Online video seen as the future of book marketing

Here's an online video that does a pretty good job of selling a book. In this case, Tim Sykes is pitching his book An American Hedge Fund to Amazon shoppers.

At first glance, you might be skeptical of this book -- or any other book that promises a ton of money. But seeing a pitch directly from the author adds credibility. If I were shopping for a book like this and trying to choose between this one and a competing book, everything else being equal, I'd probably buy this one -- based on the strength of the video and the connection it provides to the author.

Sykes, who self-published the book, says Amazon charged him $2,500 to display the video on his book's detail page. (Of course that doesn't include the costs of producing the video.) But there's speculation Amazon will soon allow authors to post videos for free using its Connect author blogging tool. In a recent survey, Amazon asked Connect participants whether adding videos to the program would be a good idea. Videos are already permitted in Amazon book reviews.

The great thing about Sykes' video is it's obvious he's talking to you -- the person shopping on Amazon. It's intimate, unlike most book videos, which resemble anything from a bad movie preview to a C-SPAN clip. I don't expect most author videos will be this good. Many will be generic crud from PR departments of big publishers -- the exact opposite of this one.

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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors

Home-made videos: The new tool for self-published authors

It's pretty clear that online video is booming. Here's the audience growth at YouTube:

That, my friends, is a trend.

Videos are starting to pop up on Amazon book detail pages -- in both reviews and descriptive content. Cameras have gotten so cheap and simple, there's no big financial or technological hurdles to producing promotional videos anymore. So some authors are taking advantage.

Here's how one creative author is promoting his book. Now playing on YouTube: HOW TO MAKE A KILLING IN THE BOOK WORLD



The author, Eric Meeks, used an old Canon camera that had sat idle for two years. This summer, when he got the inspiration for the video, he finally read the owner's manual and taught himself to use its editing software.

Video-making is key to Eric's marketing plan for the book. He has an appearance lined up at a local bookstore, and to generate publicity, he's promising that everyone who attends the signing will get to witness a "real live author murder."

"Somebody from the crowd will get to 'kill' me with a retractable blade knife," Eric says. "At least I hope the blade retracts. Otherwise I'll be doing only one signing."
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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors

Amazon permits video book reviews

It had to happen sooner or later: Amazon is allowing customers to upload video book reviews. So far I've been able to find three video reviews for toys and gadgets (apparently all submitted by Amazon employees) but none for books.

It will be interesting to see how closely Amazon polices copyright violations, which have been rampant on video sites such as YouTube. This Amazon video review, for example, posted by an Amazon employee, includes footage from a motion picture without permission. According to a discussion board posting, the reviewer believes the use of the movie clip falls under the "fair use" exemption of copyright law.

According to Amazon's video review guidelines, reviewers must "hold all intellectual property rights" to the video or have the permission from the copyright holder. Reviewers also grant Amazon a "nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual right and license" to distribute the material.

Here's a couple more video reviews from a user in Seattle.

The maximum length of reviews is 10 minutes and the maximum file size is 100 megabytes.

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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors

Q&A: How effective is YouTube for book marketing?

QUESTION: I'm hearing an awful lot about YouTube as an avenue for book marketing. I've gotten some quotes from companies who offer to produce a book trailer for $2,000 and up. Is this an effective way of marketing a book?

ANSWER: My philosophy is to try everything. You've got to get your book out there every which way you can, and hope that one-fifth of your efforts pay off.

But there are only 24 hours in a day, and if you're like me, your marketing budget is finite, too. I haven't felt compelled to produce an Internet video yet, for the simple reason that videos generally get far fewer eyeballs than blogs and Web sites.

For example, take my niche, book marketing. Search on YouTube for "book marketing," and one of the top results is this video from self-publishing guru Dan Poynter:



This video was uploaded to YouTube one year ago, and it's been viewed about 2,900 times -- about eight times per day.

How many unique visitors have viewed Dan's Web site during the same time? I'd estimate it's between 5,000 and 10,000 per month.

Conservatively, that's about 175 visitors a day for the Web site versus eight daily views of the video. Also, Dan's Web site is a virtual cash register -- he's selling hundreds of special reports, mailing lists, and e-books there. What is the video doing for him?

So if you're setting your priorities, this is a no-brainer. Get written content on your Web site and everywhere else on the Web. Remember, we're marketing to people who read.

I'm not suggesting that book marketers should ignore multimedia, just keep things in perspective. Don't blow your budget on some newfangled thing just because it's new. Of course if you've already got some video, it certainly won't hurt to upload it to YouTube.

But here's something that's a lot more realistic: podcasting. If you have any recordings of yourself, get them online with a podcast, and get transcripts on your blog or Web site. That way, all those readers can find your audio content.

Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, plans to give away digital audiobooks of his next title to everyone who buys the physical book. An even better idea might be to make the audiobook a free podcast and upload it to every file-sharing service out there.
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If you like my articles, click the orange button to subscribe:

Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors