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?

Agree to disagree

A client recently was interviewed by a Christian radio show. After the interview, he called to request that, in the future, I refrain from booking him on Christian radio shows. When I asked why, he said, "Well, the hosts disagree with my book's thesis, so there's no point in talking with them."

Well, I disagree. Every radio interview, on any type of radio station, is a book promotion opportunity. And nearly every host who disagrees with you provides you with an opportunity to make your case. (Those who don't provide you with an opportunity to make your case present a particular challenge, but there are ways to rise to that challenge, too.)

Book promotion opportunities aren't easy to come by. If they were, then book publicists would be out of business. As a book publicist, I work hard to schedule each and every interview, and the last thing I want is to screen potential interviewers to make sure their perspective is identical to my client's point of view before finalizing the interview.

I can appreciate a client's wish to attract interviews from media outlets that he or she respects the most (particularly, from those venues that are on his or her media "wish list"). And I can understand a client's desire to say, in advance of the book promotion campaign, "I'll do an interview that comes up except A, B, and C" (where A, B, and C are radio talk show hosts who make their living beating up or mocking or humiliating guests just for the sport of it). I'm very comfortable, for example, with the client who says, "Don't bother to pitch Howard Stern, because I wouldn't consider doing his show."

But I don't appreciate it when clients sabotage their own book promotion potential by restricting the pool of interviewers to "known, safe" quantities. No book publicist can predict what will happen during an interview; therefore, no interviewer is perfectly "safe." Anyone can disagree with a client, for any reason, and it shouldn't be the end of the world.

But limiting the media outlets that might help you promote your book can very well be the end of your book promotion campaign.

A vulgar way to get book promotion opportunities.

Here's a vulgar way to get book promotion opportunities. Although I'm willing to share it, I don't advocate it either as a book publicist or as a human being. That said, here's how to get more book publicity opportunities than you can handle: get involved with O.J. Simpson, and then offer your "exclusive" perspective into the man's psyche.

That's just what "a key figure in the O.J. Simpson case" did, according to an Associated Press article that's making the rounds. The O.J. Simpson case in question, interestingly enough, isn't the O.J. Simpson case. It's the other O.J. Simpson case -- you know, the one that involves sports memorabilia, a hotel room, possible kidnapping, and (potentially) at least one gun. And the "key figure" who has something to do with the case -- it ain't O.J., and I couldn't quite get myself to commit the name of the person it was to long-term memory -- is cashing in on his, um, proud association with O.J. Simpson here in our world. He wrote a book, he had it published, and now he's promoting it.

Somewhere, I'll bet a book publicist (or book publicists) are cringing at the thought of what they've involved themselves in. I hope the publisher is cringing, too.

As for me, I'm not exactly proud of myself for adding this blog to the book promotion this "key figure" is receiving for his O.J. Simpson-related title. But I'll defend myself, partially, by reminding you that I never mentioned the name of the author's book.

I'll conclude by saying this. If you don't always get as many book promotion opportunities you deserve, at least you can be thankful that you haven't stooped to the level of some authors, who right about certain vulgar topics, to get the book promotion that you do receive. It's a trade-off, I suppose, but I'd never promote a book related to O.J. Simpson -- and I'm glad that, as an independent book promotion specialist, that choice is mine to make.

Are these books even worth promoting?

HarperCollins is launching an imprint which will be led by Robert S Miller, founder of Hyperion. A new imprint, you say. Wow! Great!

Well, not so much. The new HarperCollins imprint, the name of which hasn't yet been announced (or this book publicist has missed it), has two drawbacks. First, it doesn't pay an advance to authors (or the advance is so small that it may as well not exist, since it won't cover the author's time in preparing the book and waiting for it to pay royalties). Also -- and this is the biggie -- the books will be nonreturnable.

I've just read a Guardian Weekly article that quotes Miller as saying that he'll have to figure out a way to get booksellers to buy his books on a nonreturnable basis. Yes. And right after he figures that out, he can end world hunger, get the U.S. troops out of Iraq, and cure AIDS.

I'll sit here and wait.

The new HarperCollins imprint begs the question: Are the books they publish even going to be books, given the fact that -- unless Miller pulls a rabbit out of a hat that has long proven itself hostile to bunnies -- bookstores won't even entertain the idea of carrying them? Worse, since the books are nonreturnable, most bookstores won't even know how to order the books and will, mostly likely, turn customers away. Even an appearance on "Oprah" couldn't turn a book that probably won't be ordered by bookstores into a success.

I just hope that, before authors sign on with the new HarperCollins imprint do their homework and determine whether they can live with its drawbacks. With changes occurring in the publishing industry, the homework never ends.

Being a book publicist is no joke.

Being a book publicist is no joke, and book promotion isn't a joke, either. So when a client approached me about sending out a press release parody on her behalf for April Fool's Day, I declined.

The press release would have contained how-to tips that were "funny," because they represented ideas that were diametrically opposed to the author's "real" how-to tips. I declined to send out such a press release on the grounds that it was irresponsible.

The author in question isn't irresponsible. She's been offering the media her how-to tips for years, and the media loves them and rewards her for being the expert in her field by providing her with tons of high-profile interview opportunities on a regular basis. But, in this case, I believe the author was misguided.

An author can have fun during her book promotion campaign. I hope book publicity is fun. I want it to be fun.

But an author, like book publicists, has to guard her credibility. All she has to offer the media, finally, is her credibility -- just as all book pubicists have to offer the media, finally, is the trust they've earned over the years they've spent nurturing relationiships. It would be a very bad call, in my judgment, to throw away that credibility and trust for the privilege of being able to chortle "April Fool!" when someone believes a press release (and, perhaps, is ready to schedule an interview that revolves around a press release) that contains false information.

That is why this book publicist declined to play an April Fool's Day joke on the media. I think it's a very bad idea, and as a book promotion professional, I choose to associate myself with only very good ideas. Onward....

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

One of the responsibilities of a book publicist -- or of anyone who's organizing a book promotion campaign -- is to keep abreast of changes in the media. Producers, editors, and hosts come and go, and keeping up with those changes can be disheartening (as when Don Imus lands another on-air gig) or puzzling (as when Kathie Lee Gifford is hired to be part of the "Today Show" team).

Kathie Lee Gifford? The fluffy co-host of "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee?" The perky half of morning television's fluffiest, perkiest show ever? On the "Today Show?"

I'm puzzled. What could Kathie Lee Gifford bring to a news program that includes -- but doesn't focus on -- lighter features?

Well, like everyone else who promotes books, I'll find out soon, I suppose. Stay tuned....

Could blogs ever replace books?

Could blogs ever replace books in the hearts and souls of book lovers? Of course not. But will there ever be a generation that grows up without books -- favoring, instead, the chunks of information they can get by logging onto the Internet and reading Web sites, ezines, and blogs? Maybe. Check out this article on Icwales.com/.

Another survey -- this one, done in Great Britain, I'm pleased to say -- finds that young people are reading fewer books than their parents did. And how many books will their children read? That's the really disturbing question.

If young people today prefer reading blogs to curling up with a good book, then what will become of the generation that follows them? And the generation after that? And the generation after that?

Book promotion is difficult enough with all the competition for readers' attention. What will happen when the definition of "reader" changes to mean "someone who frequently logs onto the Internet and scans information that might be of interest?"

To whom will we promote our books then?

Thinking Outside the Blog: An Update

Since I last posted about Gary David Goldberg's blog entry, "WWAKD: What Would Alex Keaton Do," there have been two major developments.

To backtrack a bit, Gary David Goldberg (creator of "Family Ties" and author of the new book, Sit, Ubu, Sit) posted a blog entry on his Web site. I'm fortunate enough to be handling the online portion of Gary's comprehensive book promotion campaign.

The article moved me, and I asked for (and received) permission to "think outside the blog" and pitch the article to other media outlets. Within 24 hours, the New York Times blog, Campaign Stop, posted Gary's article. That was on March 3.

A couple of days later, on a hunch, I checked Google and discovered that the blog entry had spread virally. Blogs ranging from Politico to the Atlantic had linked back to Gary's article (as published by the New York Times blog). I published, in my previous blog entry (Thinking Outside the Blog) a partial list of the links back to the article I'd found as of a couple of days ago.

I'm excited to report that the article is still spreading around the Internet in the best example of viral marketing that I've ever been involved with. New York Magazine's Web site has linked back to the article, and the Los Angeles Times' LA Funny Pages 2.0 blog has also featured part of the article and a link back to the complete text on the New York Times blog.

And if that weren't enough, the real-world version of the Chicago Tribune ran the article yesterday, and its Web site featured the article, as well. The (Allentown, PA) Morning Call also ran the article yesterday and featured it on its Web site. And the LA Daily News is running the article this Sunday (and I feel confident that it will show up on their Web site, too).

Gary David Goldberg is a fantastic writer with an unmatched instinct for choosing topics that are current, poignant, and controversial. His work has inspired "water cooler chats" for decades. So it's not surprising that his thoughts about how an iconic character whom he created, Alex P. Keaton of "Family Ties," would vote in the upcoming presidential election has garnered a tremendous amount of interest and discussion (as of now, there are 215 readers' comments posted on the New York Times blog).

Good for him. Gary David Goldberg is a man who's earned success and found it many times over, and it's unsurprising that he's found more of it with this article. But there's a lesson for all of us to be drawn here, and that is simply this: blog! And when you think you don't have time to blog, blog anyway! And then extend your blog entries beyond the blog. See how far you can take them. You might be able to launch a viral marketing campaign of your own just because of one great piece of writing. It's hard to overlook the success this particular blog entry, "What Would Alex Keaton Do," has enjoyed.

Open letter to the National Enquirer editors

Dear National Enquirer editors:

You could publish that story, NATIONAL ENQUIRER WORLD EXCLUSIVE: PATRICK SWAYZE HAS 5 WEEKS TO LIVE, so you did. You get the glory of scoring an exclusive on a "breaking news story."

And what do members of Mr. Swayze's inner circle get?

Pain.

And what do his fans get?

Sadness. And anger.

This fan didn't want to find out about Mr. Swayze's health condition from you, dear editors. She wanted to find out -- when and if appropriate -- from Mr. Swayze himself or those who are authorized to speak on his behalf.

Shame on you for depriving the Swazye family, and those who care about them, of that opportunity. Shame on you for deciding to publish what best served your purposes just because you could -- regardless of the consequences.

Thinking Outside the Blog

Why blog? It's a lot of work, and it's time-consuming, even for professional writers and those who just love to write. So why do it?

Because one blog entry -- if you think outside the blog -- can get your message all over cyberspace (and, by extension, all over the globe) just about instantly. Could that benefit your book promotion campaign?

Are you serious?

Here's an example of how it can work.

A client, Gary David Goldberg, recently wrote a blog entry called "WWAKD (What Would Alex Keaton Do)" He posted it on his personal blog on his Web site. His site, which is new, is already building a very respectable following and helping to promote his new book, Sit, Ubu, Sit: How I went from Brooklyn to Hollywood with the Same Woman, the Same Dog, and a Lot Less Hair .

The article is about how the fictional character, Alex P. Keaton of "Family Ties," might vote in the upcoming presidential election, and I think it's insightful and witty and compassionate and touching (and I'd expect no less from its author).

Because I believe in the power of "thinking outside the blog," I pitched the article as an op-ed piece to various media contacts at the same time as Goldberg uploaded it to his Web site.

The New York Times asked for (and received) permission to publish the article in their own political blog called Campaign Stops. The Times posted the article on the evening of March 3, and the next morning, there was a hyperlink to the story on the NYT.com home page (with a vintage file photograph of Michael J. Fox dressed to play the role of Alex P. Keaton). As of this writing, the story has elicted 196 readers' comments on the New York Times' blog (which run the gamut, by the way, from "Who is Alex Keaton? I’ve never heard of him before" to "To see a picture of Alex P. Keaton on the New York Times is worth this article alone").

On an inspired hunch, I Googled the phrase "What Would Alex Keaton Do" this morning and found that the following Web sites -- many of which you'll recognize -- have linked to the NYT blog:

Atlantic.com
Politico.com
NowPublic.com
Topix.com
KWOFF.com.au
Wilshire and Washington
NewsVine.com
North American Patriot
Suburban Correspondent
Yedda.com
Memeorandum.com
Electionbid2008
Twitter.com
Intermedia Outdoors Forums
BlogoWogo.com
Abram’s Nickels
Democratic Underground
Red Blue America blog

And I've begun the process of submitting a press release I drafted about how Alex Keaton might vote, and the fact that the New York Times cares about the topic, all over the Web. The release has already appeared in Google News along with a photo of the Sit, Ubu, Sit book cover.

Also, about a dozen newspapers (including one of the major dailies) from coast to coast have asked for an author's photo in anticipation of publishing the article -- both on their Web sites and in their real-world newspapers.

All that media coverage has come from one really great, well-conceived, and well-written blog entry. Granted, the blog entry was written by Gary David Goldberg, who has been a household name in many TV-watching households for more than two decades, so you might ask what Gary's success in promoting his article has to do with the exposure your blog entry is likely to receive.

Well, okay. You can say, "Forget it. No one cares about my blog entry. I'll upload it to my Web site and move on. Let's think of some more realistic book promotion strategies, please."

Or you can think outside the blog.

And who knows what might happen?

It's your choice.

"If it ain't broke, break it."

This is only tangentally related to book promotion, but since it affects those of us who want to continue to watch television with our lower-tech TV sets after the Digital TV Revolution overthrows the Analog TV Regime (or something like that -- sadly, the details escape this book promotion specialist), I'll share what I just learned.

The NTIA (The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration) is offering up to two discount coupons for each TV-watching household for digital converter boxes for its much-hyped Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program. So, if you still want to watch television on your less than state-of-the-art TV set after the Revolution -- and you'd like a discount coupon from the government to help you pay for this privilege -- then you can call the FCC's Digital Converter Box Hotline at 1-888-388-2009. Alternatively, you can click here.

If you're far braver than this book publicist and want to try to figure out what in the world the Digital TV Revolution is all about, and how it will/won't/may affect your television-watching life, then click here.

If anyone can wade through all that information and make sense of it, I invite him or her to pass along the geek-free details here.

Are book tours part of your book promotion strategy?

If conventional book tours (as opposed to online book tours) are a part of your book promotion campaign, then you might want to consider memorializing your book tour stops on BookTour.com. The site allows fans who are in the market to go to book signings to connect with authors who will be in the neighborhood as part of a book tour.

You can read more about the BookTour.com site and its benefits here, at author Connie Briscoe's site. As Connie implies, one of the site's fringe benefits is that it lets search engines know about your book tour by getting your book's title "out there" on the Net. So not only do authors get to connect with their fans through BookTour.com, but they also get to connect with search engines. And BookTour.com is free (at least, it's free for now).

So, if you are using book tours as part of your book promotion strategy, why not take a look at BookTour.com? You have nothing to lose, and who knows? You might even bring a few extra people into your book signings.

Book promotion ups and downs.

Book promotion ups and downs: every author who has ever engaged in a book publicity campaign can tell the same story. This particular tale belongs to a blogger whose blog is called Shoshanahala's Weblog. Check out the experiences of a first-time nonfiction author here.

To veteran book promoters out there, does any of this sound familiar? Any thoughts about which is less stressful: television or radio interviews?

As Judge Judy says....

Say what you will about Judge Judy Sheindlin's shortcomings as a gracious and kind adjudicator, but she's inarguably right about at least one thing: when you tell the truth, you don't ever have to worry about getting your story straight.

I was reminded of that as I read the news reports of Roger Clemens' and Brian McNamee's recent testimony at the Congressional hearings. Both of them, according to all the sources I checked, looked and sounded suspiciously as though they were, at best, covering up something and not telling the whole truth.

There's a lesson in here for authors who are promoting their books and granting media interviews as part of their book promotion campaigns. If you want to look and sound credible, keep your answers simple and above board. Be sure your pitch is honest, too. Using a headline such as "Local author has just discovered a cure for AIDS" may get you the interview, but it will also earn you instant animosity when the reporter or host finds out it just isn't true.

Be honest. Always. Tell the truth, and present yourself as you are -- nothing more, and nothing less.

Hyperbole isn't your friend. Stammering, pausing, and twitching nervously while you try to figure out which version of the story you're supposed to be sharing with the media is the enemy of a successful book promotion campaign. And it wouldn't score any points with Judge Judy Sheindlin, either.

Do you want to know how important radio is? Think: Jess Cain.

Do you want to know how important radio is to listeners? Here's how important it is.

A friend left a voice mail message for me this morning at work. It said, "Jess Cain died." And I started to sob.

So who was Jess Cain? If you have to ask, then you probably didn't live within range of the old WHDH-AM Boston-area radio signal anytime between 1958 and 1991 or, if you did, then you probably weren't an early riser.

Jess sent me off to school each morning. He was the first person to talk to me when I awoke, he was the first person to make me smile each day, and he was usually the first person to break the really, really bad news to me each morning, too (my mom actually woke me in the wee hours of a particular morning in December of 1981 expressly so that I wouldn't hear about John Lennon's murder from Jess) -- and to share the really, really good news (snow day! yay!) with me.

I still remember his last day on the air as clearly as I remember other huge losses in my life. I'm sure I have plenty of company in feeling that Jess Cain, and all those larger-than-life, local radio personalities of the time -- smart and talented, respectful and kind -- were never replaced, and never will be.

The intimacy of radio persists, though, and if authors and publishers ever question whether it's worth it to do an interview on a small radio station, this blog entry is my response. Yes. Do it. It's worth it. There's nothing as intimate and satisfying as connecting with a radio audience.

Jess was almost a member of my family. His successors (at other area radio stations -- WHDH radio doesn't even exist any longer, alas) aren't in his league, but I still feel a strong bond with some of the on-air personalities who populate the airwaves these days. They're an important part of my life, and my newsgathering, and my entertainment, and my waking up in the morning -- and they're an integral part of the lives of other members of their listeners, too. Who wouldn't want to tap into that powerful relationship as part of a book promotion campaign?

If you love Jess Cain, the way that I do, you might want to read about him. Click here to do so at the Boston Globe's Web site.

Free eBook, anyone? An experiment in book publishing.

Free eBook download, anyone? Or would you just like to read part of a book online at a really great discount (it would have to be at a really great discount if you only get to read part of the book, obviously)?

Well, they're doing it again. Yes. Two major publishing houses, HarperCollins and Random House, are making some of their novels available online either for free, or nearly for free, to entice people to read for recreation. Here's an article from Guardian Unlimited Books that will tell you all about the experiment.

Is it naive of this book publicist to believe that HarperCollins and Random House are trying a little bit too hard to entice people to read their books? I mean, how many of us who work in, and around, the publishing industry balk at the idea of reading books?

Okay, okay, I know. I've read the statistics, too. People aren't reading now as much as they used to. But do we change people's reading habits -- and, not so coincidentally, do we increase book sales -- by giving away free books?

I'd hate to think we have to resort to giving away the store to entice people to read good books. And what if people just don't want to read novels online? Is that supposed to tell HarperCollins and Random House that novels are dead?

I don't even want to think about what will happen if this book publishing experiment fails.

Going first class?

Is anyone going first class? If you're mailing your book promotion materials via first class mail these days, then it's time to stock up on the United States Postal Service's Forever Stamps. The USPS has just announced that, beginning in May, the price of a first class postage stamp will increase by a penny.

Now, I'm not petty. I won't argue a one-cent increase on an annual basis is going to break the bank for authors, publishers, and book publicists.

But I will say this. The USPS has announced that the price of a first class postage stamp will increase by a penny. No word from their spokeperson yet on what will happen to the price of flat-rate Priority mail (which I use all the time) or the rates for mailing books via media mail (which I rarely use, but still...).

Just thought I'd mention the price increases to come in May so that you can plan your book promotion mailings accordingly. If you can finish the bulk of them before the postal rate increases, so much the better for you.

Are printed galleys a thing of the past?

Well, no. You still have to print galleys if you want such industry publications as "Publishers Weekly" and "Library Journal" to consider reviewing your book. But will that always be the case?

Maybe not.

According to an article in PW Daily, Rosetta Solutions is now providing a service called netGalley that might one day render printed ARCs and galleys obselete. For now, "Publishers Weekly" is using netGalley to capture such information as press materials and promotional plans, when publishers and authors submit their books for review.

But it sounds as though stage two of netGalley -- eliminating that short print run of galleys and sending the advance review media a digital copy of galleys -- is just around the corner. That's good news for those of us who love the thought of saving trees and postage even as we increase our efficiency. But it's bad news for those publishers and authors (and book publicists) who have been slow to adapt to the online world, or who just don't want to see how the Internet relates to book promotion.

Bob Dylan was right. The times, they are a'changing. And now would be a really good time to commit to moving forward with those changes so that, at the very least, you're still in the publishing game five years down the road.

Who decides what Google sees?

What Google finds when someone searches for your name, or for your book, is key to your reputation and credibility. So who decides what Google sees? There's an article in the Technology section of Newsweek.com called "Google Yourself—And Enjoy It" that talks about how such companies as ReputationHawk, ReputationDefender, and International Reputation Management provide damage control when your online image is compromised.

But those companies don't do anything we can't do ourselves. The most important point the Newsweek.com article makes is that, to control what Google sees, just keep creating content. The more positive the content you create, the more positive your online reputation will be -- and the more positive an impression you'll make when others Google you. Keep writing articles and press releases, and keep creating blog entries. The positive will soon outweigh the negative -- or, at least -- the negative will be pushed off the front page of Google's results.

Online book promotion is a lot like online personal promotion. Sure, everything that's posted on the Net about your book won't read just the way it would if you'd written it yourself. But there's one way to cure that problem: get your keyboard going, and start typing. Google sees what you tell it to see. That's the good news. Take advantage of it!