Today we have a wonderful guest post from the author Dane Cobain. He tells us how authors can use video to engage with readers. It’s a great informative post and has given me a few ideas about vlogging.
Over to your Dane
Hi, folks! My name’s Dane Cobain and I’m an independent author from the United Kingdom. I’m here today to talk to you about how authors can use video to stay up-to-date with their readers, and perhaps even to sell a few books along the way.
Video is a fantastic tool to help to bring you to life in the eyes of your readers, and thanks to the proliferation of sites like YouTube and Vimeo, as well as the fact that Facebook is placing ever more importance on video content, you can be sure that there’s an audience out there just ready and waiting. In fact, I always upload videos to Facebook and YouTube simultaneously, these days, and I usually find that they perform best on Facebook.
So without further ado, here are five ways that you can use video to engage with your readers:
#1: Book trailers
If you’re a keen reader yourself then you’ve probably already seen a book trailer somewhere or another. There’s no real rule for creating a book trailer, but it’s a good idea to keep it to around a minute long and to use it to convey what your book is about, as well as a sense of feeling. That can be shared on Facebook and YouTube to help to promote your new releases.
#2: Live broadcasts
You can broadcast live on YouTube by holding a hangout on Google+, and Facebook recently launched its own live video functionality that enables you to broadcast live from your Facebook page. Writers have a great opportunity to use this in creative ways – for example, hosting live bedtime readings if they’re a children’s author, or hosting Q&As and other interactive sessions. Some writers have even combined Facebook Live with event pages to host online book launches.
