When you have no idea what’s going on, it’s hard to write.

I have a confession.

I have not started writing the final Library of Athena book. Not one word. I know certain things about the book:

*What the title will be

*What the last scene will be

*At least one major problem to solve

*What the first scene will be. Kind of.

But that’s about it. I have no idea what else will go on in the book. Which has made it very easy to keep putting off. I already have a WIP going, right? I can’t work on more than one project at a time, right?

Procrastination, thy name is Christine. I have made a deal with myself to start writing over Spring break, but I may start a little earlier. Maybe today.

Maybe not.

I NEED to have the book finished by the end of the summer. That’s a lot of words to get down and clean up, at least 80,000. I need some inspiration, maybe to read some similar books to get my pump primed.

Arg.

I also need to get back on the promotional bandwagon. If you missed the last post, you can help me out and earn cool prizes by joining my Street Team. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt. It could even be fun.

 

 

My Street Team — Join Now!

I am starting an author street team. Yay! Yippee! Cupcakes and glitter all around!

What’s a street team?

It’s a group of people who volunteer to help promote my books. Street teams are common in music, especially in rap, where they get groups of teenagers who are fans of an artist and give them posters, demo tapes, swag, etc, to hit the street and spread the word about the artist’s work.

Now, being a small press author (or an author in general nowadays), isn’t always the easiest thing. Writing the books is hard enough. Then you fling them out into the universe and hope someone likes them.  A writer needs some help with promotion, and who better to help than fans.

Don’t worry, there’s not that much work involved in my street team, most of the streets I mean are ‘virtual’. So, here’s the FAQ.

What do I have to do as a member of your street team?

Basically, just spread the word about my books. How? By doing stuff like:

*Tweeting, Facebooking, blogging. Share my FB page, blog, website links with all of your friends.

*Telling people which books of mine you’ve read, that you love them, and that your friends would like them too. Real friends or virtual friends, or both.

*Passing on information about where I’ll be appearing (I have a few appearances a year, a few more people showing up never hurts). Again, real or spread the word through your social media.

*Review my books on your blog if you have one. Interview me. Whatever.

*Going to Amazon and clicking the “like” button on my book listings, my Amazon author page,  and writing reviews of my books.

* If you choose to do some legwork, you can go to your local library and ask them to carry my books (which I will gladly give you the ordering information for).

*Take bookmarks, postcards, etc..to the local library and ask the librarian if she can give them out to the target audience (namely, tweens and teens and adults who like to read YA stuff).

*You CAN ask your local bookstore to carry the books, but I don’t have much luck with the big box stores. If you have a local indy store, go for it.

You don’t have to do ALL of this, of course. What you’re willing and able to do.

What do I get out of all of this?

Of course I wouldn’t ask you to do it simply out of the goodness of your heart. There will be rewards!

*Swag. Whenever I get in new stuff, you will get some. Some of it will be EXCLUSIVE to street team members.

*A cool badge to put on your website (as soon as I make one).

*Exclusive access to preview content of upcoming releases, such as excerpts, deleted scenes, and book release details!

*FIRST look at new covers for upcoming releases!

*Mentioned in the acknowledgements of a future release!

*ARC’s of upcoming releases, before any other readers or reviewers.

*The chance to win signed copies of books and other cool prizes, like Amazon gift cards and your name as the character in a future book.

The more the word gets spread, the more people buy books, the better the prizes will get 😉

So, all the cool kids are doing it, and I want to, too! How do I join?

Go to this link, and join the FB Street Team group, and I will add you. No weird stalkers, please 🙂 There will be some guidelines for what you can and cannot do on my behalf as an author, and we’ll get into that once the group is up and running. I will start giving away stuff once we hit ten street team members.

Thanks!