The Faberge Principal
Talk About Me. Please
When Authors Must Ask For Help
Building the Dream Street Team:
Writing is a solitary process. It’s an experience between you, your thoughts, and the words you place on the page. An author creates a unique world, makes up the characters, gives them strengths and obstacles and sets them into action.
Anyone else getting The Truman show vibes?
The point being, unless you’re co-authoring a book, it can be a solo, internal journey. The relationship between you and your characters, the intimate understanding of their world, is yours and yours alone. Until you bravely step out of your shell, and with shaking limbs, hand your manuscript to a publisher.
It’s a rush to know your book will be out in the world. You entrust it to the publisher and think, now I can retreat and give in to the calling to bring new characters to life. Back to your safe, solitary routine.
Not so fast. You get past the details and deadlines so that one day—be still your heart—the UPS driver delivers a big brown box with the fruits of your labors. Your Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) have arrived. It’s the first glimpse of what your book will look like, feel like, smell like.
Let’s pause a moment to gather our emotions.
And here is where your world turns—if all the work you’ve done by yourself is going to make any impact on the universe, you need people.
In a talk last January, Caroline Leavitt (
) said that to be a successful author “it’s important to…have to ask for help when you need it.” Asking for help doesn’t come easy for some people because it requires vulnerability. But if we want our book-babies to thrive, then ask, we must.Authors need people like you to join our team and support our work. Not just any author, me. I need you, my snarky readers, on my street team.
What can you do for me?
Be a BUZZ BUILDER.
Talk about me (kindly). Better yet, talk about Not Yours to Keep. Tell two friends, so they’ll tell two friends, and so on. It’s what I call the Faberge Principal:
🛑 Hey- you didn’t just quickly scroll down and miss the easiest most successful marketing tip did you?
What can I do for you?
If you’re a fan of women’s psychological fiction, go to Netgalley for a chance to read a FREE copy of my book before it’s public release.
When you’ve finished reading, share your response in an honest review on
your blog
social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok
Make sure you hashtag #notyourstokeep on your posts and don’t forget to follow/tag @zellyruskin.
Heads up: Amazon will not accept reviews before Not Yours to Keep’s official pub day. So for now, go on Amazon and follow Zelly Ruskin. Then mark your calendar to add your review on 10/8/24.
That’s it for Street Team 101. Easy!!
There are more Street Team levels to achieve and tons more ways to build buzz. Plus more rewards for you! Stay tuned….
Share Sometimes Snarkastic and give your readers a chance to get a FREE ARC on Netgalley!
And Now For Something Completely Serious…
You’ve done everything there is to do to prepare for your upcoming surgery. Rephrase: BRAIN surgery. Let’s be real for a second. What does prepared for ‘someone’s going to infiltrate my brain and who knows what will happen?’ really look like? There’s no kit, no manual for that. No guide for what if they’re in there with their intricate tools and they sneeze?
Aside from the complicated changes in the pre-surgery dose of heavy duty blood thinners in the days before, the only instructions you recall are to relax. Oh, and get a good night’s sleep before you come in. 🥺 Everyone’s a comedian. By five a.m. you’re so tired you’re almost punchy. And no food before surgery, so without stress eating the past twelve hours, you’re just plain hangry.
To sum it up: punchy, hangry, terrified. Great way to show up to a party you wished you didn’t have to go to. But there is no choice. The flee and avoidance trigger you want to pull loses out to realism and logic—if you want to survive, you’ll get your ass to the hospital, up the elevator, and pleasantly greet the receptionist at check-in.
They’ll send you to the waiting room, an area of most uncomfortable chairs to the left of their desk. You’ll obediently plant your butt and wait, half-expecting the grim reaper to come tap your shoulder. There’s not even a speck of anxiety at this point. A certain numbness has replaced it. It’s the inexorable realization that nothing is in your control. Not your body. Not the outcome.
Someone calls your name.
Last Licks
I *hate* asking people for anything at all. I went to the WFWA conference in Chicago last fall with the intention of building a street team for my novel (which released this May). Four authors I saw there (with whom I'd engaged on FB) agreed to do so (although only two ultimately did), but then after two others unceremoniously said 'no' (before I even finished my sentence), I stopped asking and went back into my introverted shell. The idea that the writing community is supportive is a myth.
I'm happy to read your new novel, review+post. But I don't have a ton of followers, so it won't achieve much impact.