Post #62 – Women’s Memoirs, Book Business – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Now, in 2010, YouTube is receiving more than 2 billion views a day. Are you putting video to work for your book? Let’s put this number in perspective: 2 billion is about two times the prime-time audience of the three major broadcast networks. So let me ask you again: Is video part of your book marketing strategy?
Whether you’ve written a memoir, novel, mystery, thriller or the latest how-to, video can help you build an audience of readers to buy your book.
Did I just say “written?” Oops. No. Don’t wait until after you’ve finished your memoir to start promoting your work. Video can help you build a marketing platform for your memoir (or any book), and that will be sure to impress agents and publishers.
And that’s not all. Matilda Butler and I have a new writing book coming out around the end of the year, called Writing Alchemy, and we’ve been promoting it and ourselves for the last several months. It’s what’s behind our “Writing in Five” video series on YouTube. You can read more about this below.
Do yourself a favor. Take video and YouTube very seriously. My goal is to help you get started because I know from Matilda’s and my experience that you too can do this…yes you really can. Here’s what it takes to get started:
- Content–If you’re creating a memoir book trailer, you can build around the material in your book. If you’re book is still a work in progress, don’t steal from your book. Find a related topic that will interest your prospective audience. Then when your book comes out, they’ll be more likely to want your work.
- Microphone–You don’t need to spend $100s to get a decent microphone. You can find a good, unidirectional USB mic for about $60.
- Video Camera–I’m going to suggest that unless you already have a high-definition camcorder, that you start with something as simple as a Flip video (link below). Matilda and I swear by ours. They are cost-effective, simple to operate and very durable. I have a Mino, and Matilda uses an UltraHD.
- Video Screen Capture Software–You’ll find my recommendations for PC and Mac users below, but let me just say here that when used to capture a video presentation you can make a very useful video without any camera skills. It’s easy.
- Audacity–This is a terrific sound editor, and it’s free. I’m including this here because perhaps the easiest way to get started making a video is to put a still image on the screen and add an audio track. As long as you save it in a video format, you’ll have a video…even if nothing actually moves on the screen.
Time to get started!
Video marketing tips galore…
The best way to get started making videos is to just jump in and do it. Don’t worry if you’re not perfect. In fact, don’t even make perfection a goal…you’ll never get your first video out if you do. This is a job for Ready, Fire, Aim, which just means make your plans, know what you’re going to do and then do it. If you aim for perfection, you’ll never get started.
Here are the two easiest ways to start creating video:
- Use a simple Flip video camera to film yourself or some event. They’re easy to use, surprisingly good in low light, easy to download via USB port and they create surprisingly high-quality videos. Be sure to buy an HD-High Definition model.
- Make a PowerPoint (PC) or Keynote (Mac) presentation, then create a video of you giving the presentation, which you’ll record using a microphone (a good USB mic goes for about $60) and video screen capture software, such as Camtasia or ScreenFlow. Camtasia is the high-end product; it used to only be available for PC users but there’s a Mac version now. ScreenFlow is for Mac users; it’s powerful and costs less than Camtasia (Matilda and I use this). And there’s one more product, called Jing. It’s an open-source tool; there’s a free version and a very cost-effective pro version.
Read a few of these articles to learn tips, techniques and ideas, and then make that first memoir video. It’s fun and not nearly as difficult as you think:
My 10 Most Powerful Video Marketing Tips by Katie Freiling…sign up for her free newsletter.
Video Marketing Tips on the SEO for Video site
Marketing Tips for Authors be sure and sign up for Tony Eldridge’s free tips.
10 Interesting Things You Can Do with YouTube or Google Videos on Digital Inspiration.
Video Marketing Tips and Tricks by David Risley (DR). This article is rich in tips.
Top WordPress Plugins for Video (from Suite101.com) you’ll need one or more of these because in addition to posting your video on YouTube, you’ll want to put it up on your blog.
Video SEO Guide–VSEO Tips and Techniques for Online Video is full of links and help by Mark Robertson (ReelSeo). Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important topic. Your videos will help your SEO position, and with a few tags and keywords, you’ll help your videos perform even better.
Memoir book trailer…a good place to start.
Whether you’ve written a memoir, sci-fi fantasy, romance novel, nonfiction how-to or the great American novel, you’ll be well served to create a short (3 minutes should do it) book trailer video and posting it on YouTube.
There’s no one formula for creating a trailer. In fact, go to YouTube and search on book trailer, memoir book trailer, historical book trailer (on any other genre). You’ll see many videos that will give you an idea of the wide range of approaches and techniques and may serve as a model. Here are four articles that will help you get started:
Book Trailer Basics: Bring Your Story to Life by Annette Fix for WOW-Women On Writing
Promoting Your Novel: How to Make a Book Trailer by Brenda Coulter (No Rules. Just Write.)
Book Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own by Joanna Penn (The Creative Penn)
Book Trailers by Darcy Pattison for Fiction Notes
But that’s just the beginning…
Matilda and I are moving beyond just memoir and working on a new craft book for all writers, called Writing Alchemy. In fact, as I write this, Matilda is in Victoria, Canada, giving our three-hour Writing Alchemy workshop. We’ve used our technique with our own writing students to dramatic results. We’re so excited about our technique and the prospects for the book that we decided to get an early start on promotion.
We had a challenge: to get known outside the world of memoir writers. We wanted to build our recognition with writers from all genres. One way we’ve developed to get the word out is to create a series of videos. But now here’s the trick. We’re not promoting our book. We mention our Writing Alchemy at the end of each video, but our “Writing in Five” videos are pure content. Our approach is to take a good idea or writing tip from a famous author and discuss it. You can find our videos on our two YouTube Channels: Writing Alchemy and Women’s Memoirs.
The focus is the content. It needs to be useful…not an infomercial for your book. This is the key to most Internet and social networking success. Think of it this way: When you sell books the traditional way–through public readings, writers’ workshops and book signings–you get a chance to connect with your audience face to face. That’s not so online. You’re faceless and anonymous, so you need to connect using new tools: blog posts, audio and, above all, video. You do these things to build a relationship with prospective audiences of readers who will buy your books.
Distinguish your listing on eBay…
If you decide to sell your book on eBay and if you have a video book trailer, be sure to embed your video on your eBay sales page. Matilda and I tried this technique this Halloween season when we sell so many of our Rosie the Riveter Legacy bandanas. The results were staggering. We sold twice as many bandanas. Here’s the lesson: If you are posting on eBay or social networking sites and if you have an option to post in HTML, then you can probably embed a copy of your YouTube video.
YouTube tools by Google…
Google (they bought YouTube) is doing a lot to help both beginning and advanced video creators get the most out of the Internet’s most popular video hosting site. New tools, training videos and help forums are available all the time. There are a couple of reasons for their efforts: They want you to succeed and eventually spend some money and place ad links in your videos, and because YouTube is part of Google, they want to better search the content and get it into Google. Here are a few resources to help you get more out of YouTube:
YouTube Video Targeting Tool is a two-step service for adding YouTube Videos “as placements for your ad” in AdWords (Google’s advertising arm).
YouTube Insight is a Google Analytics of sorts for assessing your video success. If you’re promoting your books (or products) you need to approach video marketing like the business that it is.
YouTube Handbook is filled with tips, tricks, techniques for finding and producing videos.
Creators Corner is rich with creative advice for “aspiring videographers.”
Have fun with these free video editors…
I do believe that if you’re going to be serious about making videos for your books, products and/or business, you need a decent editing tool. Mac users can use iMovie and PC users should look at Sony Vegas software, each starts at around $45. But until you’re ready to commit, here are a few free resources you can use:
YouTube Video Editor is a simple editor you can use to add transitions and music and perform basic video editing.
Jaycut has a free version of its editor that will help you create your movies.
Stupeflix helps you bring still images to life and mix snaps, videos and sound. You can add titles and use the built-in transitions.
Animoto is free for simple, short, non-commercial videos.
Act on this while it’s still free…
If you study Internet marketing the way I do, you may know that many of these marketers promote themselves by offering FREE ebooks. I’ll let you in on a little secret: There’s a lot of value in these freebies. Now you do have to give something…your name and email address, and yes you’re going to be on the marketer’s email list. But CAN-SPAM limits what marketers can do with your email address, and you can always opt-out or unsubscribe from the list after you download your free ebook. If you don’t want all the emails coming into your primary address, set up a separate Gmail account for downloads.
Here’s a 92-page ebook you should get while it’s still available. Gideon Shalwick has written Rapid Video Blogging. It’s free, and it’s full of ideas.
Let’s go viral…
I guess going viral–having your video spread quickly by word of mouth–is the ultimate dream of every videographer. The problem is, it’s difficult to orchestrate, and some will tell you it’s impossible to know what takes off and what doesn’t. While it may be difficult to know exactly what’s going to connect with audiences, there are things you can do to increase your chances. I’ve collected several articles for you that are packed with good tips, ideas and even interviews for improving your chances of going viral:
10 Qualities That Can Make Your Video Go Viral by Rebecca Corliss for HubSpot Blog
How To Make Your Content Go Viral (Secrets of HuffPo and BuzzFeed Founder Jonah Peretti) by Alyson Shontell for Business Insider War Room
3 Things Any Video Needs to Go Viral by Dan Greenberg for Mashable!
How to Create a Viral Video by Cindy Gordon for 360 Days in Our Circle
Live from SXSW: Viral Video How-tos from the Pros by Merritt Colaizzi for SmartBlog on Social Media
Tips for Creating a Viral Video Successfully by Chris Crum for SmartBusinessNewz
And YouTube is just the beginning…
While you most certainly need to start with a YouTube Channel of your own–it’s free and reaches the largest audience–but there are dozens of other sites. You’ll find a list of video hosting sites on Wikipedia.
It’s time-consuming to post (syndicate) your videos to so many video hosting sites, but there are syndication services that can help. They’re not perfect, but they can help. Traffic Geyser is the best; it’s also expensive. So unless you are selling a lot of product through video, you probably can’t justify Traffic Geyser. But there is a service–called TubeMogul–that does a good job of getting out to some key hosting sites…and it’s free, as is TubeMogul’s video analytics service.
Apply the lessons of Internet marketing masters…
Paul Colligan is the premier video and podcasting guru among Internet marketers. I’ve taken his Podcasting Secrets class and can tell you he knows his stuff. Below you’ll find the first of a three-part video taken from a live presentation. It’s packed with video and new media ideas. If you want to learn more from Paul, you can find the Paul Colligan Tube Channel here; it’s rich with content.
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