Let’s talk about street teams.

What is a street team? It’s a group of people working to promote an author (or other artist or product) by generating buzz. How? There are multiple ways to do it. Posting on message boards (like this one) is one way. Or maybe promoting a MySpace group. Going to book stores and facing out the author’s titles, or asking employees to stock the author’s books is another thing street team members often do. Another good one is to write reviews and submit them to magazines and newspapers, or post them at Amazon.com and other bookseller Web sites.

The people who do this don’t get paid. The author usually gives the members something … free books or other merchandise. Street team members do it because they want to see the author reach a wider audience.

So, now we know what a street team is. For you other authors reading this, do you have a street team? I’d love to hear how it’s worked out for you.

For the friends and fans reading, I’d like to hear if you’re interested in joining a street team to help me promote my work.

Why do this now? My various domains will have a record number of hits by the end of July. The previous peak came last November. Last year, the number of hits climbed steadily as I attended various conventions and handed out bookmarks and CD samplers and such. Shortly after the convention season ended, Web visits dropped off.

Hits are up this month because I’ve spent entirely too much time promoting Darkscapes and Shara and the revamped Werewolf Saga site. That’s time I should have spent writing. To throw a corporate term at you, I’m looking for sustainable growth in both promotion and production. I can either keep working on promotion and quickly run out of new things to promote, or I can get back to writing. I like promoting, but I like writing better.

Also, it looks kinda tacky when the author is constantly pushing his own stuff at the public. The buzz isn’t legitimate unless somebody else is helping to generate it.

So, are you interested? If a few people are willing, I’ll work out some details about specific things that need to be done, and how I’d reward you. Anyone interested can drop me an e-mail at steve(at)stevenewedel.com.