7 Ways to Promote Your Book With Video

Video is one of the hottest online promotional tools these days, and with good reason. People watch hundreds of millions of videos a day on YouTube, and folks who enjoy videos often forward the link to someone else, creating viral marketing opportunities.

Google includes videos in search results, and people also search Google and video sites for videos on a particular topic. So, how can authors take advantage of the power of video to promote themselves and their books? Here are some ideas:

• Add a video greeting to your website, to get up close and personal with your audience.

• Record a brief video promoting yourself as an author, expert, speaker, and/or consultant.

• Create a video book promo (similar to a movie trailer, combining graphics, words, and music).

• Offer free video tutorials.

• Make video posts to your blog (known as vlogging).

• Post video testimonials from customers on your website.

• Create a video bio for your online media room or post clips of live speaking events or television interviews.

Short videos get watched more often, so keep your video under three minutes. About 30 to 90 seconds is usually ideal. Be sure to include your website address and a call to action in promotional videos.

You can create brief promotional videos with a webcam, the video capture feature of your digital camera, or a digital video camera such as the Flip Video Ultra. You don't necessarily need to use editing software to enhance your video—part of the charm is having it look homemade.
 
For book promos, you'll probably want a more polished look. You can get some basic video production tools and learn to produce videos, or hire someone to do it for you. Prices range from $150 to thousands of dollars, depending on the skill level of the producer and the complexity and length of the video. Book videos are usually most effective for fiction.

I recommend uploading your video to YouTube http://www.youtube.com, then embedding a link on your website or blog. Just copy and paste the "embed" code from the video's page on YouTube. When you upload the video to YouTube, include important keywords in the title, description, and tags.

Promote your videos in your ezine and through social media sites such as Twitter, Delicious, and StumbleUpon, link to them from your blog and website, and embed them in your profile on social networking sites like Facebook.

Excerpted from The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Successful Social Marketing.

Comments

[Phyllis Zimbler Miller]

These are all terrific ways to use video to promote your book. And Amazon is starting to put video book trailers on book pages.

If you want some accompanying video tips such as not having a cluttered background in your video, see my Examiner article http://budurl.com/videosonyoutube

[Dana Lynn Smith]

Great video tips in your article Phyllis -- thanks for sharing!

Dana

[Rachel Berry]

Gosh, wow, yippe! I am so glad I found you. This venue is loaded and as an author I need it all.

Thanks for all that you do

Yipeeeeeeee

[Matt]

Nice ideas, but why stop at YouTube? There are more video sites out there; to maximize your exposure I'd also upload my video to Vimeo, Veoh, and AdWido.

[Sarah Bolme]

There are many more places to put your book videos on the Internet then just YouTube. Check out the long list of places to put your book video on my guest post on SellingBooks.com at http://www.sellingbooks.com/book-video-sharing-sites.