I recently posted on both Facebook and Twitter, encouraging folks to sign up for my newsletter (see that lovely box at the top of the page, just waiting for your email address… come on, you know you want to try it) and offering a chance to be part of my street team for The Nine’s release.

Okay.

Well.

So… what’s a street team?

The short version is that a street team is a group of fans who work with an author to help promote her work in simple, sustainable ways. Street team members share information about an author and her work on social media, encourage area stores and libraries to carry her work, suggest her work to friends and family, post reviews online, and help create a positive atmosphere around an author and her work. Generally, street teams form in the weeks and months before a book releases and continue after to keep momentum going. Street team members are compensated in the ways fans generally like best. They’re sent special emails with information and sneak peeks of content other readers can’t get, get announcements in advance of the general public, and often get fun swag and freebies for their efforts, too. They also get the eternal, undying gratitude of the author they advocate for.

That’s me. And, that would be you, too. YOU could be part of my street team.

If you’d like to join, add yourself to my mailing list (again, top of the page, then follow the instructions that pop up after you submit your email). I’ll be sending out one email a week until the end of December. After that point, we’ll taper back to one or two emails a month, mostly focused on rewarding you with Good Stuff.

The emails will combine requests for action from you — for example, in a given week after release, I might ask everyone to snap a picture of The Nine in the wild (at a bookstore, a con, a library, or even your own home) and share it via social media — and a treat from me.

Starting next week, the street team’s reward will be part of a deleted scene from The Nine. After that, the rewards will vary, but I promise they’ll always be cool and worth the couple of minutes I’ll ask of you in return.

THIS week, to get warmed up, here’s your first Street Team directive (to be duplicated later in an email to the mailing list):

• Go to Goodreads.com and (if you don’t already have one) make a profile. Add The Nine to your To Be Read list, if it’s not already there, and follow my author page. 
• Then, go to your friend list on Goodreads (if you already have one) and recommend The Nine to at least two other friends — of course, I wouldn’t complain if you chose to do more than two!

And that’s it! That’s all you need to do! Remember, the goal of the street team is to spread awareness about the book and create excitement so more people discover and share it. Every thing you do toward that goal is a gift to me.