Never heard of a street team for book marketing? Three months ago I had never heard of one either. Just enter the words “street teams for book marketing” into the search engine on your computer and a wealth of ideas will come up on how to use social media for this purpose.
i volunteered to be on Ran Pyle’s street team. Why? Because I am a member of the Writers Alliance of Gainesville and in December, “Street Teams” was the topic of our Marketing meeting discussion. Ran had allowed me to read his unpublished version of Beyond Suicide, so I knew already that I loved it. If each member was going to be hawking somebody’s book, I wanted to hawk a book I actually liked. I always try to be authentic.
By mid-December, Ran’s Beyond Suicide was self-published and available for sale on Amazon. It is (POD), Publish on Demand. You place your order, a copy is printed and shipped to you the next day. The cost is $12.99. You can afford it. I ordered a copy and mine was the first to be printed. When it arrived I read it again, for the fourth time, and was still intrigued. Then I was the first to submit a review of the book. My review on Ran’s Amazon book page goes something like this:
“This heart-wrenching, but entertaining, account of Dr. Pyle’s decades-long dealing with his younger brother’s death by suicide kept me riveted throughout. Authentic and gripping, the story includes religious questioning, spiritual seeking, philosophy, metaphysics, humor, grief, deep loss, guilt, and finally atonement. It is an unusual take on the Sigmund Freud “talking cure” and brought the needed denouement through spirited conversations with his long-dead brother!” Beyond Suicide is a thought-provoking and deeply touching read. I strongly recommend it!
In my mind the term, Street Team, conjures up images of a small, noisy, attention-getting band of circus-like troopers, with drums, fifes, balloons, and banners. The team is led perhaps by a clown doing cartwheels in the street. I will not be doing that.
But, what else can a street team do to promote sales of a friend’s book? First, I mention it at every opportunity and put in a good word. Also, I can write this blog for the Writers Alliance of Gainesville website and hope it gets accepted and posted for all WAG members and the public to read. Next, I can post it here on my own WordPress blog.
I strongly recommend that you become a street teamer. Choose a partner, help a friend, promote their book, and make some sales. What goes around comes around. This will likely get you a close friendship with the author, who will love the praise. It might even get you a free lunch date with the author! Try it. Something good will come from it! Just look at the smile on my face!
Dr. Ransford Pyle has agreed that, as his street team leader, I can accompany him next year when he travels to Stockholm, Sweden to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature!
Pattie Remembers 