelines.
4. Be flexible because...stuff happens.

To sum up, blogging etiquette is really what our moms told us: Be nice. 

TALK TO US... What kind of blogs do you like to visit or read about?

Michelle Miles  |  Pamela Stone  |  Karilyn Bentley  |  Liz Lipperman  |  Christina Cole  |  Paloma Beck  |  Kayelle Allen  |   Sylvia McDaniel