Sarina Dorie’s Street Team/Launch Team

Blog News

I wouldn’t be anywhere without my readers. I appreciate your enthusiasm for my books and am thrilled you enjoy my characters and worlds as much as I do. When you email me and tell me how much you love/hate Felix Thatch, you are a teacher and can relate to Clarissa’s budget cuts problems, or just in general that you love my books, it makes me so happy!

 

For years, I worked hard selling short stories to magazines, novels to publishers, and self-publishing books before deciding to launch the Womby’s School for Wayward Witches series. I continue to push myself so that I can regularly publish books.

Though there are aspects of publishing I enjoy like writing and connecting with fans, there are many aspects that are just time consuming. Some day I hope to hire a personal assistant so I can get more writing done—and get more sleep, but that isn’t going to happen any time soon.

 

One thing that readers can do to help increase awareness of my books so that I can spend more time writing and less time marketing, is being part of my Street Team. Some authors call this an ARC team or a Launch Team.

 

Here’s what being on my Street Team entails:

In return for your help in launching new books, you’ll get:
ARCs

Free advance reader copies of ALL BOOKS I release – including books and audiobooks (when the audiobooks eventually become available), and any other cool formats that come along in the future.

 

Gifts

I love to give out thank-you presents to people who are enthusiastic about my writing. I am an art teacher by profession, so I often am creating things. Sometimes it is digital things like art or stories; sometimes tactile things like notepads or bookmarks. My creativity has no idea what I will be inspired to make. I also am planning on running raffles just for my launch team members. This mean you’ll only be competing with a few hundred instead of thousands of people.

 

A Personal Acknowledgement

Your name will be in the back of both my e-books and paperback books for every book you review.

 

How is being on an author’s Street Team different than a newsletter?

Being a member of my street team is different than being part of my mailing list. Think of it as a V.I.P. list. You’ll be part of a select group of awesome readers. And, in addition to getting free copies of my books before anyone else, you get to see exactly what impact your support has on the success of my work.

 

Okay, so what’s the catch? Being part of the Street Team means you’ll be asked to:

 

*Leave a review of the Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) you’ve requested.

*Become a verified reviewer on Amazon by downloading a copy of the book when it is either on sale, 99 cents, or free. (If you have an Amazon account.)

*Complete the reading and reviewing within a certain time period after receiving your copy. (Ideally 2-5 weeks.)

*Fill out a very short Google response form when a task has been completed so that I can easily track tasks and acknowledge in my books how helpful you have been. This form will help me be more organized so I don’t have to keep track of emails.

OR

*Send me typos if you find them two weeks prior to the launch date. Not everyone has an Amazon account, uses Goodreads, Bookbub, or other platforms where readers typically post reviews. Some people’s superpowers are their command of the English language and ability to catch typos. If you don’t have an Amazon account, this might be a better role for you as a member of my street team.

OR

*Make social media posts to recommend books or announce when they are free. I have accounts on Amazon, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Goodreads, Bookbub, and Reddit. People sometimes tell me they started reading my series after seeing a post about a free book I told people about on Reddit or a sale on Facebook. I am so excited that this helped me gain a new reader, but it is a lot of work. I rarely have time to do more than post some automated announcements—except for the summer break when I’m not teaching. Social media is the kind of thing that I would love to pay a personal assistant for someday, when I quit my job and am a full-time author. Sigh. Until then, if a street team member’s super power is making a couple social media posts for each book, that would be such a weight off my shoulders. (Also, I hate talking about myself to strangers, and it is always so much more credible when someone else talks about how great my books are.)

 

As far as catches go, hopefully that’s not too bad! If you’d like to be part of the team, just click the LINK below and sign up! You will still get a regular newsletter once or twice a month, but you will also get book launch emails so you can get advanced reader copies (ARCs).