Marketing Books with Video

Welcome to 2022. Let's hope this year brings an end to the virus and we can all live with less stress and uncertainty.

I'd like to start the year with a blog about using video to help market books. There are many free video platforms online that allow you to produce presentations and videos. If you need something more sophisticated, you can purchase Adobe Premiere Pro or similar. Canva is another one that is good, even for beginners.

Videos are a great visual medium for authors to help market books. This can be a profile of you, a selection or chapter reading from one of your books, or a resume of all your books.

I made a short video of the books I have published and placed it on my website as well as on my socials. These include Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Book marketing can be time-consuming and takes away from an author's writing time but it is necessary if books are to sell. Video is only one element in book marketing and with today's society being prolific on social media sites, it can work well.

You don't need expensive equipment to produce videos, a smartphone is enough and there are many apps and some software online that are very good, as mentioned above. These products make it easier to edit and produce your video in the format required to upload. However, a video on its own is not going to cut it, you will need to use other methods to market your book.

Mix and match your video with some of the following marketing strategies -

• Paid ads on social media.

• Ads on BookBub.

• Do author talks at your local library.

• Ask readers to leave reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and on their socials.

• Visit schools if your book is the right genre for children and teens.

• Visit bookshops and ask if they will stock your books.

When you are self-published you will need to use every tool in your arsenal because there are thousands of books published every day. Try making your own video and place it together with another one or two methods of marketing and your books will sell.

Good luck and happy reading

Maria P Frino