Author's YouTube video helps make it all 'worth it'

I LIKED this video from Leicestershire writer Jeanette McCarthy. It has had the desired effect as I now want to read the book.

Abandoned

But how did Jeanette go about making such a film, and has it been an experience she'd recommend?

She says:

I'd been thinking about trying to do something like this video, but I am not at all good at that sort of thing, and YouTube had defeated me. As part of my social networking routine to try and publicise my book, I joined a site called Published Authors

I had a look at other people’s pages, and a good few had great little videos to go with their books, which had all been done by the same company. The general comments from those who had commissioned a video were very positive, so I contacted them to see if they’d do one for me.

This was a US company called Ghost Writers Extraordinaire. (GWE) They looked at my website and asked a few questions, and I supplied a couple of photos for them. They said they’d go ahead and produce something for me, and I left it in their hands.

It took them less than a week, and I was allowed to change things twice before the video was completed.

They then posted it for me on dozens of internet sites and gave me the code to embed it in my own website (which I haven’t done yet – technically I’m useless) The whole exercise cost me $150, and took less than 10 days start to finish. They were friendly and helpful, and I would definitely recommend them.

The one thing that did surprise me is the angle the company took when preparing the video. I’d have gone with the ‘struggle for survival’ angle, whereas they went for the ‘damaged soul turned bad’. I talked to them about this and they were quite categorical that this was a better selling point. I took their word for it.

GWE have posted this video just about everywhere. I have sent it to all my writing circles and to all the independent bookshops selling my book.

I write free articles for internet sites, which gives me a free link back to my website. I also press release every little thing that happens, such as recently my book is being stocked by Waterstones. I have been featured in the local press and radio, and gave a little talk recently at a local arts festival. I have had leaflets printed and distributed them around my home town, and joined Facebook. In short, I’ll do just about anything!

The video has been slightly disappointing from a sales point of view, but I’ve had a big increase in website hits.

Videos like this work best for people who already have a lot of social network sites set up with their own presence that they can post to. If you can do a video yourself, so much the better, but for the sake of £75, I not only got a professional looking product, but also an interesting bit of marketing advice – the angle I should be plugging to sell the book. I think it’s worth it.

The most important thing if you want to sell your book is to get out there and make people aware of it. But it’s very hard work, sometimes soul destroying, and no fun if like me you are not a publicity hound. Nevertheless, when someone comes up to you are says: ‘I loved your book, I couldn’t put it down’ It’s all worth it.

Comments

[Paul Groves]

It is the type of approach that more writers need to consider.

I'm interested to hear that it hasn't had a huge impact on sales.
As important as that obviously is, I think these days the benefit of something like this is in generating some "brand recognition".

Getting people to find you and learn about what you do is crucial and the various internet tools available enable us all to do that more effectively.

And as professional as the video looks, social networking means you could probably find a friend (as in a Facebook or Twitter etc friend) to help you do it cheaper!

[Sue]

Hi

I thought this was really helpful as it was so honest! I am very interested in doing the same to get my message "out there"..... about parenting what was the name and web address of the company you used?

Very warm wishes

Sue Atkins

Author of "Raising Happy Children for Dummies"

www.positive-parents.com

[Linda]

thanks Paul and Sue - the company Jeanette used was Ghost Writer Extraordinaire - there is a link in the post above, if you click on the name of the company, who are based in the US, but you could do it yourself with the right equipment or work with Lindsey/your PR team, perhaps to come up with something - have a listen to our podcast about my book too if you like - it's a bit scary doing it but I hope it gets the message across.