And over the last 6 months Transit TV started playing book trailers in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Orlando, Atlanta and Chicago. That’s 10 million viewers per video. UCF is working with schools and libraries to put kiosks in high schools to show book trailers. YA authors have got to love that! Digital opportunities, whether video or audio, continue to grow in venues and popularity.

I heard recently that there was a book store/chain somewhere testing out using book videos in their store(s). I can’t remember where I heard that, but it made sense to me. If the book video is well-done, then the odds are that you could have an advertising opportunity in a KEY location with an audience predisposed to buy. It’s not going to guarantee a sale, but if it drives a reader over to the section to pick up the book, it ups the likelihood of a sale, and that’s critical.

Book videos might not seem to have effect, but if they’re informative and provide enough info about the book, they work just like a movie trailer. But they have to be well done to even make a reader want to click through, and that’s something I need to figure out how to do. Setting the video up so that it takes the viewer right to the

I think book stores will eventually use book videos in the same way Blockbuster, Best Buy, etc. use movie trailers to pique people’s interest. It’s one of the reasons why I buy full licenses for all my music and photographs and check restrictions. Eventually COS will get my business when I can justify the cost. Their videos are well done.

You can do your own press release and have it put on a newswire service for free here- http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/about_us.php

It seems that most of the readers here don’t care for book video, but Google search loves it and it absolutely helps your SEO ranking. And over the last 6 months Transit TV started playing book trailers in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Orlando, Atlanta and Chicago. That’s 10 million viewers per video. UCF is working with schools and libraries to put kiosks in high schools to show book trailers. YA authors have got to love that! Digital opportunities, whether video or audio, continue to grow in venues and popularity.

There are a variety of tools out there for online marketing. Find one you can believe in. Find one you enjoy doing. Why invest in anything that takes the joy out of what you love? IMHO

I just got an error when I tried to submit this, so if it shows up twice I apologize.
Gotta love technology. ;-)

It would also seem advantageous to read hefty excerpts in a selection from an author of various genres or subgenres, in the event a different voice or tale might appeal more.

As MaryK indicated, short stories can offer a sample of voice and plot development…the shorter the short, the harder to get right.

Kris Eton mentioned reviews; one review on a high profile site that I know is aligned with my tastes will influence my decision, similar I imagine to Jill A. Whereas, reviews on Fictionwise and Amazon mean nothing to me, an author can ask 50 friends to post 5 star ratings and excellent comments.

Ms. Veinglory knows of what she speaks, I see Emily everywhere and have long visited her blog. She receives reviews due to name recognition and consistently great writing, and I am certain Emily must work every hard at both.

I’m not into trailers at all. They’re like tv commercials to me and tell me nothing about the quality of the book. I know they’re the rage, and might give a boost to name recognition, but I’d never buy a book based on a picture, moving or otherwise.

I always look for Fictionwise reader reviews as a more likely way to gauge quality. Sort of like Amazon. I trust the overall impression of many readers vs. the impression of one reviewer.

Sadly, they tend to pick and choose the books they want to read. And who can blame them? They don’t get paid. It’s all free books for the reviews.

I guess I’d just like to say, don’t write off a book just because it doesn’t have a review somewhere. :-)

I jumped off the cliff and spent some money on an SBTB ad. I didn’t really think about getting more sales out of it. But I saw it as ‘name recognition.’ The number of impressions I am getting is just staggering for little old author me. Whether or not it does any good, I don’t know yet. But I have had a decent number of click throughs and most of them don’t just look at the main page and leave. They click around, read excerpts, look at a couple of blog posts, etc.

I just wasted about 7 or 8 hours of my time in the last week making my very first book trailers. I’ve never bought a book after watching a trailer. However, I was creating them more for website content than anything else. My readers and writer friends will look at them. It’s something different than reading a blog post or an excerpt. I’m all about having interesting and varied content on my website.

As for Yahoo groups, I have sold books by posting to Yahoo reader groups. And for those who don’t know, some NY publishers have promo dates on these Yahoo groups, too. So it’s not just us little epubbed writers who seem to feel we get something out of it.

I still go back to the idea of getting your name out there. The more people see your name and your book titles, the more likely it is you may get a sale from those people one day down the road.

Meanwhile, I continue to keep writing and hoping that I’ll get more readers little by little.

Great topic!