My eyes are crossed…I’ve been on the laptop ALL DAY, but man, was it worth it. It’s the end of the weekend, but here’s a little teaser for you all…
Category: Writing
Roll Call – Come join my Street Team!
I’m back! The holiday is over and it’s time to get down to business! As I blogged about a couple of weeks ago, I’m starting a Street Team, and it’s now OPEN!
Join The Circle
First of all, what is a Street Team?
Well, its basically like a fan club. In return for reviewing my books, you get stuff in return. I won’t be asking you to go off and do missions or anything like that – I’ll only ask you to do what you love anyway, and that’s reading books!
What do you get?
- signed paperbacks
- First peeks at covers, shareable excerpts etc
- Exclusive book content – deleted scenes (where applicable), character bios etc
- Access to my writing playlists – you know I love music!
- Swag. Obviously.
For more info, check out The Circle page. If you’re interested, all you need to do is fill in this form or contact me and I’ll be in touch!
Eek…smashing targets!
I am on a massive high. The reason? My sales in August have so far surpassed all previous months, in fact, I’ve sold 1,000 more in August than I did in July. Mental or what?
When I was reading ‘Self-Printed’ by Catherine Ryan Howard, one of her pieces of advice was to set targets as to how many books you want to sell. There should be 3. One modest, one OMG and one absolute, mental, scream from the rooftops. Mine were/are:
- Aim to sell 200 a month – this would mean it’s ‘selling.’ – Modest
- Aspire to sell 5,000 in the first 12 months – OMG
- Top 10 in the Kindle chart – Absolute, mental, scream from the rooftops
I promised myself I’d buy a Macbook if I achieved the OMG one, and I’ve just done it. Will I buy a Macbook? Probably not – at least, not right away. I’ve got Central America to pay for, but even still. I’m a bit gobsmacked.
The point of this post isn’t to boast. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t really do that. It’s to hopefully push someone to press the ‘self-publish’ button themselves. I was beyond nervous when I published Together Apart. I was genuinely scared that nobody would even know it was there amongst the many others, let alone like it. I know that it’s normal to feel like that, but I can honestly say that it’s been 100% worth it. It’s not been easy and boy does it still sting when someone leaves a 1* review on Amazon, but I don’t care. I’m grateful that they even read it in the first place, or at least tried to.
That’s what makes being a writer so great and it’s only made me more determined to get the next one out, and make it even better.
Happy days!
Hitting the streets
So, I’d heard of street teams before but never really knew what they were until a couple of weeks ago. I’ve done a bit of research into them and I have to admit, I’m starting to like the idea. It’s more than just a fan club, it’s a way to be a bit more interactive with fans and do some cool stuff. Except, there’s a little part of me that thinks – what if nobody signs up?
Talk about embarrassing.
Heart Shaped Bruise is engaging Wattpadders, to the extent that they’re eagerly awaiting new installments and I think that’s probably because it’s a bit more New Adult than Together Apart was. Not to mention, because of Smith *swoon*. But still.
And then I’ve got to come up with a name. Hmm. But it would be beyond cool. I’ve already got ideas about swag and having engaging fans is a massive motivator, if a bit scary. The fact is though, it’s not like the old days when you’d just get a boring newsletter every so often, fans expect more. They expect interaction and they’re happy and willing to shout about great books.
So. Latest addition to my to-do list:
Start a Street Team.
Name suggestions are more than welcome!
The boy’s a player . . . Teaser Time!
Natalie K. Martin 