Video Marketing For Self-Publishing Authors

Video allows you to connect with the emotions of a reader. Static text on a page can only go so far. That’s where video comes into play. It allows you to pull at your potential reader’s heartstrings – if used correctly.

Your video can make them hand you their heart on a silver platter.

Some authors miss out on this opportunity to connect with their audience because they aren’t familiar with how video marketing works. There are many ways you can use video to market your book. Some of the most popular options are book teasers and book trailers. However, you can also start a YouTube channel where you connect with your readers on a more personal level or even share excerpts from your book.

The first step is deciding how you will create the video. You have a few options here – using video creation software or using a webcam/video camera. While a webcam video allows you to talk “face to face” with your audience and people enjoy personal connection, video creation software that uses slides with images and text can be just as effective for reaching the end goal — selling more copies of your book.

After you’ve decide how to make the video, you have to decide what the focus of the video will be. Do you want it to be a trailer that gives the audience little hints on what the book will be about? Do you want to read and reflect on a few excerpts from your book? Do you want to discuss a topic that’s relevant to your readers?

They're paying attention - but for how long?

Once you begin creating your content, you must remember to keep it short. The longer a video takes to get to the point, the less interested your reader will be. Believe it or not, research suggests that the average attention span of an adult is 7 seconds! That means if you don’t do something to grab their attention in the first 7 seconds, they are not very likely to continue watching.

How do you grab them in the first 7 seconds? Say something unusual (but interesting)! Give them something familiar! Tell a joke! Certainly there are other ways to catch them before they move on to something else, but these are just a few of the most common.

If you aren’t comfortable using either video creation method (or just want someone else to do the work for you), there are many companies that will create these for you – including Outskirts Press. Each service provider offers varying degrees of production quality – with some offering a less expensive “slide show” option and others offering film-quality trailers with actors/actresses, props, etc.

Here is an example of a book video trailer solutions for a self-publishing authors that we also distributed to a wide variety of social and video networking sites.

60-Second Book Trailer

HOW TO GET A BOOK VIDEO TRAILER

It’s easy. Regardless of whether you are self publishing with Outskirts Press or not, you can conveniently and securely order the book video trailer by clicking the big green button. We handle everything!

YouTube Book Video Contest (by ForeWord Reviews) for Self Publishing Authors

ForeWord Reviews is currently running a Book Trailer Contest.  Independent publishers and authors can submit their videos by May 15, 2010.  The winner receives an Apple iPad and will be contacted by ForeWord after completion of the contest.

All qualified videos will be shown at the Indie Press Lounge at Book Expo America in New York in May.

Read more about the contest and submit your video here: http://www.youtube.com/group/booktrailercontest

Don’t have a Book Video yet?

Outskirts Press authors can order the Book Video option at any time from within the Author’s Center.  It’s like a movie trailer for your book. It’s cool, it’s hip, it’s NOW!  We handle the entire production for you (music, text, images).  The final length is approximately 1 minute and we provide you with the video file to use in your marketing efforts however you wish.  The video is embedded into your Outskirts Press author webpage for you and we also upload it to popular social networking sites, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and many more!

Here’s a Book Video recently produced for Outskirts Press author of Mead’s Trek, Tom Gauthier:

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marketing support and services like this.
 

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Self Publishing YouTube Channel

Social media is all the range nowadays, particularly when it comes to providing marketing opportunities for authors. In the past we have discussed the advantages of creating a blog and participating with Twitter.

We’ve also displayed some of our 30-second book teasers and 60-second book video trailers, the latter of which are widely distributed via social networks and video sharing sites like YouTube.  Every book video trailer we produce for our authors is submitted to our Outskirts Press YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/outskirtspress

From the Outskirts Press YouTube Channel you can subscribe for notifications when new videos are added. You can also use our channel as an example for creating your own custom promotional channel on YouTube.  An important part of having a YouTube Channel, is having videos, and the 30-second book teaser and 60-second book video trailers are great places to start.

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Book teasers for self publishing writers

Announcing  30-second video teasers, exclusively from Outskirts Press.

Fast, flashy, and fun, the book teasers are an ideal, cost-effective way to kick-start your online video and social networking promotional efforts for your book.

With sites like YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn getting all the social networking buzz, the question stops becoming WHERE to network and starts becoming WHAT to network.  Having a fun, exciting, and short video is exactly the type of content that is popular for these social networking and video sharing sites.

That’s where the 30-Second Teasers come in. You will receive a high-quality .mp4 video file that you can immediately upload to sites like YouTube and iTunes and then start embedding onto your social networking pages on FaceBook, MySpace, and elsewhere.

Each teaser highlights the cover of the book, the title, the price, the online availability, and the author’s photo if provided during the book production phase.  Every teaser is visually different.

Here’s a sample of a book teaser we produced for one of our Amazon bestsellers, Mary Singer Wick:

The purpose of a book teaser is to capture attention for the book.   Mission accomplished!

This is different from our other video and distribution service, the Book Video Trailer option, where the author can customize the video more specifically to arrive at an overall tone for the video. Once the professional 60-second book video is produced, the .wmv file is provided to the author and is also distributed to all major social video sharing sites like YouTube, Viddler, Google, Aol, Yahoo, and others.

For comparison, here is the 60-second Book Video Trailer we produced for Mary.

Regardless of whether you want a fast, flashy teaser, or a longer, more customized book video trailer, Outskirts Press can help you get your social networking and video sharing promotional efforts off to an exciting, high-quality start.   Outskirts Press published authors can order either option, or both, from the Marketing Options screen of their Author’s Center.

Not yet published with professional marketing options like these?

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