Book Trailers: Friend or Foe?

The book trailer rage has taken over. Everywhere they're popping up. Some very sophisticated, and some, unfortunately not so.

About a month ago, a friend posted a link to his book trailer, so I decided it was time to learn how to make one myself. I had a graphics program, plus I had Movie Maker (everyone who has Windows has it in their programs), so I thought I'd give it a whirl. While it took three days to put together, I was satisfied at the results. If you'd like to see it, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOklaNgirZI at YouTube. While you're there, drop me a comment. ;o)

I did a little promoting for it and now it's #1 in YouTube under "ghost book" which were the key search words I chose to promote it. It was #1 in Google Video this morning, but now has dropped to #2. This is where your online book promotion comes in.

While they're a blast to make and fun to show off to your friends, just how do they affect sales?

Right now, it's too early to say from my standpoint as my book won't be out until later this month, but I figure it can't hurt for pre-release buzz, right?

Yes, if they are done right.

The way I see it is that any promotion is good promotion, but there are conflicting opinions on this if the book trailers look amateurish.

I'm wondering, though, would a badly-made book trailer make a difference in sales either way?

Probably not, but the thing is, the Internet is open to discussion and your book trailor may be the target. If it is poorly made, people will talk. If it's done up right and looks professional, people will talk. Either way, you don't want negative opinions plastered all over the Internet about your book.

According to Cheryl Hagedorn, author of PARK RIDGE A Senior Center Murder, she believes some of the book trailers look downright pathetic. At her blog, she tells us that there is an interesting conversation going on over at HelenKay Dimon’s blog about the subject of poorly made trailers.

So, of course, I being the inquisitite one, went over there to find out what this was all about. It seems there is an author that is being targeted. I really felt sorry for the guy because he's the brunt of various opinions on his book trailer, and some of them not so good.

I have dial-up so it took a long time to load, but I face the same thing with all book trailers. You can take a peek at his book trailer here, if you'd like. As soon as it loads, I'll let you know what I think.

The bottom line is this. When you're putting together your book trailers, please, make them as professional as you can. When you put your book out there, you take all precautions to make sure they're the best they can be so that the reviews will be positive, don't you? Book trailers are no different.

However, on the upside, this author has a book trailer that's the talk of the town, so maybe it's not bad promotion after all?

What's your opinion?


Tags: book trailers,YouTube, online book promotion, Movie Maker

Let Harry Potter Pump Up Your Promotion

Okay, everyone has probably heard. J.K. Rowling's latest book in the Harry Potter series will be available July 21, 2007. Great news for Harry Potter fans, and even greater news for J.K. Rowling, but what about those authors out there who have books written in the same genre and are about to come out the same time? Do they even stand a chance?

Sandy Lender is one of those authors who will have a new book released called Choices Meant for Gods (Archebooks, TBA) about the same time, and she is concerned, as well as considering moving her release date either ahead of time or after the new Harry Potter book goes up for sale.

Should she or shouldn't she?

This is where effective online book promotion is going to come in handy. My suggestion to her would be to keep the release date, but use Harry Potter to her advantage.

In order for her to do this, what I suggested would be to run press releases captilizing on the Harry Potter phenomenon and ride on the coattails of J.K. Rowlings' success. There will be millions of people putting the words "Harry Potter" in the search engines. If Sandy learns how to pump up her press releases by coming up with a press release comparing her book to J.K.'s, then we have something here. What will happen is that Sandy will be able to zero in on this market, and you have to admit, this is one of the largest markets out there.

While this is not a new thing (riding on the coattails of other books with a huge audience), you'd be amazed at how many people haven't realized they could do this.

I went into PRWeb (www.prweb.com), one of the press release services, and put "Harry Potter" in their search engine. I wasn't surprised to see people are already doing this.

This is only one way that you can pump up your online book promotion; but keep in mind, press releases are powerful. If Sandy writes up a press release, capitalizing on the Harry Potter book that will coincide with the release of her own book, she will not only get those Harry Potter buyers, but will also find a great new way to promote her books which she can use for other books later on.

What she has to keep in mind is that the Harry Potter series has a huge market. J.K. Rowling's books will continue to sell for years and years, but being as this is supposedly her last book, who will be the next Harry Potter phenomenon?

It could be Sandy...or, it could even be you!

Tags: Harry Potter,J.K. Rowlings, online book promotion, Sandy Lender, press releases

Add Your Book Events to BookWire (for free!)

Most everyone knows about BookWire (www.bookwire.com), but did you realize their traffic rank is (as of today) 307,707 on Alexa (www.alexa.com)?

And what does this mean? This means that BookWire gets MILLIONS of visitors each and every day. With that much traffic, this is an excellent place to submit your book events such as I did a few days ago when I was interviewed at Book Marketing with Fran (Silverman) on Achieve Radio Network. It's anyone's guess as to how much traffic this listing would drive to this particular radio show, but with the promoting I did besides listing my "event" at BookWire, I obtained an email from someone wanting to pay to put an ad on my website, plus five interviews...all in ONE DAY. Not bad. Whether or not BookWire had anything to do with it or not, it's a good place to add your next event whether it's an appearance on a radio talk show such as I did, an upcoming booksigning or even your next virtual book tour. And, what's great about this is that it's absolutely free. Visit www.bookwire.com and look in the top right hand side corner and you'll see "event listings."

Tags: book events
online book promotion
BookWire
radio talk show
virtual book tour

Turn Your Book into a Movie Poster

I thought we'd have some fun today. Pumping up your online book promotion can be hard work, but sometimes there are little gizmos and gadgets you can play with that will make your book stand out. Book promotion can't be all work and no play, can it?

Of course not.

The picture on the right is from a team of writers that have written a pretty darn good paranormal romance that is coming out in trade paperback in February by Mardi Gras Publishing called "The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost" which is authored by Heide Kaminski, Pam Lawniczak and myself.

Actually, that's not the book cover, but a poster I made for it. You can make your own movie posters for your books by visiting http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/poster.php.

Play around with it and have fun. Pumping up your online book promotion includes getting the word out about your book, so with that in mind, make your own poster and add it to your blog and website and tell all your friends to go see!

Tags: movie posters
online book promotion

Welcome!

Welcome to the Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion blog where you'll find ways to increase those book sales you've been wanting!

To introduce myself, I'm Dorothy Thompson, editor of The Writer's Life and editor/contributing author of ROMANCING THE SOUL, co-author of THE SEARCH FOR THE MILLION $$$ GHOST and author of many self-promoting ebooks including A COMPLETE GUIDE TO PROMOTING & SELLING YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED EBOOK.

I'm also an entrepreneur. I love money. And lots of it.

When I became published for the first time, I thought all you had to do was plaster your book cover onto your website, get a few reviews, whatnot, and the sales would come in.

Was I disallusioned.

Not only did the sales not come in like I expected them to, but I learned that in order for my books to sell, I was going to have to get off my duff and learn how to do this right.

It's been six years since my first little ebook was published. I went on to author more books, learning the ropes along the way. I found that while some things seemed to be working, others were working beyond my expectations. This is when I knew I was onto something.

And this is what this blog is all about. Learning how to create an online presence so powerful that you and your book will reach more readers and get more sales than you've ever believed.

In the upcoming posts, you'll learn the secrets of successful online promotional methods that work.

So, stay tuned, and happy promoting to you!