What is an Author Street Team?
The longer that I have been in the writing community over the multiple platforms that I'm on, the more I have heard of the term called Author Street Team. This was a completely new concept to me, and something that I never heard before. However, a simple Google search brought up a surprising amount of information.
What is an Author Street Team?
An author street team is a group of people that the author recruits to help promote their work and their brand.
How does this work?
The author seeks and recruits members to their author street team after targeting new people or existing fans (book bloggers, beta readers, friends and family that would be a good fit, and readers.) However, if these people are being recruited, they are also receiving mutually beneficial compensation for their work promoting you.
What can your Author Street Team receive from you?
In exchange for these lovely people promoting your work, you want to make sure they are compensated for their hard work. Ways to do this could be exclusive content, free copies or advanced copies of books, signed copies, promoting their blogs or other products, sneak peeks of covers first, and shout-outs to your amazing team in your books or over social media for making it all happen.
How can you communicate with these people?
You can set up a special page on your site for them to communicate through and where they can access promotional content to post on social media, a chat group on Facebook or Twitter, or even a private Facebook group for your team to communicate on. This is also a place you can make announcements, place timelines, and more.
Potential Problems that may arise:
Obtaining Reviews for Amazon, Goodreads, and any other platforms for your books from your street team.
Recruits not holding up their end of the promotions.
Losing recruits after they receive content they wanted early.
What to remember:
The street team that you create is doing you a huge service. As important as it is that they help you get the word out, please remember to hold up your end of the bargain. If they have their own platforms, be sure to share the love and help them promote as well. It is possible to make it as an author if you help others as much as you help yourself.