by Brittany Lavin
Nothing is more effective for promoting a book than hearing about the book directly from the author. Without a doubt, it’s the author saying a few words pitching the merits of his or her book that will motivate consumers to order their book. Generating interest in the book is the entire focus of every promotional effort—the goal is to produce the buzz that persuades the buyer to purchase the author’s book.
For decades authors trekked to bookstores throughout the land to talk up their books with folks attending these in store presentations, however, in recent years there are fewer bookstores hosting author book signings and the attendance at these events has dropped drastically with the increasing popularity of the Internet. Every month more folks were discovering the ease of accessing and benefitting from the various offerings, opportunities, and informative features found on the far reaching digital web supporting and encouraging social networking.
Folks long accustom to communicating via letters, handwritten notes, and phone calls carried by miles of wire, are now suddenly zapped into a lightening flash speed of communicating with the ability of reach out and thoughtfully touch people almost anywhere in the world with a smart-phone call or through typed words in emails, instant-messages, and brief twitters or tweaks. And then came blogs—blogs where the reflective thoughts posted by bloggers hang accessible forever in the vastness of cyber-space.
Authors promoting their books were some of the first individuals to benefit from publishing book dedicated websites and posting an array of content on their blogs. Their informative content provided exposure to visitors and readers to buzz to others about their book content. Thankfully, the technologists then found a way to deliver the voice and vision of individuals via easy to produce videos recorded with digital cameras included as a feature of their smart phone or captured by the laptop computer’s build-in video cam. Soon individually produced and distributed videos were popping up like spring mushrooms all across the web.
Never in the long history of book publishing, have individual authors been graced with free and open access through a public portal to reach beyond the pages of their books and connect directly with people interested in knowing more about the authors and their books.
Infinity would like all of our authors to have this opportunity to promote their books
You, the author, need to take the first step by creating a book video to benefit from this marvelous promotional opportunity.
Here are a few basic steps for making it happen:
1. Prepare an outline of what you want to mention in your video. Some folks like to have a script, but the last thing you want to do is to come off looking like you are reading something word-for-word. You’re the author and you need to project a high degree of ease and comfort when you talk about your book.
2. Practice your presentation in front of a mirror so you’re able to deliver your message in 1-3 minutes—if you go longer than 5 minutes you’ll lose their attention. Smile and be natural, you want to try to have the demeanor of meeting an old friend who just asked you about your book and you only have a few minutes to talk with them.
3. The keywords are “talk with them”—don’t get all uppity and start talking down to them. This is a sure turnoff, so be sure to come from a place of talking “with” rather than “to” them.
4. Dress for comfort by selecting a shirt, blouse, or sweater that’s fashionable and is in keeping with what you normally wear in public. You’ll be striving for a head-and-shoulder shot that features your face—keep the background simple and uncluttered so viewers are focused on what you are saying and not trying to figure out what’s going on in the surroundings.
5. This is a solo performance, so don’t include spouses, cute kids or lovable pets—you are the spotlighted star.
6. Be sure your closing includes where viewers can order your book and the briefest URL to your book dedicated website. You want them to visit your website to read more about you and your book.
7. By producing your own video in the comfort of your home you have the ability of redoing your video to smooth out any glitches and misspoken words.
8. Variety increases attention and the reach of your videos, so vary the thrust of your future video content while keeping the primary focus on your book, for example:
A. First and foremost talk about your book—this is the topic you’re most familiar with so always lead with what you know best and benefits you the most.
B. Create a video to promote attendance at a future event you will be participating in with your book—be sure to include where and when with contact info for folks interested in meeting you in person.
C. Talk about your publishing experience with Infinity Publishing—be specific with regards to mentioning any unique features we provided that directly benefited the publication and distribution of your book, or simply say a few words about your experience with us.
D. Reader reviewers are great when posted on your book dedicated website, but you can increase their impact by making a video that includes what others have said about your book.
8. Submit your book videos to Infinity Publishing and we’ll post them on Infinity’s blog and other video outlets—exposure is the name of the game and the more exposure for your book is all the better for increasing book sales. Your book dedicated website and Facebook are great places for you to post links to all of your book promotion videos.
Invest some of your time reviewing book videos created by other authors and make notes about what aspects worked well that can be incorporated into your presentation, and also learn from what came across as things you want to avoid doing. With a bit of ongoing research and carefully planning your approach, your finished results will be more effective and you’ll reach a larger audience with your book video.
Perhaps the most important recommendations are to keep your book video simple and stay focused on the primary information you are conveying to every viewer clicking on to see and hear what you have to say about your book.
