Hey authors, before you sign that book deal, make sure to ask your publisher if their marketing plan includes doing a book video. Also called Vid Lit, it should be no surprise that with YouTube being the freshest site out there, book videos are catching on.
Short trailers for your book, Vid Lit can be as production heavy as you want it to be. From the less interesting talking head/interview style videos, to the uber creative animated shorts.
Meet Book Trailerpark, the blog of Book Standard. Book Trailerpark reviews the videos with a much-welcomed irreverent honesty, and has a handy category line up including, Sleep Aids and talking heads—styles you don’t want to copy.
Humor works best, and go figure — that’s the best tool for word-of-mouth. The best one I’ve seen yet (and I looked at more than a dozen before writing this post) was Bill Byson’s The Life and Times of the Thunderboldt Kid. If I had a big publisher with a big budget, VidLit is who I’d go with to produce mine. They are brilliant. And they get big names. Chic Lit Heiress Meg Cabot has a fun video, too. But of course, not every author, or every publisher, can afford to hire out for a book video. Do you risk doing it yourself? (SkyMaul has some great videos) Here’s an idea, what if you ran a campaign to get your fans to do one, or better yet a contest with a sweet prize.
The bottom line is, for those that don’t feel like blogging or doing front-of-the-house author tours – you can still do grass roots w.o.m. marketing through book videos. Get creative. Or start saving your pennies so someone else can do it for you. Another company to check out is BookShorts. But whether you do it on your own or hire a pro like VidLit, the key is to do it before the book comes out so you can start the buzz. Good luck!
Hi Jen. I thought you had disappeared as had this blog. I am so glad it is still around and that you are still working on it. Wishing you and your loved ones a great new year.