Book Video Trailers Work for Print Communicators, Too!

By Reno Lovison

It seems counterintuitive to speak to authors and publishers about video. After all these are people engaged in the printed word. Some people have asked, “Aren’t print and video in competition with one another?”

I would like to dispel the idea of various communications media being in competition. As authors, publishers, video producers, webmasters, speakers or whatever we are first and foremost communicators. The medium we use primarily may be our specialty but the media is not our message. We should be willing to explore whatever media provide the best chance of communicating what we want to say. Just as traditional television and video has used print to promote its message so should sellers and providers of print be willing to use video to bring people to their message. What has changed is the fact that video promotion via the Internet is now within the reach of small businesses and niche markets.

If you are not familiar with the term; “book video trailers” are short videos similar to movie trailers that aim to pique the interest of viewers. These short multi-media productions typically less than two minutes and often as short as thirty seconds have the ability to provide potential readers which much more information by simultaneously using pictures, graphics, written words, spoken words and even music to set the tone and describe the content of a book. You can view some videos at www.authorsbroadcast.com.

Video trailers are fast becoming an essential aspect of book promotion for the same reasons that video is becoming an essential aspect of business promotion in general. Now that nearly 90% of Americans have access to high speed Internet connections at home, school or work; video is viable. YouTube has brought attention to video on the web by serving up over one billion video views per week as of October 2009, essentially bringing it out of the shadows and making it a mainstream Internet activity. This demonstrates that people are willing to watch video on the web and all reports indicate that people are actually seeking video content as a preferred information medium making YouTube the second largest search engine after Google.

Think back only a few years ago when ecommerce began to really take off. Book buyers were among the first adopters of online buying, spawning amazon.com and changing the face of book buying forever. Books are still one of the most actively sought and most often purchased items via the web. It only follows that there are millions of people looking for information about books online. How do you stand out from the crowd? How do you ensure that your message is everywhere your potential readers expect to find it? Video allows you to control and deliver your message efficiently and effectively. Video is the medium du jour but it is also the technology that will potentially change the Internet significantly as the lines between broadcast television and online video continue to blur. Our static websites and current web pages will be quaint when compared to the interactive, multi-media rich websites of the near future. I predict that by the end of 2010 nearly every website will have at least one video presented. Web video and book video trailers are not some avant-garde futuristic curiosity. Rather they are a growing and essential web element. The sooner you embrace the technology the better chance you have to use this short window of time to be an early adopter and thus attract more attention to your message.

Reno Lovison has seen book marketing from both sides. He is a producer of book video trailers and the author of “Turn Your Business Card Into Business.” Learn more about book video trailer production at www.authorsbroadcast.com .

Note: Here is my personal recommendation. A few years ago I had a book trailer done that was not at all satisfactory. The producer didn't understand the concept of marketing, particulary not for nonfiction books. I approached Reno with trepidation. I have been thrilled with the results. Here they are:







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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.