Here are my tips for creating your best book or eBook video trailer to promote your product on video sites like YouTube, and places like Twitter or FaceBook.

The job of the video book trailer is the same as that of a movie trailer: give them a taste, but keep them wanting more. It should accurately reflect the content of your book, but not give away the farm.

Perhaps most importantly, this video should be able to be distributed all on its own: if people see nothing about your book but the trailer, they should know (1) what your book will do for them, (2) how much it is, and (3) where to buy it or find out more. This way, you can distribute the video almost any way, through any media, and it will do the same job.

As a sales tool, I won’t bore you again here with my now-familiar rant about video being the most powerful communication medium, how anybody can do it in their basement, and how the cost-benefit ratio of all online marketing tools is highest with video.

Let’s skip to the tips.

- At the very top of the cheap-and-simple scale, you can always cobble together video clips using Windows Movie Maker, now part of basic Windows. Mac fans have numerous choices, but the objective here is to use whatever allows you to get it out the door the fastest.

- Focus on benefits, rather than features. (Yeah, I know you’ve head me lecture about that before, too.) Will the book tell them how to shave minutes off their best marathon run time? Will it teach them how to drug-proof their kids? Will it give them an advantage when they apply for their next job? It’s not about “how to”, but rather about “you can have this too”.

- Keep it under 2 minutes. Longer than that and you lose them.

- Put a ghost image of your URL on every screen, either in the bottom corner or across the bottom. Just make sure you don’t block the view of stuff on-screen. If you can’t put a ghost image, be sure to clearly display the URL at the beginning, somewhere in the middle, and again clearly at the end.

- Include a copyright statement as the last screen with your company and the year.

- Enhance the mood using cool music, appropriate tempo and pace, and additional stock video if need be. (iStock.com now offers video as well as still photographs.)

- Use video of YOURSELF talking, as per an interview format. If need be, get someone to sit to the side of the camera and ask you questions from off-screen. This is really important, because it enables readers to connect and build (virtual) trust with you as a source for information. You might feel silly, but just get your hair done and get in front of that camera. It will be over soon, I promise. (Just be sure to get enough raw footage that you have plenty to choose from. If you don’t like it, you can always leave it on the cutting room floor.)

- Do not use crazy special effects unless your book is about crazy special effects.

- Don’t just accept the defaults in whatever editing program you are using, whether it be Windows Movie Maker or Final Cut. Question everything for quality, appropriateness, and clarity. Fonts, fade-ins, credits, etc.

- When in doubt, be subtle.

- For background music, I’ve been using StockMusic.net for some time now. Good selection, and you are guaranteed not to be sued.

- Use humour – but don’t let it be too dry. An audience will really warm up to you if you let out your funny side.

- Upload the video to YouTube for easy distribution and natural traffic. Yet again, your early keyword research comes in handy here, as you can plug in your pre-determined keywords around the video, and double-whammy your SEO work. Google LOVES a well-catalogued YouTube video. There are many other sites that will help you distribute your video, but YouTube is a great place to start.

And finally, be sure to test it on at least 8 people. Make sure these are people of all ages and backgrounds, and not necessarily in your market. Even if they don’t understand certain buzzwords, the video should have enough generic appeal so that everyone can “get” you immediately.

A friend of mine, Sheri K. Hoff, inspired me to write this blog post when she recently released her own video trailer. Her book, The Keys to Living Joyfully, is selling briskly not only because it’s a great book, but because Sheri has taken personal responsibility for getting it out there.

Sheri made this trailer herself, and I’m thrilled that she took the bull by the horns and got this out the door. And yes, that beautiful dancer is her daughter. Good for you, Sheri!

I find this blog post from the Society of Authors in France interesting because it’s what many of us perceive as the main points of debate on self-publishing.

Here’s what I agree with in this post:

- Every Author needs help. It’s real work – you can’t do it all yourself.
- Every Author is afraid of selling. We all get over it, and the faster you do, the more you’ll sell.
- Hire an Editor. I don’t care if it’s me or not, but almost nobody can edit their own work. (I should know – I’ve tried for years and it always sucks when I edit my own stuff.)
- It’s true that more people are reading eBooks, and for some, that’s definitely the way to go. (BUT: see note below.)
- Write because you have something new, groundbreaking or truly useful to say, not because you think you can make money writing about a particular topic. It is twisted but true that writing just to make money will make you poor.
- Finding alternative or unusual markets for your self-published material can be your greatest success. In fact, any truly great self-publishing success that I’ve personally experienced or witnessed has happened in this way. Don’t think bookstores – they are rarely profitable.
- A new breed of professional is definitely developing (ahem – such as Yours Truly) who is all about helping self-published Authors get their stuff out there.
- All self-published Authors need to get serious about selling from a quality website which includes an affiliate marketing plan.

Here’s what I don’t agree with:

- You don’t lose out on anything such as editing, graphic design, or quality printing if you self-publish. Anything is available to anybody these days.
- eBooks are not a direct alternative to printed book publishing. They are a different market altogether, and anyone considering the eBook route should perform market research to see if an eBook is appropriate for their market and materials. (See a future post for details.)
- You do not lose out on marketing, publicity, distribution, or reviews in the press if you self-publish. (Who ever said a traditional publisher got you all that stuff, anyway? All Authors end up doing tons of work in this area whether self-published or not. You may need help, but it’s no harder than for a traditionally-published Author.)
- Being self-published does not mean that you are not going to be of interest to agents. It means that you are going to have to approach them differently, but they will probably be just as interested if not more, because they know they’re working with an Author who is committed and hungry.
- Shipping your own books is rarely practical. There are plenty of fulfillment providers that will do this for you, and I can recommend a great guy who ships for me worldwide if you need one.
- Self-publishing does not rule out any opportunities to sell foreign rights. I don’t know where anybody got that idea, actually.
- I don’t know why an Author would want to sell their eBook to a publisher. The bulk of the cost of self-publishing is in the printing, so once that is out of the picture, why wouldn’t you self-publish?
- Here I go again, but print-on-demand is not usually the way for most Authors to publish their books. (For my reasons, just read some of my old posts.)

Every Author wants to produce the best book that they can. For some of us, self-publishing seems difficult to navigate, and we’re worried about being forced to accept sub-standard results. We worry about things like learning to sell and how we can afford to launch a national marketing campaign. The reality is that if we are treating our books as a business, we won’t have any trouble selling it. This means doing proper market research, writing very well (ie. saying something really valuable), and performing due diligence on things like quality graphic design and product creation.

In conversations with plenty of authors, self-published or otherwise, I have heard many of the same concerns over and over again. But with help, anything is possible. Always remember that another Author has been there before you, and if they did it, so can you.

July 18 in San Francisco is going to be an interesting opportunity to examine the self-publishing industry. Click to http://www.instockconference.com for details about speakers and venues.

Information from the site:

Join us this July for INSTOCK, a conference for book self publishers. Panels will address:

- Marketing your book
- Selecting a POD or printing house
- Understanding rankings
- Finding your audience
- Publicity tactics
- Pricing your product
… and more.

To see the current schedule and speakers, click here.

Panelists will include successful self publishers, marketing pros, executives from the traditional publishing industry and others who will get you thinking strategically about your books.

Register by June 30th to get the early bird rate of $195! Tickets can be purchased via Ticketweb.

Publishing is fast-changing, and self publishing authors are inciting a re-examination of the industry. Meet other authors, learn how to improve your game, and be part of the movement at InStock.
…..
Sounds like I might see you there!

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard an author say to me lately, “With all that my publisher is making me do to promote my book, I’m not sure why I needed them at all.”

Check out this very revealing and plain-facts Globe and Mail article (with the appropriately defeatist title, “Publish, and Your Book Will Probably Perish”) about the modern world of traditional publishing. Every single complaint in this article has a painfully obvious cure in self-publishing.

Basically, the article describes how when tough times happen, major publishers are no different than any other company. They usually cut back on the last activity they should ever skimp on: sales. The reason for this is simple – any entrepreneur will tell you that sales are usually the most expensive part of any business, whether it be in publicity, customer acquisition, payment for sales services, or more generally, in marketing. Accountants see dollars going out the door, and they look for the biggest column. That’s the one they chop.

One fiction author is anonymously quoted as saying, “[there has been a] …steady erosion of [publishers'] services toward creators. … [They] no longer edit or proofread as they once did, buy advertising, employ a sales force … and tour authors as they once did” – and this at a time when the books they publish have climbed in price to “the edge of affordability for most readers.” Hmm. Sounds like the only difference between a self-publishing author and a traditionally-published author is now the imprint on the title page.

Self-published or not, there is (let’s be frank here) plenty of work to promote a book and get copies sold. I’ve said before that authors often imagine that a traditional publisher will take on a significant portion of the cost involved in the promotion, thereby relieving them of the work. It’s just not true: a major publisher won’t even look at your book unless you can demonstrate that you’re really prepared to do the legwork required to promote it.

A book is a business. Micro or major, it involves about the same amount of work. If you’re going to do most of the work anyway, why not keep most of the profit? In an economic downturn, authors are actually better off to self-publish than any other time, because all authors are finally calling themselves entrepreneurs. As stated by Margaret Atwood, “The term ‘relentless self-promoter’ used to be an insult in publishing circles. Now it will be a necessity.”

The article seems to suggest (to me, at least) that major publishers are now performing services no differently than many of the print houses now marketing themselves as “publishing houses” – they hand over the book and get out. Too bad: if I had Margaret Atwood on my roster, I’d at least be paying for the wine and cheese party.

What is an index worth to your book? As an article from the American Society of Indexers reminds us, an index is not just a cool add-on, it’s a sales tool.

Every author I’ve ever worked with has given me that same funny look when I mention the idea of having an index for their book. I can understand why they don’t think of it – they’re really focused on getting the content created, as they should be. But what value is great content if it’s not made easy to use and access?

As a teaching tool, the use of an index is obvious. It’s the key that unlocks the door to your non-fiction book as a reference, and for reviewers who want to refer directly to certain portions of the work. (Many reviewers, like myself, use it as a direct criteria for rating a book.)

Buyers in a bookstore will check the index to see if a book talks about the exact topic that they are interested in. Think about it – you’ve done it yourself. If the index was not well written, or comprehensive enough, did you still buy the book?

Like a good cover design and professional typesetting, the index is a measure of credibility of you and your content. What is the reason that you’re publishing? If peer credibility and building your business has anything at all to do with it, your index may be the make-or-break of the entire project.

For direct sales benefits, remember that many online retailers like Amazon will use the index to refer new potential buyers to your book. Buyers may even be able to see screen shots of it using Amazon’s “look inside” feature.

As said by the Society, “Creating a good index takes understanding of the reader as well as the subject. It takes objectivity, perspective, a sense of proportion and priority, patience, speed, technical training, and experience. If you have all these qualities, if you can apply them under deadline pressure, and if you would rather index your current book than start writing your next one, you, the author, are the best indexer for your book. Otherwise: Entrust Your Index to a Professional.”

Oh yeah – it’s that important.

Listen LIVE this Wednesday and call in with your questions for Rick Passek, author of The Freshman FlyFisher. We’ll talk about niche marketing for self-publishers.

To listen, simply click to:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Peggy-Richardson/2008/12/17/Successful-Self-Publishing-Interview-with-Rick-Passek

You can call in LIVE with your questions at (347) 205-9352 during the show, which runs from 3:30 to 4:40 Pacific Time on Wednesday December 17th, 2008.

Rick is a really entertaining personality, and I was very proud to edit his book. Anyone who is thinking of self-publishing a niche title really should listen to this interview, as Rick really will tell it like it is, warts and all. See you on the air!

This is the first in a series of three posts about how self-publishing authors, and many other entrepreneurs, can use affiliate marketing to ramp up sales of their books and products on a direct-to-consumer basis.

Many self-publishing authors want to take advantage of the obvious benefits of a marketing method that is highly automated. But it can be a high-overhead method of doing business if it is not managed well.

What is affiliate marketing? This expression can be over-used, so for the purposes of our discussion, let us define it as a way by which consumers click on your advert or link hosted on a website somewhere (or in an email that someone sends out), and you pay the person hosting the ad a small fee for referring the sale.

Affiliate marketing is a just like any traditional sales referral relationship, except that the entire thing is tracked and driven by an automated system. The statistics of your affiliate’s progress are easy for all involved to see at any time, just by logging into the affiliate management system, which is web-based, and not something installed on a privately-managed computer somewhere. Most payments are made virtually, using PayPal or other transaction providers. (At least, until you’re making big enough money that you require a bank draft!) Transparency is the key to making your affiliates happy, and that means giving them easy access to information.

This powerful marketing method is not new, but certain industries are working it in better ways than others. It is tried and true, and there are a variety of tools – both free and paid – that will help you accomplish it. It’s not really that deep, but like many things in business, it’s easy to make it much more complicated than it needs to be.

By setting up an automated system to manage and attract new Affiliates (the people who have the websites where your banners are displayed), you are setting in motion a process that is more or less self-sustaining. After setup, the real work in affiliate marketing comes in the areas of creating new ads that keep consumers and potential new affiliates interested, and in the area of running weekly or monthly reports.

Your affiliates need;
- ads that will pay them well for each sale; not just a few cents, but good dollars
- ads that are really going to convert browsers into sellers (or else nobody makes any money)
_ ads that are professional and attractive, not cheezy or amateurish
- good follow-up and reporting, or preferably an easy way to self-access information
- ads for products that relate well to the audience they already have (gourmet food audiences don’t want to see used car ads, etc.)
- prompt payment

As an advertiser, you will need;
- a master control system to manage your ads, your affiliates and their payments
- to create quality text-based or graphic ads (most people farm this out)
- a finely-tuned shopping cart and website / page where people can buy your product (see the next post for my not-so-secret weapon in this area)
- to remain objective and flexible about what works and what doesn’t
- to be prepared for sales to take off, by having product stock and a good shipping system already in place
- to spend time on the phone talking to potential affiliates, managing relationships, etc., but this is typically minimal unless you’re really selling like crazy, in which case it’s worth it

In the following posts in this series, we’ll talk about the real tools that I use to manage my affiliates, a glossary of terms, avoiding pitfalls, and how to get started as cheaply as possible. Stay tuned!

There are three categories of achievers in life and business: top, medium, and bottom. A recession is the perfect time for these to really show their potential.

Think of a wild horse, living on the prairie. Constantly on the move, these animals form strong family bonds. When there is plenty of fresh grass to eat, all of the animals are as healthy as heredity can make them, there are plenty of new foals, and none of the animals must work too hard to survive.

Now imagine a drought. The grass stops growing, and all the animals must compete for the limited food source. Some live off their fat for a time, the mares find renewed energy to search for food so as to protect their foals, and stallions fight for control over territory. It’s not true that “only the strong survive”, because what really happens is that the 3 levels of success, top, medium, and bottom, simply polarize into two levels.

The law of nature dictates that there will always be leaders, and there will always be followers. It’s difficult to be a leader without a few followers, so we know that there will always be a few that make it through the toughest times, if only because of pure luck. But the polarization of the herd into two groups happens very quickly when resources dry up. The middle achievers tend to blend into either the top or bottom groups, and most tend to drift into that bottom group. Once that happens, the bottom group shrinks overall. But by far the most interesting thing that happens is that the animals that stay in the top achiever group tend to reach new heights of success.

In that top group, those leaning more towards medium are weeded out and drift into the shrinking bottom group. Those left in the top group are stronger, leaner, faster, and tougher. They don’t just reach the peak of survival possible during a tough time, but the external forces of drought and competition for food become less important than they were when times were tough: by every standard, they excel.

One might argue that the best time to undertake a self-publishing project is during a recession. Those leaning more towards medium than top leave the top achiever group, meaning that there is less competition. Those at the bottom are more hungry than ever for information that will help them climb back up to the top of whatever mountain they need to climb. Total commitment to a project is indicative of the type of achiever that will not only climb to the top, but stay there, and publishing is one of the best ways to cement your place in your market.

Which type of mustang are you?

OK< I’m going to throw out a wacky idea here and invite comments. I’m getting rather excited lately about my new podcasting setup. It will allow me to become what amounts to a totally portable audio and video podcasting studio. I would concentrate on developing free content that could be downloaded on demand, 24/7. Is this what amounts to internet radio or tv?

Originally, I envisioned this as a promotional tool that would only be used occasionally, but I now recognize how limiting that is. I mean, if it’s easy to do, portable, and low cost, why not just keep the setup in the back of my car full time? If I witness something interesting related to my topic of publishing and web 2.0, I can just jump out of the car and get taping.

What would you like to see podcasts about? Interviews with authors and other noteworthy people? Public events? Live demonstrations by authors and other new media heroes, doing whatever it is that they do best? Or, does this entire idea sound crazy? Tell me what you want to see, and I’ll do my best to deliver it. Just hit the blue bar below and type it in.

You would think that as an advocate of recycling and green practices in my own business, I’d be keen on eBooks instead of paper books. For several very good reasons, that is not always the case.

It’s not that eBooks don’t have their place – they absolutely do. I’ve written a few myself. But they don’t perform the same tasks or meet the same objectives as an old-fashioned, paper book.

The biggest reason for this is that the first thing many people do when they download an eBook is to print it. Not all of us are nerdy types (again, like myself) that carry a laptop everywhere they go, and frequently read from that. The world has not yet adopted the common daily use of handheld digital reading devices, although we’re getting pretty close. For example, Amazon’s Kindle reader is extremely cool, but not affordable for many, and until recently, it wasn’t even in stock. (They’ve had such a bad time combating market backlash over the lack of stock, that they’ve had to spend their marketing dollars all over again – like paying Martha to push it.)

The second big reason that eBooks are taking their time to take off relates to marketing. An eBook is a much tougher sell than a paper book in many markets. If your market is not already used to the concept, you need to sell them twice: first on the idea of your book’s content, and secondly on the idea of the eBook. Romance novels seem to have made an unexpected leap forward in this area, thanks to eTailers like FictionWise.com, who offer eBooks in multiple formats. Their site is very easy to understand and use, and the price for an eBook is much less than a hardback. They give the reader plenty of reasons to want to adapt.

Even when eBooks do take off, it’s extremely difficult to quantify what is being saved, if anything. With modern paper books, there are a wide variety of green options available to the publisher with a conscience. Paper books have a piracy rate of virtually nil, but security for eBooks is constantly improving and bringing this close to par.

The real barrier is psychology: people want a book in their hand. I’ve been a lover of books my entire life. I want to feel the texture of the cover, be it smooth and glossy or cloth and leather. I love the way they weigh down my hand or rest in my lap. I anticipate the sound of thick pages flipping, the way my antique bookmark sits against the spine stitching, and yes, even the way the paper smells. I make notes in the margins with my fountain pen, and I display my hardcover collection carefully on shelves around my house.

All of that being said, I was certainly grateful recently when I was stuck on a plane, and remembered that I had a copy of Jane Eyre on my cell phone. Oh well – at least the romance isn’t totally dead.