How to Promote a Book with Video

by Dana Lynn Smith

Videos are hugely popular online, from grumpy cats and music videos, to breaking news and movie trailers. In fact, YouTube (owned by Google) has become the second most popular website worldwide.

Today I want to share with you practical, actionable information on how to create and use video to promote your book and yourself. First, here are a few of the ways that authors can use video:

• For nonfiction authors, content-based videos (where you discuss the book’s topic) can be very effective. You can even do a series of videos dealing with different aspects of your topic. Options include “talking head” video where you are filmed speaking about the topic, demonstrations of how to do something, a slideshow with voiceover, or a combination of these. Be sure to promote the book at the end of the content-based video and include your website link. You can also work in mentions of the book earlier in the video (“Here are some of the top tips for _____ from my new book ______.”) but be sure to provide useful content rather than just promotion.

• Video trailers (short commercial-style videos, similar to movie trailers) work best for novels, narrative nonfiction, and children’s books. Usually these include a series of images and text with music or voiceover in the background, with a promotion to buy the book at the end. Don’t forget the link to your website or a short link to your Amazon page.

• Children's book authors can post videos of book readings or related activities for kids.
  

• Authors can also share short video clips from live events such as presentations, television interviews, and book launch parties. These work best on the author blog and social networks.

• Videos can be used as blog posts in place of, or in conjunction with, written articles on your blog and guest posts on other sites.
  

• Some authors include a video greeting on their website. These are most useful for nonfiction authors and it helps people feel more connected. I don’t recommend videos that start playing automatically when you land on the page because some people find that annoying and it may slow down your page load time.
  

Where to Use Book Promotion Videos

Videos are great for attaching to posts on Facebook and Twitter. Having a video or photo added to a  Facebook post makes it stand out and usually causes the post to be shown on more of your friends’ timelines. Also post your videos on your Author Page on Amazon.

Video can also be used on your author website and posted on YouTube and other video sites. When posting videos on YouTube, be sure to include important keywords in the video title and description, and begin your description with a working link to the book sales page on your website or Amazon.

Remember that anything on YouTube can be “embedded” elsewhere online by simply copying the “embed” code from the YouTube page and pasting it onto your website or another site. For example, if you’re doing a virtual book tour or a guest post on another blog, you could offer a video to the host.

How to Make Book Promotion Videos

Remember to keep videos very short – generally 30 seconds to one minute for trailers and one to three minutes for how-to videos. People have a short attention span online and you don’t want them to click away before they see the end, where your book promotion is located. If you have a lot to share in content-based videos, make several different videos.

Professional video producers can create a slick video, but in general I don’t recommend spending hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to produce a single video solely for book promotion. Before hiring someone, consider your goals, how you’re going to use the video and profit from it, and how many books you would need to sell as a direct result of the video to pay for the cost of production.

With a little research, you can learn how to make your own videos, and it's fun! Keep in mind that it’s okay for videos to look a bit "homemade," and once you learn how to make videos you can make several.

To learn everything you need to know about promoting with videos, check out the Video Idiot Boot Camp. Katie Davis designed this comprehensive training course to teach even the most technophobic authors how to plan, create and share a variety of author and book promotion videos.

Here are some other resources for learning how to make your own videos:

• From Blog to Vlog – How to Turn Your Written Blog Posts into Video Blog Posts - article by Lou Bortone

• Top 5 Tips to Use Book Trailers to Drive Sales - article by Darcy Pattison

• Book Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own - article by Joanna Penn

• 16 Types of Videos You Can Create - article by Lou Bortone

Here are some tools for creating videos:

• If you have PowerPoint on your computer, check the Help menu for instructions on making videos from slideshows.

• Videos can also been made using screen capture tools such as Jing.

• Movie Maker is a video recording and editing tool that’s usually pre-installed on Windows PCs. iMovie is typically pre-installed on Macs.

• If you're a nonficiton author who plans to use a lot of video, consider investing in a more sophisitcated video production tool like Camtasia.

What are some of the other ways that authors can create and use book promotion videos? Please share your ideas and experience in the comments section below.

To learn more about book marketing and promotion, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.

Comments

[Joan Price]

This is very helpful, Dana! I'm clipping the whole article. I have an author video already (http://youtu.be/MN6_HVD-Jdg) that people say help them decide that they want to read my senior sex books, and you're giving me great tips for the next one. Thank you.

Dana, how important is it to have a professional videographer so that our video stands out in quality? I've seen so many author videos where the sound or visual quality is so low that it's obviously a personal laptop production. How much does that matter, do you think? I know you're giving do-it-yourself tips, so are you saying that an investment in a professional doesn't really pay off?

[Dana Lynn Smith]

Thanks Joan, I'm glad you found the article helpful. I'm not saying that hiring a professional is a bad idea, but just be careful that you have a reasonable chance of getting a return on that investment. If you spend $1,000 on a single video, how many books will you have to sell as a direct result of the video to earn that back? If you learn to do videos yourself, you can make multiple videos and get more bang for your buck. I think it's okay for videos to look somewhat homemade, but you don't want them to look shabby or be hard to see or hear. I recommend taking some time to learn some skills and get the right equipment so you present a professional image, even if it's not as slick as a videographer would produce.

[Lilian Gafni]

Thank you so much Dana. I may try just that the next time. I've spent more than enough to produce two video trailers for my books, http://youtu.be/gGZ30QYNNuY and http://youtu.be/AYaJLMnoES0. You're absolutely right about how many books would I have to sell to recoup the investment? It goes the same with promotions, marketing etc. If it's only for the love of writing and publishing your books then it's worth while, but not economically wise. Thanks a bunch.

[Dana Lynn Smith]

Thanks Lillian. I'm an ROI kind of gal, so I'm always looking at the the potential return on any investment. But of course sometimes it's hard to measure the benefit, especially with things like media publicity.

[Maggie Lyons]

Thank you for posting this very informative article, Dana.