Singing for book promotion opportunities?

Can singing karaoke style provide you turn into a viral marketing opportunity? Yes, it can. Check out a video that Lara Zielin posted on YouTube.

Can Lara sing? Well, I'll let you decide that for yourself (Susan Boyle isn't worried about the potential competition, though, is what I'm thinking). But does Lara know a book promotion opportunity when she dreams one up? Oh, yes, she does.

Lara's video was inspired an editing letter she'd received while her debut novel, Donut Days, was in production. She turned her angst at having to rip up her manuscript into a playfully angst-filled musical response as she runs away from the letter.

She then cleverly posted the video on YouTube (clearly, she didn't mind editing the video first, and -- as someone who's had a bit of experience here, I must say that she did a very respectable job with that). Lara was able to link back to her web site,www.larawrites.com and mention her novel's title in her description of the video.

I found out about the video not because I regularly troll YouTube but because Michelle Reynoso, who works at Safeguards Technology, mentioned the video in a LinkedIn group post.

Thanks to Michelle, and thanks to Lara for coming up with an innovative book promotion idea. I hope Putnam Juvenile appreciates you, and I hope Donut Days sells at least 100,000 extra copies because of your ingenuity!

What to do with video trailers for books

You've created a video trailer for your book. What should you do with it once you've uploaded it onto your site?

The first order of business would be to make it available via YouTube and Google Video. According to a WebProNews article dated June 26, 2008, YouTube and Google Video, combined, account for 80% of all the online video streaming. Most of those video streaming sessions, as you might guess, take place through YouTube.

So if you have just a few minutes to spend on video trailer distribution, by all means, take the time to upload it to YouTube and Google Video. If you want to maximize the book promotion potential of your video trailer, you'll have to carry your efforts into the arena of the lesser-known sites with a lighter viewership (because they'll still provide backlinks to your video trailer); onto social bookmarketing sites; and in the news.

But, if you have just 30 minutes and a video trailer for your book, and you want to do just two simple things that can instantly increase the book promotion potential of your trailer, then log into YouTube and Google Video. Getting your video trailer for your book onto the right sites isn't difficult, but it does take a bit of focus. So turn off your phone for a few minutes, and get to work. Then treat yourself to a cup of hazelnut coffee. It's Monday...you deserve a second cup.

YouTubing for Book Promotion

Are you using youtube.com as part of your book promotion campaign? You probably should be, if some recent stats are correct. Last Wednesday, an organization called comScore Inc. released this surprising (to this book publicist, anyway) factoid: This year, 66% more people than last year are viewing online videos. You can read the Associated Press article on MSNBC here. Even television network executives, who acknowledge that they're losing viewers to the Internet, are trying to bring their content online.

That's probably good news for authors and publishers who are currently contemplating book promotion campaigns and for book publicists. Rather than pitching television shows and hoping the producer picks your book to feature, or your author to interview, you can create a multimedia book trailer, post it on YouTube (which is where most viewers go to indulge their online video-watching habit) and on your own Web site.

There are a couple of caveats.

First, you'll have to bring viewers to your online video. When you do a traditional TV show, you'll automatically have viewers; those TV shows are on the air because they've built up their audience base. With your own book video, you'll have to find viewers yourself. That means an effective book promotion campaign, these days, includes a video promotion campaign component (and a book Web site promotion campaign), too.

Second, your book's multimedia show has to be professionally conceptualized and executed. The production values must be top-notch. They don't necessarily have to include video components, which can really jack up the cost (and, ironically, lower the quality) of multimedia shows for books. But they do have to leave PowerPoint presentations in the dust, and -- as talented as your college-age nephew might be -- this is a project for production professionals, not relatives and students. The multimedia show is a reflection on your book, so if you can't afford a first-rate production, then put the idea on hold until you can.

When your multimedia book show is built, and viewers are watching it on YouTube (and on your Web site), you might ask: Who needs "Oprah?" Why should I bother to pitch traditional national TV shows when I now have my own book multimedia show online? Well, for now, we all need "Oprah" (and other tradtional book promotion opportunities).

Next year...who knows?

Are you using video for book promotion?

Are you using videos, such as multimedia book presenters, as part of your book promotion campaign? One of my favorite vendors for multimedia book presenters, by the way, is AuthorBytes, which designs sites for many of my clients and a whole host of bestselling authors, fiction and nonfiction, whose names you'll recognize.

Anyway, if you are using multimedia book presenters or video of any kind as part of your book promotion campaign, you'll want your book publicist to send the links to media contacts. In addition, you've already thought of using YouTube (along with your own Web site) to house your video. But you may be wondering: where else should I upload my video?

The answer, according to a WebProNews article, is that, once you've uploaded your site to YouTube, you can consider your task done. At least for now, YouTube has crushed the competition. Its videos show up ahead of every other site's videos in the search engines, so if you want to upload your video to the place that most people will go to by default, that place is YouTube.

At least until the next big video site comes along.